The Coexist? Comedy Tour

Posted on November 25, 2007 by Guest Contributor

It’s kind of like the Blue Collar Comedy Tour, the Axis of Evil Comedy Tour, and The Original Kings of Comedy tour…

Except this group has some diversity.

What a novel approach…

A Muslim, a Hindu, a Christian, a Jew and an atheist walk into a comedy club. It’s not the beginning of a joke, but it is the start of an evening of holy – or unholy – humor.

Coexist2

(Atheist) Keith Lowell Jensen began the group along with the help of his (Hindu) friend Tapan Trivedi:

Jensen said, “I was hanging out backstage at a comedy show one night, chatting with my buddy Tapan, and we were laughing that here we were, an atheist and a Hindu, about to go onstage before a roomful of Christians and tell jokes.

“It hit us what a cool thing that actually was.”

Now, the group is five strong, including (Christian) John Ross, (Jew) Chad Lehrman, and (Muslim) Tissa Hami.

So far, they’ve been a hit, selling out multiple shows in California.

I like (atheist) Jensen already:

As the atheist, Jensen said, he enjoys the opportunity of “destroying their sacred cows – figuratively, but sometimes literally” – although the real purpose is not to ridicule another’s religion so much as to try to understand it.

“It’s kind of an interfaith thing,” Jensen said. “You don’t see a lot of atheists being invited to interfaith meetings, and it’s true that we’re not a faith, but we do have something to contribute to the discussion.”

I also really like the atheist knock-knock joke at the 2:50 mark of this clip :)

(You can check out clips from everyone in the group here.)

If you’re in the Sacramento or San Francisco area, you can get tickets to upcoming shows! Or just join San Francisco Atheists and watch the group when they perform at the upcoming Solstice Party :)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]

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  • grazatt

    How well do they all manage to get along?

  • eMerly

    Your show in SF rocked! I laughed so hard I peed my pants. Not a little bit either. It was a lot. Like Fergie a lot. Luckily it was dark. Shhhhh don’t tell anyone.

    I can’t wait for the Sacramento show!

    If you smell pee, you’ll know it’s me!

  • http://coexistcomedy.com KLJ

    Thanks for the great review.

    And to answer grazatt’s question, we get along well enough but not without some hiccups. Note the ? in our name. It’s there for a reason. :)

  • Maria

    that looks like it will be pretty cool

  • http://raphael.doxos.com/2007/11/26/do-they-need-a-convert/ Sarx » Do they need a convert?

    [...] to Friendly Athiest.) You can skip to the end and leave a comment. Pinging is currently not allowed. RSS [...]

  • http://www.thepagelessbook.com John_672

    Isn’t it obvious how they get along? They each have a sense of humor… It’s the fools who take themselves too seriously that make it hard for people of different religions to get along. Everyone just needs to relax a little and realize that everybody is just trying to do what is right. Whether you agree that what they are doing is right is a different story – but you can disagree and still not view these people as your enemy.

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    May tolerance rule. No, tolerance is stupid, it’s dishonest. May understanding rule.

    I shall dedicate the largest part of my life to the promotion of understanding, that we may have peace. Without understanding, tolerance becomes dishonest. (My most recent blog post deals with this.)

    And Hemant, you are an asset to that thing that is the “Out Campaign”. If only all atheists were like you…

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    did my comment go through?

  • http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com Joel Sax

    watch the group when they perform at the upcoming Solstice Party

    You avoid Christmas and Hanukah by observing a Pagan holiday?

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    Hey man, Christmas is a pagan holiday, that’s been subverted by Christianity. My local fundamentalist church refuses to celebrate Christmas, because it’s ungodly. ;) So let all the ungodly celebrate Christmas in good cheer! Viva paganism! ;)

  • http://coexistcomedy.com KLJ

    Whose avoiding anything? I’ll celebrate Christmas with my Christian friends, Hanukkah with my Jewish friends, Yule with my pagan friends and Solstice with anyone who wants to celebrate this celestial occurrence.

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    Hehe. My atheistic friends are avoiding Christmas. Or wondered if I will avoid it because I’m no longer, um, “Christian”. (At that time, he thought of me as “atheistic”. That label no longer works either.)

    So I pointed out that the atheists (the fundamentalistic anti-theists) are welcome to celebrate Christmas, if only because the local fundamentalist church does not. *sigh*. The people I have to deal with. Like I said, I wish all atheists were like you guys. ;-)

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    KLJ, I’d love to hear about the hiccups some time. But that would probably require me flying over to come see your show in USA, eh… (Or else these “hiccups” you are referring to, are just for the purpose of marketing. ;) )

  • http://coexistcomedy.com KLJ

    Hey Hugo,
    My response was meant more toward Joel’s comment, re: the avoidance.

    I would love to tell ya about the hiccups, but I’m saving it for Oprah. ;)

  • http://thinktoomuch.net/ Hugo

    Media! The God of the new generation. ;) You mean I’m going to have to watch Oprah if I want to see it? Ugh… Maybe someone will place it on YouTube for a few minutes.

    Oh, and sorry, let me stop dominating the comment thread. And reduce my winking smileys. *grin*

  • http://paxnortona.notfrisco2.com Joel Sax

    Hugo, yep. I just couldn’t resist the twit, however. I’m in that kind of mood lately. ;)

  • Stephanie Logan

    I saw these guys at the Geery in Sacramento. They are all hillarious.
    Especially the last guy that went up. Forget his name but he was the Hindu guy. Is he going to be back ?

