A comedy night fundraiser in Oklahoma The Rotary club in Muskogee will be holding a Mardi Gras comedy featuring three stand-up comedians at the Hall of Fame to raise funds for a range of charity programmes.

Laugh heartily on Saturday and you can help give dictionaries to second-graders and donations to charities.

Muskogee Rotary Club will host Mardi Gras Comedy at the Hall of Fame, 8.30 pm on Friday. Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 at the door at the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame.

Dylan Lucht, president of Muskogee Rotary Foundation, said the evening will feature three comics: Jozalyn Sharp, Connor McSpadden and Billy Bazar. Lucht said the event also will feature a cash bar.

Bazar, a Tulsa comic, said the event is “definitely a show for adults.”

“Jozalyn Sharp from Las Vegas has one of the most popular podcasts on iTunes, ‘Rise to Offend,'” Bazar said. “She performs at all the big clubs in Las Vegas and some in California. Then, I book her out here a lot.”

Sharp’s website said she turned down three scholarships to pursue a career in stand-up comedy. She is known for sharing experiences “traveling and partying her way across the country.”

Bazar said Connor McSpadden often can be seen on Comedy Central.

“You ever hear of the celebrity roast they have on there? He’s a writer,” Bazar said. “All the celebrities that aren’t comedians, he writes the jokes for.”

Bazar said he bases his own “observational humor” on his family, including three children, four stepchildren and his wife.

“And just getting older,” the 43-year-old said.

Bazar said he tours all over the country. He just finished a gig in Little Rock.

However, he is no stranger to Muskogee. He performed at the Roxy Theater a year ago.

Lucht said the Mardi Gras could help Muskogee Rotary fund its myriad local projects, including a golf tournament.

“We just got done sending a cheque for $10,000 to the Good Shepherd Clinic,” he said.

“That was from our annual golf tournament. That was our biggest year. Usually, we were closer to $8,000 or $9,000.”

Rotary has distributed dictionaries to area second-graders for at least 30 years.

“We’re running into people now in their 30s and 40s, and they say, ‘Hey, I’ve got this dictionary a Rotarian gave me when I was in the second grade,'” Lucht said.

“School books are becoming so scarce anymore for these young kids.”

Rotary also sends high school juniors to a Rotary Youth Leadership Camp, Lucht said.

“We send them from any school that’s in our area,” he said. “It’s really a life-changing programme for young students.”

Rotary works with Women in Safe Home, providing a Christmas meal for the women.

The club gave $40,000 to Gospel Rescue Mission for seed money for its new location.

“There are so many different things going on,” he said.

In April, Rotary’s Party in the Park that includes wine, beer and food tasting gala helps raise money for Rotary International’s programmes improving water systems in impoverished countries, Lucht said.

Source: Muskogee Phoenix