Meet the out crowd that's really "in" -- the gay and lesbian stand-up comics who've come out of the closet and stormed the mainstream with the hippest and wittiest comedy acts of the last three decades.In A Funny Time to Be Gay, Ed Karvoski Jr. traces the evolution of gay and lesbian comedy from Robin Tyler in the seventies and mavericks who played San Francisco's famed Valencia Rose in the eighties to the latest comics in development for their own sitcoms. With short introductions that reveal the performers' approaches to both their sexual and professional identities, over thirty hilarious monologues capture the diversity of the gay and lesbian comic community, including Lynda Montgomery on being white trailer trash ("I was raised in a paneled hallway"); Barry Steiger on Prozac ("I think antidepressants should come in a Pez dispenser"); Bob Smith on being a gay kid ("(My parents) once gave me a chemistry set -- I used it to make my own line of skin care products"); and Suzanne Westenhoefer on the distinctions in lesbian culture (.".. the butch is the one that holds the remote control, and the femme is the one that sits beside her going, 'change it ... change it ... change it ... '"). From cabaret performers, late-night regulars, and rising stars, these pieces carry a message of joyful celebration: "We're here, we're queer -- get used to laughing along with us!"