La Maria’s All Female Comedy Lineup

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Photo: Maria Acosta - Instagram

Maria Acosta

Maria Acosta

“Comedy is endless; there will never be an end to comedy, and there is no book or movie or article that can teach you all that you need to know in order to be successful in it.” 

It’s the sort of enthusiasm expressed above by Milwaukee’s Maria Acosta that has led her to become a comedian who produces shows in the city starring other comics. Ironically, Acosta’s comedic epiphany followed from sadness. 

“A day after graduation, someone I was once close with passed away, "she recalls. The man she had dated for three years died just as she earned her degree in applied physics from Waukesha’s Carroll University, “and that made me realize that life is short, and if I don’t do stand-up now, I was never going to do it.”

Jokes she made in order to cope with his demise, shared with his surviving family, coincided with seeing a TV special by her comedy lodestar, Dave Chappelle. He “is someone I value as a comedy individual, but also as a businessman, and a human person,” she explains. Acosta’s admiration extends from watching Chapelle on broadcast TV, before she could afford cable, to studying his public disappearance after refusing Comedy Central’s multimillion dollar contract to renew his series. Acosta praises his “Sticks & Stones” special on Netflix offering: “This special ignited my interest in comedy. He spoke about things he ‘wasn't supposed to’ and did it in such an elegant way. The whole special from beginning to end is a masterpiece.”

Rapid Ascent

Fueled by Chappelle’s example and the sense of possibility endemic to immediate post-collegiate life, “I did my first open mic July 5 2021 and started producing shows six months into doing comedy—January 2022.” 

Acosta’s relatively rapid ascent from performer to producer was activated by a common grievance among fledgling stand-ups. “Given that I wasn’t getting stage time on booked shows, I decided to create my own stage time, and thus, La Maria Comedy began. 

“Some comedians produce shows as a way to get booked on others,” Acosta declares. “I book based on how I believe the talent of a comedian will help the lineup of the show flourish.” Still, Acosta contends it’s her talent, not booking politics, that has expanded her renown. “I believe I’ve gotten booked on shows because of my comedy abilities and not because someone is trying to receive booking from me.” 

In addition to hosting her shows at unconventional venues, Acosta seeks to buck other conventions, too, “I’ve never created an all-male lineup and that's what makes my shows unique. Even when I produced The Pretty Boys of Comedy, I had a female comic who identified as a male. I’m not afraid to create a show full of women. I’m not afraid of having female headliners." 

Eat and Laugh

At 8:30 p.m. Thursday, May 25, at the Pabst Brewery’s Best Place (917 W. Juneau Ave.), La Maria brings Milwaukeean headliner Justin Leon together with Matty Field, Cody Heck, Kay Baratti and Craig Smith. La Maria Comedy is set to present an all-female show 8 p.m. Friday, May 26 at Zocalo Food Park (636 S. Sixth St.) starring Rachel Mac and featuring Samara Suomi, Kay Baratti, Vanessa Tortolano, and Natalie Wickman. Acosta hosts and opens for both shows, promising, “You will never come to one of my shows and see me do more than 10 minutes or a headlining set. My comedy shows aren’t about me.”

Here Acosta speaks of how her Mexican heritage is like the plant she likes to smoke, how digital vaginal stimulation from a male virgin resembles that of Stephen Spielberg’s cinematic extraterrestrial and other autobiographical observations ...