Dan Piraro says his "The Bizarro Baloney Show" is a variety program
that a 13-year-old boy "with fairly a lucrative paper route" might put
on.
Never mind that people who can't drive are rarely permitted to have
paper routes these days. Piraro - who's best known as the author and
illustrator of the "Bizarro" comic panel - said his show is a
hodgepodge of "90 minutes of things I think I would like to do in
front of strangers."
Piraro, 47, who lives in Brooklyn, took some time away from preparing
to leave on his tour to talk about why he does the show and how he
became an animal rights activist.
...
The tour opened April 13 to a sell-out crowd at a small venue in
Hollywood, Calif. Fellow animal rights activist Daryl Hannah endorsed
the show, and People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine have too.
...
Since becoming an animal rights activist four years ago, his panel
has expanded to reflect these beliefs.
"It's not a terribly funny subject," he says, noting why he spaces out
his comics dealing with food politics and animal cruelty. "My comic
has to be at least amusing. Abuse and misery of the innocent is just
not a funny subject."
His passion for animal rights is a part of his show, but he insists
it's not heavy-handed or preachy. He talks about how he came to
veganism, how as a meat eater he was just a bit of information away
from crossing over.
His girlfriend at the time - now his wife, Ashley - worked on animal
issues. He slowly began to realize, he says, how ignorant and wrong he
had been.
"She knew I was a compassionate meat eater. She just waited," he says.
All proceeds from his tour, after expenses, will go to an animal
rights organization he helped start; Woodstock Farm Animal Sanctuary
in New York.