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The Comedians  By  cover art

The Comedians

By: Philip Dawkins
Narrated by: Alejandro Antonio Ruiz,Ana Isabel Dow,Drew Droege,Elizabeth Ledo,Gabe Gonzalez,Joy Dolo,Rudy Galvan,Stanley Bahorek
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Publisher's summary

“Two comics walk into a relationship....”

Stop me if you’re heard this one: Veteran comic Chauncy and social-media star José are the very definition of “opposites attract”. But sparks, and jokes, fly after the two of them embark upon a beautiful romance for the ages...two vastly different ages. Starring Drew Droege and Gabe Gonzalez, The Comedians is a modern queer love story, told through individual stand-up acts. We hear the ups and downs of their journey—from falling hard to failing harder than a botched punchline—in this hilariously relatable play about love, loss, and, above all, "The Laugh".

Playwright Philip Dawkins was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible-commissioned playwright, he received funding and creative support to develop The Comedians.

Directed by Nick Borenstein

Note: The Comedians contains adult language. Discretion is advised.

©2022 Philip Dawkins (P)2022 AO Media LLC

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About the Creator

A Chicago playwright and educator whose plays include Failure: A Love Story; Le Switch; The Homosexuals; The Burn; Dr.Seuss’s The Sneetches, the Musical (with composer David Mallamud); Spamtown, USA; The Gentleman Caller; Charm; Miss Marx: Or The Involuntary Side Effect of Living and The Happiest Place on Earth. Philip has won some awards and not won some others. He’s taught playwriting at his alma mater, Loyola University Chicago, Northwestern University, Victory Gardens Theater and the Playwrights’ Center in Minneapolis. Many of Philip’s plays, including his scripts for young performers, are available through Dramatists Play Service, Playscripts, Inc. and Dramatic Publishing. He is currently working on an American English translaptation of Michel Tremblay’s Messe Solennelle Pour Une Pleine Lune D'été.

About the Director

Nick Borenstein is a New York-based director, writer and performer. Nick directed, wrote and starred in Sweater, 99, and Pete Can't Play Basketball, films that screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, the BFI London Film Festival, Outfest, Newfest, Just For Laughs, InsideOut, Frameline, Cannes Short Film Festival and many others. He also directed, wrote, and starred in the digital series Trip, a selection of IFP / Gotham's Screen Forward Lab, and The Buddy System, a digital series for Elite Daily. Additionally, Nick directed and choreographed 5INCO, a live dance performance during his 2019 Artist Residency at Casa Lü in Mexico City. Nick has also served as a creative executive and producer at Topic, Participant Media and Hudsun Media.

About the Performer

Drew Droege has written and performed several solo shows, including Off-Broadway's Bright Colors And Bold Patterns (Outstanding Performance of the Year, Outfest 2018) and Happy Birthday Doug, both currently streaming on BroadwayHD. He's an alum of The Groundlings Theatre, Upright Citizens Brigade, and is best known for his online parody videos of Chloe Sevigny, featured in The New York Times, Entertainment Weekly, The Advocate, OUT, Wigstock, and a Marc Jacobs campaign. His most recent TV credits include HouseBroken, The Goldbergs, Bob's Burgers, The Great North, Search Party, Drunk History, Heathers, Q-Force, Bless The Harts, Teachers, and Nobodies. He can be seen in upcoming films Me Time, Cora Bora, The Extinction of Fireflies, and El Tonto, and appears frequently on stage in LA with Celebration Theatre, where he played the title role in Die Mommie Die! (also at Kirk Douglas Theatre) and Casita del Campo, where he has done a drag Golden Girls show for several years, featured recently in LA Times.

About the Performer

Gabe González is a Puerto Rican comedian, writer and actor living in Brooklyn, NY. He was born and raised in Central Florida. Gabe can be seen in the HBO documentary Habla y Vota, Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer and The Last OG on TBS. He was featured in Brooklyn Magazine’s 30 Under 30 in 2017, Time Out New York’s Comedians of Color You Should Know in 2018 and his pilot Los Blancos was a winner at the Yes And Laughter Lab in 2019. You can find him doing stand-up across NYC, including his monthly queer comedy show The Lavender Scare.

