We’ve been dealing with COVID-19 for about a year and half at this point. Arts have shut down and are struggling to come back. Now we are dealing with a variant that is much more easily spread and we are again facing threats of not just mask mandates, but also shut-down and quarantines. The difference between now and 18 months ago is – IT DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THIS WAY! We have three safe and effective vaccines that protect us and those around us from the serious effects of the COVID-19 virus. When it comes to this virus you hear it said so many times “there’s just so much we don’t know.” That’s true, but we do know why this wave is happening – unvaccinated people. 

For reasons that range from natural skepticism to outright bonkers conspiracy theories, the unvaccinated among are prolonging this pandemic for all of us. There are, of course, people that for actual medical reasons that cannot get the vaccine- so I am not calling them out here, though this is all the more reason for everyone to get vaccinated – to protect the most vulnerable among us. The more people that remain unvaccinated, the more opportunity the virus has to evolve and create potentially more lethal variants- variants that our vaccines are less prepared to deal with. So we really gotta do something. Now. As a country, as cities, as communities, and even as a half digital / half in-person comedy theater – we have to find ways to convince the unvaccinated to get the shot.

Laughter is a great medicine, sure, but honestly, right now, the vaccine is the best. So something Crossroads is going to do is offer up a carrot to those that prove they are newly vaccinate. Unvaccinated comedy fans that get fully vaccinated between now and September 20th, 2021 will be entered to win one of five passes good for two tickets each to ALL the comedy shows Crossroads Comedy Theater produces between 9/2021 and 12/2022. That’s 1.4 years worth of laughs on the houses! 

To enter all you have to do is take a selfie with your vaccination card making sure your name and vax dates are clearly visible (feel free to block out any other info you don’t want shared), and email it to hello@xroadscomedy.com. Fully vaccinated counts as both the Moderna or Pfizer shots or the one-shot J&J vaccine. We will put the entrees into a program and draw 5 at random. Also- this is transferrable! If you want to do this and couldn’tt care less about live comedy shows, but know someone that does – you can enter yourself and give your pass to them if you win! The catch is, they then also have to prove they are vaccinated before collecting. Each person that enters, but does not win the big pass, will still get a 2 tickets to 2 shows.

Crossroads Comedy Theater has taken this virus seriously from the start. We have the luxury of having Michael Yudell in our company. Michael is the head lecturer for Study Hall and new Vice Dean and Professor at the Arizona State University College of Health Solutions. Throughout this whole process I’ve been able to check in with him on this or that to make sue we were doing things as safely as we could. That lead to us only putting performers on stage that have been vaccinated as well as keeping our mask mandates and audience caps in place even after the City of Philadelphia lifted them. We will continue to do this for the foreseeable future. We are also not ruling out requiring every single audience member provide proof of vaccination before entering.

We don’t want this pandemic to go on any longer and this is just one small way we hope encourages at least 5 people to get vaccinated. Right now this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated, but it’s still impacting all of us regardless of status.

CLICK HERE TO LOCATE THE CLOSEST VACCINATION SITE

STUDY HALL: FACTS ABOUT THE VAX FEATURING DR. PAUL OFFIT | 5/1/21

Mike Marbach
Crossroads Comedy Theater Founder