LAUGHS FOR LEARNING

Join Oakland's Urban Montessori Charter School (UMCS) for its second-annual fundraising event, "Laughs for Learning." Support one of California's only public Montessori schools while enjoying great comedy, live and silent auctions, and amazing food and drinks. To learn more about UMCS, please visit www.urbanmontessori.org.

Our host is J.R. Havlan, a proud father and uncle to a small band of happy and curious Montessori students. He is returning this year to once again emcee UMCS’ annual fundraiser. J.R. spent the last 18 years writing for The Daily Show with Jon Stewart where he won 8 Emmy Awards and contributed to the show's two best-selling books, America: The Book and Earth: The Book. J.R. also wrote for the Academy Awards in 2006 and 2008 and has performed stand-up comedy on The Late Show with David Letterman and Late Night with Conan O'Brien. J.R. is thrilled by the opportunity to join us in our effort to provide quality, innovative education to deserving children.

Our featured talent is socio-political comedian W. Kamau Bell, who has emerged as the post-modern voice of comedy. Kamau is best known for his critically acclaimed, but criminally short-lived FX comedy series, Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell. The New York Times called Kamau “the most promising new talent in political comedy in many years.” And Salon.com listed Kamau on their “Sexiest Men of 2012” list, calling the series “surreptitiously revolutionary in its effortless diversity and humanism.” Kamau has appeared on Comedy Central, Real Time with Bill Maher, Conan, WTF with Marc Maron, Henry Louis Gates Jr’s Many Rivers To Cross, MSNBC, The View, Fresh Air with Terry Gross, and NPR, among others.