CutCommunityHeroes: Jonathan Teklai turned Prospect Park into a much-needed comedy club
Photo-Illustration: by The Cut; Photo: Taylor Steele, @shotxsteele Fools Circle all started in a basement. Host Jonathan Teklai’s basement in Brooklyn, to be exact. It was the Bay Area native’s 30th birthday, and what better way to celebrate than to host “a roast of my life”? That first stand-up comedy show/house party mash-up happened in December 2018, and the “pop-up comedy party” has been, well, popping up ever since at venues all over the country.
“At first, I wasn’t sure if I should do a show because it was around June 18, which was a few weeks after George Floyd’s death, and I didn’t want to be one of those people being irresponsible by doing an event,” says Teklai. “And then everyone thought our comedy show was a Black Lives Matter protest.” One comedian even called it “the official BLM afterparty,” he adds with a laugh. “As soon as the first comedian went on, I knew it was great. The response was like ‘Oh my God, thank you so much.
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