Brooklyn’s original all-trans stand-up comedy show, T4T — short for “trans-for-trans” — is celebrating its third anniversary with a transgender comedy spectacular at the Bell House on Monday, June 16.
The event highlights the comedic talents of more than 100 trans comics who have performed since T4T launched its monthly shows in 2022 at Metropolitan Bar, the borough’s original gay bar in Williamsburg.
Last year, T4T hosts and producers Sunny Laprade and Rose Tablizo took over from co-founders and trans comedians Ella Yurman and Aaron Dugan.
Transgender stand-up comedian Rose Tablizo told Brooklyn Paper that Yurman and Dugan launched the monthly show because there weren’t dedicated spaces for trans comedians to perform — or for transgender audiences to see them on stage.
“Since 2022, it’s grown, and we’ve now had over 100 trans stand-ups on the lineup over the last three years,” Tablizo said. “Once a year, in June, we do a big show like this. We invite all of the trans stand-ups we’ve had on the show back to celebrate the space that our friends created [and] that we’re very proud to keep going.”
Laprade, also a transgender stand-up comedian, said T4T features a diverse lineup — from professionals who have performed at Madison Square Garden to newcomers just breaking into the comedy scene.
“It’s cool that we get to put people who are really experienced and professional [who are] doing this as their full-time job,” Laprade said. “This is a way that we get to have younger comics be seen by them, and also get to see what someone who’s truly like a seasoned professional is doing.”
The audience is typically mostly transgender, and while Tablizo said they would love to see transgender comedy go mainstream, the monthly shows serve as a community space where cisgender people — those whose gender identity matches their sex assigned at birth — are in the minority “for once.”
“So many comedians who are not transgender are doing comedy about transgender people,” Tablizo said. “So it’s really refreshing for trans people to show up to the space and be able to laugh about being transgender and not be the butt of the joke.”
The stand-up routines don’t just focus on transgender issues — they also explore everyday life.
“We also face the same hardship as everyone else, like the job market is hard, sometimes you get dumped, or your mom says something weird to you over the phone, or you run into a really drunk guy on the subway,” said Laprade, who lost his job in April. “Navigating the job market has been absurd and funny and weird. Getting to talk about that without necessarily having to talk about being trans, but to get to talk about the other issues that I’ve been facing just by being alive is really fun.”
With President Trump’s ongoing attacks on transgender rights, Laprade said it is “immensely” important for the transgender community to have a space to come together and momentarily set aside the relentless assaults on a community that makes up only about 1% of the U.S. population.
“It’s always been hard,” Laprade said. “So many conversations about being trans with friends and family members and people on the street [are] centered on our oppression and the hardships that we’re facing. So it’s really nice to be able to get in a room and have fun and have a space where we get to go and hang out and see our friends and belly laugh and not talk about [transgender hate].”
Tablizo added that they could joke about the difficult parts of their experience without it becoming a headline.
“Because trans people are in the news and facing so much, just like attacks about our way, a lot of our speaking points about being transgender right now have to be really positive,” Tablizo said. “When it’s an all-trans space, and you know the audience is going to relate to you, people have the freedom not to be the most positive transgender person.”
The Bell House is located at 149 7th St. in Gowanus. Tickets for T4T’s Third Anniversary Spectacular at the Bell House are available at concerts.livenation.com.
