‘Daily Show’ co-creator brings Justice to Louisville

As a co-creator of Comedy Central’s “The Daily Show,” Lizz Winstead’s politics changed the TV world. She tried to do it again in the radio world as co-founder of the short-lived Air America network.

Winstead recently co-founded the Lady Parts Justice League, which uses humor and information — both online and live in concert — to raise awareness about efforts to restrict safe and legal health care for women. She brings her stage show to Headliners on Thursday May 12.

A Minnesota native influenced early on by George Carlin, Winstead has learned how to target her appeal to a crowd during her three decades as a comedian, writer, producer and activist.

“We’re so psyched to come to Louisville, because I know from my travels — I have family from Mississippi — that there’s cool, progressive people fighting all these crummy laws,” Winstead tells Insider. “People in the North, we’re quick to write off these areas, but I’m, like, ‘Nooo! We have to support these people. They’re excellent, and they make excellent music and there’s bourbon!’”

The LPJL live show merges stand-up comedy and pre-taped videos, including ones targeting Gov. Matt Bevin and Sen. Mitch McConnell. Politics is an obsession for Winstead, and she delights in tailoring material based on local laws, lawmakers and customs, like our occasional cockfights.

“Every state now, there’s a Matt Bevin or a Michelle Bachmann or a Sarah Palin,” she says. “You give me a state, and I’ll give you their nutbag.”

The LPJL website features videos about every state and includes five “scary” facts about each. One thing they hope you know about Kentucky, for example, is: “If a woman is impregnated by rape, Kentucky allows the rapist to sue for custody and/or visitation.”

“It’s not the people of Kentucky” who are the problem, Winstead clarifies, “it’s the people who get elected because lazy people don’t vote in midterm elections almost all the time — and that is almost universally true.”

She doesn’t think this year’s national election will create a more cooperative environment.

“If a Democrat becomes president, I don’t see the rabid Congress being overtly warm … they’re just going to remain as obstructionist as ever,” says Winstead. “When you look at these discriminatory laws, any LGBTQ stuff or any reproductive rights-related stuff, all that stuff is coming out of the states … I’m hoping we can raise awareness to get people to the polls.”

The LPJL runs an event each fall called “V to Shining V,” where supporters nationwide are encouraged to get together and throw parties. Winstead says it’s a way to “have fun, remind people of what’s at stake, and to vote every single time.”

Winstead learned about choice as a 16-year-old, when her first sexual experience led to an unwanted pregnancy. She will tell anyone who asks that she is glad she was free to do what she thought was best, adding, “I don’t believe a pregnancy is a baby. I think we need to be talking about what terminating a pregnancy means, why it means what it means … if we lose the science battle, then we lose all the battles.”

The current biggest hope for Winstead, whose work has helped Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert and Rachel Maddow become mainstream voices, is that the next Supreme Court justices will be “a little bit more … umm, humane?” she says while laughing.

Her mission is to use comedy to inspire people to become more active in their communities — and to teach some “to trust women when they tell you what they need.”

“I will fight like hell for whoever the nominee is, on the side of whoever supports equality for women, reproductive health, people who are undocumented, people of color,” says Winstead. “People woke up surprised Matt Bevin won, but people aren’t voting in these crucial races. If we just put that much more oomph in, maybe we can find better outcomes.

“If you laugh, you still have hope,” she continues. “If you can’t laugh anymore, you’ve lost it, and I never want to be in that space.”

The Lady Parts Justice League appears live at 8 p.m. at Headliners on Thursday, May 12. Tickets are $25. Joining Winstead on stage are Helen Hong, Leah Bonnema and Joyelle Johnson.

photo by Michael Young.

c. 2016 Insider Louisville

Madonna: Locals take a bow to the Queen of Pop

“Oh, Madonna! What is not to love and be inspired by?” declares Sarah Teeple, the stylish vocalist for the new Louisville rock band The Bang Bangs. “Madonna was and is so inspiring on so many levels — music, dance, fashion and attitude.”

Madonna, now 57, has been a dominant force in pop culture in the United States and around the world for more than three decades, surviving scandals, changing trends, younger stars, British accents and Sean Penn, among many challenges. Touring to promote her 13th full-length album Rebel Heart, Madonna performs Saturday, Jan. 16, at the KFC Yum! Center.

It’s the first Madonna show for Daniel Cole, who produces the “Hard Candy” series of drag queen shows in Louisville, usually at Play Dance Bar. The story of how Cole came to Madonna fandom is not uncommon in this region.

“Growing up in a conservative Christian family, I didn’t grow up on Madonna’s music like many in my generation did,” he says. “As a closeted gay teenager, I was intrigued by her (1992) Erotica era. She was openly sexual without compromise or any excuses.

“I remember recording ‘Erotica,’ ‘Bad Girl’ and ‘Deeper and Deeper’ from the radio on a cassette so I could sneak around and listen to them when my parents weren’t around,” Cole continues. “I’ve been a fan ever since.”

“Madonna was absolutely banned when I was a kid,” says Terri Whitehouse, bassist with the bands Opposable Thumbs and Complaint Dept. “I grew up going to Catholic schools and came from a large Catholic family, and my mom hated Madonna. She was strict about music in general, but Madonna is the only artist I remember her singling out as an object of her ire.”

