On Aug. 20, the Abortion Access Front presented its variety show and benefit performance of L’Abortion Variety Hour: A Cavalcade of Hooch, at the Metro, 3730 N. Clark St.
The show, brought together local musicians, comedians and performers for a skewered take on feminism, attacks on women’s health, the joys of queerness, antiquated views on female identity and the current conservative climate through an energetic free-for-all delivered with a barbed perspective, bawdiness and good cheer.
Renowned comedian and co-creator of Comedy Central’s The Daily Show Lizz Winstead lead a cast which included Nora O’Connor, Jill Hopkins, Bethany Thomas, Marcella Arguello (fresh from her HBO Max special Bitch Grow Up), Rebecca O’Neal and Ms. B. LaRose. The show raised over $5,000 by the night’s end.
Winstead has fronted different versions of this event throughout the country working with local pro-choice organizations to support abortion care on a grassroots level.
As audience members filed into the venue before the show, they were greeted with a low-key song mix of songs about wicked women including “Evil Woman” by the Electric Light Orchestra, “Low Down” by Boz Scaggs, “Another One Bites the Dust” by Queen and “Witchy Woman” by The Eagles. Then Winstead and Jill Hopkins popped out in vulva costumes for a rendition of “Maneater” by Hall and Oates, with Hopkins cracking, “Woah-Oh she’s a killer…and a feminist.” Arguello spent her set talking about the challenge of being six-foot-two and dating a man who is five foot seven, followed by O’Connor’s intensely dramatic reading of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m On Fire.” The joke here was that, though Springsteen deserved respect as one of America’s most appreciated songwriters/singers, his lyrics addressing a woman as “little girl” while singing about his desire for her sounded downright creepy.
Winstead came out for her solo set and promptly riffed on South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, Republican Vice-Presidential nominee JD Vance, and Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife Ginny, in what she called “a clusterfuck of cooch.” Then the show veered into absurdity as Miff and the Misotones (a squad of dancing abortion pills) came out and closed out the first half of the show.
After Hopkins started the second half, Thomas performed a searing take on George Michael’s “Father Figure.” O’Neal giggled her way through her comedy rip on her adventures and challenges as a fem dating another fem, and the show closed with a breathtaking performance by Ms. B. LaRose, which incorporated burlesque and modern feminism into a high performance art.
The Abortion Access Front is a New York based non-profit established in 2015 with the intent to use humor, celebrity, and pop culture to advance the conversation on reproductive rights. For more information or to donate, go to www.aafront.org.
Photos by Vern Hester
