Angela LaGreca Hosts Comedy Benefit

LTV’s Creative Director Angela LaGreca will host a celebrity lineup of comedians at a Super Salon Comedy Benefit at LTV Studio in Wainscott on Friday, July 12, from 6 to 9 PM. The evening features comediennes Elayne Boosler and Michele Balan.

“We wanted to do a night of comedy benefit with a live auction,” said LaGreca. “It’s a chance for everybody to see what LTV is doing.” All proceeds from the event will benefit East Hampton’s LTV and help it expand from a local television station into a media center to serve the growing needs of the community.

“We’re trying to do more events,” she said. LaGreca recently started the Creative Salon Night Series at the studio, which has been a great success. It’s where the community can experience a variety of performers, writers, and filmmakers, with ideas and works in progress.

Boosler, who will headline the show, is a comedian, writer, and animal activist. She’s been named “The First Lady of Standup Comedy” by Rolling Stone and is listed as one of Comedy Central’s “Greatest 100 Standup Comedians of All Time.” She is known for her thoughtful and feisty socially conscious humor.

“Elayne Boosler is really a legend in the comedy world,” said LaGreca. “She was the first woman to have her own Showtime and HBO specials. It was a big deal.”

Balan has appeared on “Last Comic Standing,” where she was a finalist. She headlines across the country, and performs regularly at Caroline’s on Broadway, Gotham Comedy Club, and The Comic Strip live.

TV personality, comedian, and writer Bill McCuddy will serve as the night’s auctioneer. The live auction will include a private sunset sail charter on the Lelanta, an 82-foot schooner. “I’ve never been on a sailboat like that,” said LaGreca.

Items also include VIP tickets to The Hampton Classic, “The View,” and the Stony Brook Southampton Hospital Summer Party; a private chef in your home from Hamptons Meal Prep; a unique three-night lake house getaway with your own dock; a grooming, outfit, and private photo shoot courtesy of the Bow Tie Pet Club; and an LTV TV production package.

The event’s host committee includes Joy Behar, who has joined for many of the Creative Salon nights.

“We have a good host committee,” said LaGreca. “Joy Behar has been extremely supportive.”

The roster of local notables also includes Arlene and Alan Alda, Lorraine Bracco, Jamie DeRoy, Joan and Skip Hamburg, Judith Kasen-Windsor, Elizabeth MacDonald, and Robert Zimmerman.

The evening will begin at 6 PM with a “savory” cocktail hour, featuring partners on Tia Greene’s lifestyle TV series “Savour The Moments with Tia and Friends.” Enjoy tastings by Stuart’s Seafood Market, The Seafood Shoppe, Brooklyn Chop House, and more.

Connecting Talent

LaGreca is a four-time Emmy-winning producer for NBC’s “Today Show,” and an award-winning comedian and singer. She has performed everywhere from Caroline’s to Carnegie Hall, and Bay Street, Guild Hall, and the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center locally.

“I think I was always putting shows together, connecting talent,” said LaGreca. She described her background as a singer. “If you’ve sung at as many weddings and bat mitzvahs as I have, you will go into comedy. There’s so much material there,” she joked. “I cannot stand in these high heels and this sequin dress for one more minute and not comment on this folly.”

She talked about her transition from comedy into television. “I auditioned to be a co-host on ‘The View.’ They said ‘You didn’t get the big job. How do you feel about being the warm-up?’” she recalled. “I did a lot of TV. I became a writer. I did the ‘Hot Topics’ with Meredith Vieira.”

When Vieira went to the “Today Show,” she told LaGreca to “come with me.”

“We did some crazy, fun stories,” she recalled. “We went to the Olympics. We went to Ireland. With Kathie Lee and Hoda, I did a bowling segment with them and their mothers. It was so fun. I really like to turn a segment on its head.”

One of those segments, she thought, “We could have Jerry Seinfeld come in and talk to Meredith about his ‘Bee Movie,’ or we could do this whole thing where we’re all dressed in these bee outfits,” she remembered.

This is the experience she brings to LTV, which serves as the East End’s premier public access television station. The station tapes hundreds of town hall and government meetings, and also provides television access and studios in Wainscott for people on the East End to create and produce their own shows. LTV offers producer classes, instruction on how to shoot and edit on your iPhone, a sound-proof recording studio, a place to record your radio show or podcast, and rental space for events that could include screenings, readings, panels, performances, and more.

Tickets are $100 for the cocktail hour, comedy show, and auction. A limited amount of VIP tickets is available for $150 and include reserved seating, plus a post-show meet-and-greet toast with talent. Visit www.ltveh.org to learn more.

jessica@indyeastend.com