Why comedy, absurdity, and Stormy Daniels still matter a whole f+cking lot in 2025 (and beyond)

I spent much of the height of election season traveling the country with Stormy Daniels. It was a strange experience to have front-row seats to history as it was being written. While the rest of the world would see certain stories in delayed time, I was living them in the present, at least vicariously. As we would wrap up at some venue, I would plop on the bed at whatever hotel I was at, in whenever town I was in, and there would be Fallon, Kimmel, or Colbert doing a bit about the sh+t Stormy and I had just discussed on the tour bus. Hell, one of the nights we decided to cut loose and go do something fun after the show, we ended up a headline on TMZ.

However, very little of what was discussed on stage at our comedy shows is what the high-dollar comedians would jest about on late-night television. Stormy was already living in the future, rebranding herself as a comedian, while these folks were still using washed-up one-liners about pornstars and presidents. They got cheap laughs at the same old run-of-the-mill dick jokes while she would spend each night fighting for a future we all hoped to see.

I understand why television hosts have to use the same running gags. It’s hard to write material night after night, and sometimes, it’s easier to use the tried-and-true than try something new.

That tour was riddled with problems as the election heated up. Stormy was essentially shadow-banned on Twitter, her largest social media platform, and I’m sure that there was absolutely no malice behind that decision *looks directly into camera* We started the tour by selling our theatres, and then suddenly, we were in a race against time, fighting for a seat at the table as something Musk-y filled the air about why folks were no longer hearing about our shows.

In many ways, Stormy is patient zero for the future Trump hopes to create. Everything most of us fear has already happened to her: public shaming, politically fueled investigations, silencing, cover-ups, doxxing, threats, and nearly losing it all just for choosing to stand in opposition to the MAGA King. She screamed from the rooftops that the emperor had no clothes on, and instead of being listened to as a legitimate political activist and whistleblower, she was asked about his dick size as a punchline to a throwaway joke.

If patient zero does not survive, or at least become the studied subject that leads to a vaccine for the problem of fascism, then we are all doomed.

Many have scoffed at her entry into comedy as some vain attempt to scramble for relevance, while some in the comedy scene have entirely rejected her as someone who has no right at the microphone. They are all too willing to make a buck by making her the punchline while being enraged at the idea of her getting the last laugh and making money off her own story.

After the election resulted in Tsar Trump reclaiming his throne of lies, the easiest thing for Stormy to do would be to run and hide. Instead, she chose to jump back on the circuit to tell more jokes. To some, this seems absolutely absurd, and I argue that, in many ways, it is, which is exactly what we need right now.

To hear the narrative told by headlines and punchlines, Stormy has been reduced to nothing more than the harlot in the background story of the making of a King in the narrative of Trump's rise, but she has chosen to recast herself as a far more important character in the royal court: the jester.

Instead of being the punchline, being punched down upon, she took up the marotte and began to punch up at the most powerful man in the world.

The role of the jester, and comedy in general, will become more important than ever in a time of great turmoil. From Lenny Bruce to Kathy Griffin, comedy becomes the testing rod of how close we’ve come to losing our rights to free speech in the face of political crackdowns as a fascist dictatorship begins to rise.

And now, the most important part comes into play: yours.

The Jester is most safe when the audience is laughing. If everyone becomes afraid to mock the king with an uproarious guffaw, what prevents the king from silencing them? If the audience isn’t there to watch, who sees the marotte fall when it’s replaced with handcuffs and a muzzle?

As we collectively step into the vast unknown of 2025 and beyond, Stormy Daniels steps back onto the tour bus to begin jesting the king right up to the day of his coronation. In many ways, this might be one of the most historic comedy tours to ever take place, and I am honored to be a part of it. How often, in the history of the world, could anyone see the jokes lodged at the powerful come out of the mouth of the very one who defied them instead of second-hand jokes written by the observer?

If you were jealous when I mentioned sitting on that bus and having front-row seats to history, then I’m inviting you to take a seat at the table with us. This is the type of event that should be treated with an Eras Tour level of fever, where you buy a plane ticket to your closest town, crash on your friend's couch, and camp outside to witness something truly magical.

We will be in ten cities between January 2nd and 21st. These will be, without question, one of the most important and defiant acts you will ever see. Not the story of a woman being defined by punchlines about mushroom dicks and hush money trials but the redefining of a narrative, a reclaiming of her life, and standing at the microphone to loudly say, “I’m not shutting up.”

So will you be there to laugh? Or, as we all fear, will the room go silent as the final death knell of freedom of speech rings? That choice, my friends, is entirely yours.

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BIG ASK! Once you read this post, please immediately go back to like it on social media, share it, and tag your friends. Together, we can defeat the social and media blackout of these events. Help us make some noise, sell out these shows, and do our part to hold the king's feet to the fire.