What listeners say about The Comedians

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Poignant Drama Unfolds on Stand-Up Comedy Stage

Highly recommended -- but listen to this not for the laughs but for the unfolding of a raw edged exploration of intra- and interpersonal drama underlined by incisive societal commentary. Its lights reach beyond the stage to delineate the lives of all of us in the audience and the fraught world we inhabit, where not all of the jokes are funny. There are plenty of witty punchlines. Some elicit laughter, some leave us feeling queasy. The jokes that fall flat or even offend our sensibilities do so deftly in greater service to the developing storyline and the truths, sometimes uncomfortable, that it plumbs. This is a script and a performance filled with deep feelings, insight, and compassion.

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4 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Refreshing angle into showbiz, queer love, romantic dysfunction

I really dug this play's unique perspective into gay romance and show business, where you learn about the conflict through what pieces each lover volunteers (or lets escape) into his public stand up act. The story and the format feel deeply personal and very modern, and the humor is so sincere and really delightful.

The stakes are high and get higher and higher, and while there is acknowledgement of the exhausting celebrity culture of putting ones personal life public, listening to this play feels like following these two performers not as a stranger watching a series of cringe reels or TikToks, but as a genuine stand up comedy fan invested in these comics' sets and success.

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3 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Good, bad, ugly, and worth the time

What else can I say? An entertaining yet sad train wreck that is as relatable as it is horrifying. Raw, embarrassing, and everything we “enjoy” in real life comedy. Trigger warnings for depression, talk of unaliving oneself, alcoholism, drug use, bad parenting/abandonment and I’ve probably forgotten some.

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2 people found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars

Really?

A flawless performance that I thought was funny until it literally made me depressed.

If you don’t come away from this story convinced rehab is a waste….suicide is somehow funny…it’s good to leave your boyfriend after you stuck by him through thick and thin…then in the last segment CM abandons his career ABD says goodbye to his ex in a way that essentially admits he has nothing to live for anymore…if you don’t think this ends with CM committing suicide, you really weren’t paying attention.

I really wish I had never started this.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

More tragedy than comedy

This was billed in the intro as a "tragicomedy" but I have to say it was more tragedy than not. The stand up comedy acts - even at the beginning when there wasn't much tragedy going on - weren't at all funny. And once the tragedy got started - it was mostly just bitterness, which of course is meant to come across poorly as a "comedy" act. I get that. But I feel like there should have at least been SOME funny bits in there, given the framework of this play, and there really wasn't. The performances were perfectly fine, just be prepared for this to be a pretty depressing story overall.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Sad

It was not funny, not romantic, not entertaining... just very sad. The narration was good, I guess...

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Well worth the listen

It took me a little bit of listening to really get into this play. But after a few minutes, I was submerged into the story and the actors. An innovative theatre piece, that tells the story of a romance between two comedians through their on-stage stand-ups.

Actors delivered on a good script, and did a terrific job. There are some laughs along the way, and some pain along the way as the story alternates between the two comedians and their respective careers.

Nicely written, very well acted. A very well worthwhile listen!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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  • LB
  • 10-01-22

Great concept, brilliant execution

Like much of Dawkins’s work, The Comedians is skillfully interwoven. The character development is on point, and the audio play was beautifully acted. I listened in one sitting, and then listened again, appreciating it even more the second time around. Thoroughly enjoyed!

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars

Love and Life I

I enjoyed how the story went back and forth between the two characters in the story. It was an enjoyable listen.

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1 person found this helpful

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars
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    5 out of 5 stars

Phenomenal voice acting!

Thoroughly enjoyed this story, but I’m a romance junkie and wish it ended in a HEA. Phenomenal narration. Casting was on point!

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