Again, with gratitude (and Sarah Palin video magic)
Thursday, September 11th, 2008This is awesome!!!!
From: Sara Benincasa
Sent: Tuesday, September 09, 2008
To: margaretcho
Subject: Again, with gratitude (and Sarah Palin video magic)
Hi Margaret:
I wrote to you two years ago when I had first started doing stand-up, and you did me the kindness of posting the email on your blog. The fact that you posted my message meant so much to me, not in the least because it brought new friends my way and added to my resolve to continue doing comedy.
I was a high school teacher back when I wrote to you. It wasn’t what I really wanted to do. What I really wanted to do was write, perform, and make people laugh.
Today, I host a nightly show about sex on Sirius, and I contribute to MTV’s 2008 Choose or Lose coverage. And for the past few weeks, I’ve been doing a series of fake Sarah Palin vlogs with my comedy partner, Diana Saez. The first video alone has garnered over 150,000 hits, as well as being featured on Wonkette, Comedy Central’s Indecision 2008 blog, Politico, and a bunch of other sites. Newsweek.com interviewed me last week and I just did an interview with the Washington Post this evening. Wolf Blitzer showed a clip from one video on CNN’s “Situation Room.” He is now our boyfriend forever, in our minds. But, most importantly, a field organizer with the Obama campaign down South wrote me the following note:
Dear Sara,
Thank you for making your Sarah Palin Vlogs.
I am a Field Organizer for the Obama campaign. I have shown your Sarah Palin to all of my friends and everyone, EVERYONE, loves them.
As you might imagine, we work very hard on the campaign. We work from 9AM to 10PM pretty much every day, seven days a week. Your Vlogs are great for morale.
Keep up the funny stuff.
I don’t write to ask you to post the videos on your blog or anything like that. I just wanted to let you know that in a very real way, your posting that fan letter back in ‘06 contributed to my feeling good about the fact that I had decided to give comedy a real try. And I know you post lots of fan-mail, and I think that’s awesome. It must seem like a small gesture, but it can really mean a lot.
The first Sarah Palin vlog is here (and there are seven others). If you have time to watch it, I hope you enjoy my personal interpretation of the greatest single role model our country has ever known. And I’m looking forward to seeing your show at Radio City.
Shooting a moose from a helicopter,
Sara Benincasa
SaraBenincasa.com
http://think.mtv.com/SaraBenincasaNY
http://www.youtube.com/SaraBenincasa
