Karen Williams

COMIC * ACTOR * WRITER * LECTURER * MODEL

METRO WEEKLY, April 2008, Washington, D.C.'s premier LGBTQ magazine, says it all about HEALING HUMOR featuring comic Karen Williams. Get your copy today and enjoy the insightful commentary from our community's one and only healing humorist!

Karen recently filmed her hilarious solo show, "I NEED A SNACK" at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, California for LOGO TV. Produced by Andrea Meyerson of AllOut Films, this performance piece is likely to become one of the hottest features on the gay network, so look out for it and make sure to tell your friends!

LAUGHING MATTERS, the award-winning feature film starring Karen Williams, made Blockbuster Video's New Releases List -- a first for this genre -- and is shown on HERE and LOGO TV. An audience favorite at film fests, the comedy-documentary showcases Karen’s star quality while intriguing interviews highlight her social activism.

As a solo entertainer, Karen Williams delights SRO audiences from San Francisco to South Beach to Sydney, and is a comic favorite on the renowned Olivia Cruises. Karen is a featured comic in "We’re Funny That Way," the hilarious, internationally-acclaimed film shown regularly on HBO, as well as a nominee for the 1999 GLAMA Award for the irreverent comedy CD, "human beings: what a concept" (Uproar Records).

Comedy writer and former television host of the New York variety show, "In The Life," Williams' humor writings appear in numerous anthologies, including "Joke Stew" (Andrews McMeel Publishing); Revolutionary Laughter" (Crossing Press); "Out in All Directions" (Warner Books); and "Out, Loud & Laughing" (Random House).

For more information and bookings, contact: High End Booking @ HaHA Institute: www.hahainstitute.com, haha@multiverse.com

Vickie Shaw

Vickie Shaw returns to Olivia with her slow paced (she's southern), incredibly endearing, (she's southern), sharp, don't mess with her (she's southern!), comedy. Vickie doesn't have to go far from home for material - as a recovering SoB (Southern Baptist) and out lesbian mother, she's successfully raised two sons (one of whom is married and just gave her a "perfect baby granddaughter"), has a teenage daughter still living at home, and a "husbian" in Sgt. Patch. Yeah there's enough material there to fill a few hours. Vickie has performed in almost every State in the US, and had headlined in too many venues to list here but trust us, this girl's been around.

Suede

Celebrating 25 years as an independent artist with the release of her new big band CD — "Dangerous Mood," which is now available! It's sassy!

Recorded at prestigious Bennett Studios (owned by Tony's son, Dae) with her NY based trio and "The Dangerous Big Band", her own hand picked 10 piece big band.

More information and online orders are available now at www.suedewave.com.

"A great voice, even better enthusiasm and an almost giddy delight at entertaining audiences that, if bottled, would make every anti-depressant on the market obsolete."

- Steppin' Out Arts, NYC

"A spectacular evening of song and style!"

- New York Times

"Thank you for the most incredible night of my life in an audience.
You are to DIE for!"

- Bea Arthur

Pop/Jazz/Blues phenom Suede plays piano, guitar and trumpet but voice is her first instrument and entertaining is clearly her first love. Imagine a cross between Ella Fitzgerald and Bette Midler, add a dash of Louis Armstrong, and you might get some idea of Suede's unique musical talents and abilities. She is a consummate entertainer and song stylist among the likes of Tony Bennett and co.—the classic singer's singer. One part Rat Pack and one part Rosie Clooney, Suede is the swinginest singer in town! Think sophisticated pop/jazz, think naughty blues with a sizzling trumpet, think love songs that will make you swoon, think funny, think wow—what a voice!

Suede's recording of Roxanna Ward and Lynn DeFino's "Remember Who You Are" is on HRC's compilation CD "Being Out Rocks" and was featured on "The Young and The Restless." She can be heard regularly on NPR radio and her DVD, "Suede, Live at Scullers Jazz Club" is currently being aired on PBS stations nationwide. Her recording of "Emily Remembers" from her CD, "On the Day We Met", was named the number one song of the year on WJZW radio in Washington, DC and has garnered national radio airplay as well as two OutMusic awards for Suede.

Touring nationally and internationally with her New York based "Dangerous Band" she fills all the best venues—The Kennedy Center to LA's Ford Amphitheatre; San Francisco's Rrazz Room to New York's Town Hall; Scottsdale's Center for the Arts to Cincinnati's Aronoff Center for the Arts; Denver's Mercury Cafe to St. Louis' Sheldon Hall and much more. She is a proud Olivia artist veteran and has played well over 35 trips at the time of this writing.

Michele Balan

Michele Balan was one of the four finalists on NBC's 2006 "Last Comic Standing," and she is "The Last Woman Comic... "

Voted one of the "Top 10 Comics" by Backstage Magazine in 2004, Michele Balan is a brash, New York Stand-up comedian who has performed on Comedy Central as well as in top comedy clubs, theatres, festivals and on cruises all over the country.

Often told she was naturally funny, the Brooklyn native left a high-paying executive position at a computer company to pursue comedy – even though comedy has never proved as lucrative – and she has been performing ever since.