    Stephanie

  • http://freethoughtguy.com Freethoughtguy

    Hemant, thanks for the San Francisco Atheists / Coexist? Comedy plug. We’re going to have our best Winter Solstice Party ever with this hilarious troupe. We in the freethought community are a natural audience for this material.

    All are welcome to our annual party on December 15. Just $12 “entertainment fee” and buy your own food/drinks. Come one, come all, and bring your friends!

  • http://coexistcomedy.com Keith Lowell Jensen

    Stephanie,

    Yes indeed, Tapan Trivedi, our hillarious Hindu will be in attendance.
    And he’s got a great new joke about Snake Peni, so it’s worth seeing us a second time.

    Peni = plural of penis?

  • Roger McPheron

    I caught these guys in Sacramento last night.
    This is an AWESOME show and me and my wife
    had a LOT of fun. All of them were really good.
    Well except the Jew guy was a little bit flat but
    the rest of them were GREAT !

    Roger
    P.S. I didn’t hear the aforementioned snake peni joke from the Hindu. Did he miss telling us that ?

  • http://coexistcomedy.com Keith Lowell Jensen

    You know, you’re right! No Snake Peni. Damn! I’m guilty of false advertising. I will find out what the hell happened to snake peni.

  • eMerly

    You guys were fucking BRILLIANT last night. Congrats on the sold out show. You guys need to be on TV. Everyone I came with had a great time. Maybe I will come to your SF show, you know, since I haven’t seen this show enough already…

    I’m like the queue to laugh girl. I get the giggles when I know something funny is coming up.

    Oh yeah. Um, John forgot the part about saying bye Uncle Slim Jim, Tissa didn’t do the slutty joke, I think you need to have the Muslim or the Jew earlier, because people don’t seem to be comfortable laughing at all the religious jokes about each other until after they come on, ummmmm and you all forgot stuff but now I am forgetting everything I noticed…….oh yeah when Tippan said that thing about seven lives, some frat boy near me said “Fuck that” which was really funny.

    I’ll be back

  • eMerly

    Oh yeah, what happened to the No Fly joke?

  • http://coexistcomedy.com Keith Lowell Jensen

    Emerly, dearest fan, creepiest stalker, we didn’t forget, we just like to change it up, experiment, roll with a night thats new.
    Ah who am I kidding? So we forget a joke here or there, we have plenty to spare. ;)

  • http://nogod.tribe.net/thread/f0348f7d-f612-411e-a69e-22da6ea801b3?newpostingid=8623a0f2-4141-464e-93fe-00e846f0003d#8623a0f2-4141-464e-93fe-00e846f0003d James Quinn

    Hello,

    I just wanted to leave a message with you regarding the comedian Tapan Trivedi.

    I am an Atheist myself. I am happy to have come across this site. I think that the title ‘Friendly Atheist’ is also a wonderful one. It helps to dispel the stereotype regarding ‘the angry Atheist.’

    However, on the Atheist tribe Tapan Trivedi has said some things which borders on a maniacal hatred of Atheists. He has made claims that Atheists should not be allowed to handle money, because the words ‘In God we trust’ are written on it. When I mentioned Pascals Gambit, Tapan told me that I am not allowed to use the name ‘Pascal’ since Pascal was not an atheist.

    Tapandy says:

    P.S. Pascal wasn’t an atheist you can’t quote him !!

    (Someone mentions him flying the colors of the Idiot flag.)

    Tapandy says
    :
    And the atheist racism comes out.
    Oh I am a colored guy now .

    Out of curiosity – how many of you guys are not caucasian ?
    As a percentage – How many of you guys are minorities ?
    Is Atheism a luxury only afforded to the affluent white majority ?
    Of the 788 members of this tribe – how many of you guys are
    minorities ? And I mean racial minority – not religious .

    There is more, much more for you to see regarding this. I hope you don’t think I am over-reacting about this. There is more evidence of Tapan’s ignorant and prejudiced views, hateful views regarding Atheism and Atheists which you can view at our discussion site. After ‘googling’ his name, I have found examples of his ‘humor’ which only confirm what I had ascertained. This man is a racist bigot, and all of his humor involves racist and bigoted remarks.

    Thanks for your time,

    James

  • http://coexistcomedy.com Keith Lowell Jensen

    I think that perhaps Tapan’s jokes didn’t come off as jokes when you READ them and weren’t able to hear his tone of voice.
    I am one of his best friends and also his business partner and I am an atheist (and a honkey to boot.)
    He went on stage at an atheist solstice celebration and part of his act was just chattin’ with the audience. He was very honest about what he did and didn’t know about atheism and he listened when audience members answered him. It was an enjoyable chat on both sides of the mic.

    As for him being racist, he talks about race a-lot on his act. He’s an Indian man who came to America in his early twenties. Race is a big and fascinating issue here (and around the world) and he has a unique and very open/refreshing way of expressing how we can all put our b.s. aside and get along. It would be easy to take him out of context, but when he’s performing with his white, black, Mexican, Arab, Asian comedian friends we all riff on each other since it’s obvious from the get go that we’re all pals standing up together.
    As a member of an interracial marriage, the father of an interracial baby and a member of an interracial comedy troupe I think he does pretty good at being an example of getting along despite race.

  • eMerly

    Dear James,

    If you aren’t smart enough to understand Tapan, you shouldn’t watch his comedy.

    Do you get the Fox news reference?

    NO. Because you are stupid.

    I don’t even think you are a real atheist, because everyone knows only smart people are atheist. Please return to your mormon roots.

    xoox

    eMerly