SOPHIA ROOKSBERRY
Staff Writer
As the saying goes, good things come to those who wait. For Sally “Love” Craig, a casual career in comedy came in her mid-70s. Now at 82 years old, Craig performs exclusively at Chautauqua, and at 10 p.m. tonight, she will perform her stand-up set, “Sally Love & Friends: Sleep is the New Sex.”
Craig first became a Chautauquan in the early 1970s and has been a consistent constituent of the Institution since 2007. She started spending entire summers at Chautauqua slightly more than a decade ago, right around the time she took her first comedy writing class and began her journey as an amateur comedian.
“I got introduced to stand-up by my grandsons,” Craig said. “Teenage boys watch a lot of YouTube, and girls too, but they wanted to show me stand-up. [That was] maybe a little before … that class.”
Inspired by performers like John Mulaney, Jim Gaffigan and Mike Birbiglia, Craig was soon riffing on the Amphitheater stage alongside Maria Bamford and performing twice a summer at the Chautauqua Women’s Club. This summer, Craig is switching venues to perform at the newly constructed Roe Green Theater Center.
“It’s a thrill and it’s a challenge,” Craig said. “I’ve never performed with that thrust configuration, so you have to be like a lighthouse, which is difficult. … It’s much more of a professional setting, and … I am not a professional.”
In addition to performing in a new space, Craig is shifting gears in terms of the show’s content and format.
“In … my past shows, I have curated an evening of comedy with four or five other local Chautauquans, either telling stories or doing stand-up,” Craig said. “This year, we’re doing it differently … I’ll do a 10-minute bit or set, and then improv artists will come on stage and perform improv off of my comedy, and it goes back and forth.”
One of the titular friends who will perform with Craig is Laura Savia, Chautauqua’s vice president of Performing and Visual Arts. With a background in improv comedy, Savia meshes well with Craig’s set and was a part of her first performance this summer on July 30.
“[My favorite part] was seeing how the improv artists work with my material,” Craig said. “I sat down, I was in the audience and it was just hysterical.”
The comedic relationship between Craig and the improv artists revolves around the themes in the title of the performance, which Craig believes any Chautauquan can get a kick out of.
“It’s so relatable,” Craig said. “We all have issues with sleep at our age. We all have issues with sex, not just at our age, but at all ages.”
Tickets for “Sally Love & Friends: Sleep is the New Sex” are available for $25 online or at the RGTC box office, which will open one hour before the performance. All proceeds will benefit Friends of Chautauqua Theater, for which Craig serves as co-vice president of community.
“I’m just another Chautauquan,” Craig said. “I am not a professional stand-up comedian. I found my funny; I found my comedic voice, and there’s no bigger thrill, there’s no bigger dopamine hit than getting people to laugh.”