She got her start as a "Female female-impersonator," doing lip sync impressions of Bette Midler. Now people tell her she is like a "Female George Burns with many one-liners." Michele's career hast taken her from The Improv in Los Angeles to Caroline's on Broadway in New York City, and from the Montreal "Just For Laughs Festival" to the "Dinah Shore Women's Weekend."

Michele has shared the stage with Kathy Najimy, Jennifer Holiday, Taylor Dayne, Harvey Fierstein, Bruce Vilanch and Nell Carter. In 1999 she recorded a CD at The Improv in Los Angeles which features Nell Carter singing a song parody that Michele wrote.

Michele recently recorded the critically acclaimed DVD entitled "LIVE, Just Barely" at the famed Joe's Pub, home to the public theatre and performers like Joan Rivers, Eartha Kitt and Leslie Gore, for who she just wrote a comedy segment.

Sick of Sarah

They aren't sick of Sarah — actually, they love Sarah.

The band, Sick of Sarah, was named when lead singer Abisha Uhl, 25, was talking to her roommate, Sarah, who was complaining that she didn't like her name, that she was "sick of Sarah." Uhl was inspired to use it as the name of her band, which originally was Sparkle Motion. After learning there were hundreds of other bands with the same name, they decided to go by Sick of Sarah.

Sick of Sarah is an all-girl indie band of 20-somethings who came together in April 2005. Their sympathetic acoustics often are combined with electric rock. The four original members of Sick of Sarah met in Minneapolis through mutual friends. Brooke Svanes plays drums; Katie Murphy is on guitars and backup vocals; Abisha Uhl is the lead vocalist, guitar player and songwriter; and Jessie Farmer plays lead guitar, bass and drums. The band recently added a new member, bassist Jamie Holm.

Although their sound has been compared to Michelle Branch and Vanessa Carlton, they also experiment with a lot of punk music. Joan Jett, John Fogerty, Jewel and Sleater-Kinney are the band's influences. Although they view their music as "unique," their sound is most closely associated with Tegan and Sara. Uhl describes their music as "crazy, fun and obnoxious."

"We write all our own stuff; it qualifies as indie pop-rock," she said. "It is very melodic. We like sweet melodies and ballads, but we also like punk and emo punk/pop," Uhl said.

The band recently won the MTV virtual Kaya's Battle of the Bands contest, was named Minneapolis 93X Loud and Local Radio Show Band of the Week for Sept. 23, 2007, and was featured in the December 2007 issue of Spin Magazine's Buzzcatcher feature.

Listen to "Not Listening" from Sick of Sarah's debut album coming out on August 12th.

Zoe Lewis and the Wolves

Zoe Lewis hails originally from England but now makes Provincetown her home. She's toured all over the world picking up musical influences and stories, plays anything from the piano to the spoons and is affectionately known as "A BAND IN A BODY!" She's a mixture of swing, folk, acoustic funk, latin jazz and her fast-paced lyrics poke fun at modern society, praising the rambling delights of childhood, secret worlds and wandering love.

Her song SMALL IS TREMENDOUS received much commercial success and can be heard on ads for MINI PRINGLES and TJ MAXX. Another of her songs: SHEEP was part of a PUTUMAYO compilation and became #1 in the children's satellite radio charts. She's also written the soundtrack for a new documentary on the VAGINA MONOLOGUES.

She's toured with JUDY COLLINS, RICHIE HAVENS and NANCI GRIFFITHS and her last 2 albums are on the JUDY COLLINS Wildflower record label. She has a brand new release entitled A CURE FOR THE HICCUPS.

Julie Wolf is a multi-instrumentalist and singer who, besides making music of her own, has established herself as a sensitive, eclectic, collaborative, first-call side player. She has toured and recorded with luminaries in the jazz, folk, funk and rock/pop worlds, including Ani DiFranco (4 1/2 years as DiFranco's keyboardist), Maceo Parker, Bruce Cockburn, Dar Williams, Catie Curtis, Kris Delmhorst, Laura Love, Wayne Horvitz, Robin Holcomb, and jazz singer Rhiannon, among others. She's brought her memorably simple, pure musicality to stages across the world, as well as to a growing number of critically acclaimed recordings.

Preceding the globe trotting touring and recording that has kept her busy for the last decade, Wolf had a seasoned jazz life, having been part of Seattle's jazz community for many years.

The Wau Wau Sisters

Wearing high heels and clutching cocktails, The Wau Wau Sisters, NYC's bravest and bawdiest burlesque duo, are, as The NY Times calls them "irreverent, sacrilegious, foul-mouthed and uninhibited."

The Wau Wau Sisters careen through a show full of surprises, teetering on the brink of a delicious disaster! Dirty songs and double entendres mix with irreverent circus routines and guilty pop culture pleasures as old-time variety gets a new twist with brilliant executions of "bad ideas," like their signature "audience participation costume changes."

Challenging the state of reverence and preciousness of the Cirque du Soleil aesthetic, the Wau Wau Sisters carve out a new niche for circus events—right in front of you, so close you can see the tear in their fishnets, the sinew of their muscles and the sweat on their skin.