“I was banned from listening to her while growing up in a super-evangelical Christian household, along with almost all other secular music,” says Twin Limb multi-instrumentalist MaryLiz Bender. “Just recalling images of Madonna in the media followed by the long, drawn-out, sexist conversations that ensued gets my blood boiling a bit.”

Though some, such as Whitehouse, dismissed Madonna for a long time as a pandering, vacant pop star — and some local cultural figures contacted declined to comment, citing a dislike for her — her influence has clearly provided hope, excitement and inspiration for many others.

“I remember always being inspired by her style, freedom of expression and the way she celebrated who she was,” Bender says. “These were not traits common to women I was associated with in the church, and it was incredibly inspiring to see.”

“I think she is awesome — a strong force for women in music, and for women’s sexuality, and that’s probably why so many saw her as a threat,” says Whitehouse. “She wrote all those songs. She’s a punker, a dancer, a musician and a visionary. And her stuff was somehow really feminist and subversive but also totally accessible.”

Madonna has meant something similar, though in different eras, to younger fans who missed her initial explosion in the early 1980s.

“Madonna was a little before my time, I think; I was born in ’84,” says Billy Goat Strut Revue trombonist Allison Cross. “But as a pre-teen, I was absolutely captivated by (1994’s) ‘Take a Bow’ … Kind of an original version of what Adele is doing right now, in that song, in my opinion.”

“The Madonna I knew best was the period when she released her (2000) album Music and took on the persona of a cowboy,” says Jenni Cochran, vocalist/keyboardist for band Frederick the Younger. Cochran was just beginning then to discover music for herself. “The thing that impresses me most about Madonna is her ability to reinvent herself for each generation. And even more than that — in every new phase, Madonna manages to maintain an air of strength and confidence.”

Which came first, the music or the revolution? Cole applauds her commitment to creating new, constantly evolving songs. IAmIs keyboardist Shawna Dellecave adds, “Madonna most certainly shaped my artistic development, showing me the strength and power that women possess and the ‘balls’ needed to get out there and live your heart’s desire.”

Bender says, “Musically, I’m just now getting to know Madonna’s material, and I’m excited for the amount of dance in my future.”

c. 2016 Insider Louisville

They have the meats: Les & Mark bring back their Jewish deli for one overstuffed meal

“Save the Deli” is not just the name of David Sax’s 2009 book. It’s a call-to-arms for anyone wishing they could walk down the street and get a pastrami on rye, made like they used to make them, as easily as you can get a Big Mac.

Louisville had a traditional Jewish deli, Les & Mark’s Deli, in Hikes Point in the latter half of the 1970s. Owners Mark Suna and Les Naiman, from New York and New Jersey respectively, missed the food of their youth and opened it after putting $500 down. Their deli also was a place to socialize, and not just for Louisville’s Jewish population. Mitch McConnell was a customer who posted flyers on their walls advertising his first run at elected office.

Naiman and Suna split after a few years, unable to balance what Suna calls their “Odd Couple” qualities. Mutual friends kept them in each other’s orbits through the years as Naiman continued in the food business, running his own Nosh Box deli and catering. Suna went into commercial real estate. The men eventually made peace and renewed their friendship.

This Sunday, Jan. 10, they will also renew their recipes for corned beef, coleslaw and more, all made in accordance with kosher rules, for a lunch service open to the public, benefitting the synagogue Keneseth Israel. Meat by the pound also will be for sale. All proceeds benefit the synagogue’s community outreach efforts. Adding to the festivities, writer Ted Merwin will be on hand to discuss his new book, Pastrami on Rye: An Overstuffed History of the Jewish Deli.

Another reason to do this now, says Suna, is that a lot of their old customers are just that — old. It’s not just the customers who are becoming scarce; where there were once 2,000 delis in New York, today there are five. Louisvillians looking for the real thing have to drive to Cincinnati or Indianapolis, though as Keneseth Israel executive director Yonatan Yussman points out, Shapiro’s in Indianapolis “isn’t even Kosher.”

The reasons for the decline are both social and financial. While those old delis were started by immigrants who couldn’t find their favorite old country food in their new cities, the great-grandchildren of those originators have long since assimilated into the American melting pot of Domino’s, Taco Bell and, well, the Melting Pot.

Additionally, quality meats are expensive, and kosher meats are more expensive than regular meats. The 2014 documentary Deli Man points out that of those five delis left in New York, four own their buildings. But it only takes one person passionate, crazy or well-funded enough to do it again in Louisville.

Suna mentions that Republic Bank CEO Steve Trager once worked as a Nosh Box server. Today, his nephew Michael Trager-Kusman keeps the family in the food business as a co-founder of NuLu restaurant Rye, which has flown in bread from New York’s Katz’s Deli, one of those final five.

As for Les & Mark, they’re getting back in business for a meal to have fun and to enjoy their friendship and community. Suna says now, “I don’t want to do it where it’s a job. I want to do it where I’m affecting change and helping others.”

“Kosher Deli Day” will be held at Keneseth Israel, 2531 Taylorsville Road, on Sunday, Jan. 10, from 11:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m.

C. 2016 Insider Louisville