As the NYC Mayoral race heats up, SILO in Bushwick hosted The Roast of Andrew Cuomo to a packed house of fold-out chairs and fired up New Yorkers ready to say ‘fuck no’ to the disgraced former governor’s attempt at a political comeback. The crowd packed into the event space, gin and tonics in hand, as the monthly comedy show put on by Paid Protest aimed its jokes and political power squarely at Cuomo’s campaign. 

The roast was more than just a stand-up show. It was a pointed, satirical call to arms focused on making sure that one name does not survive the first round of the City’s rank choice voting. “Don’t rank Cuomo” was their rallying cry, repeated like a mantra between roasts, rants, and rounds of applause.

The night was hosted by Anders J Lee and Freddy G, who kept the crowd laughing through a mix of biting jokes and genuine calls to action. Behind the scenes, the event was powered by grassroots political groups including Paid Protest, NY Indivisible, and DREAM for NYC; organizations with roots in New York’s activist ecosystem.

Paid Protest in particular, has a long history of turning politics into performance. Born out of the resistance wave of 2017, they made their name by spotlighting New York City comedians at their monthly show and funneling ticket proceeds toward various leftist causes such as the Central and North Brooklyn DSA chapters and more recently in benefit of North Carolina disaster relief and mutual aid funds. Friday’s roast fit that mold perfectly: equal parts comedy show and political intervention. The Andrew Cuomo Roast raised over $2,000 for DREAM (Don’t Rank Evil Andrew for Mayor). 

The show started with a video from former Congressman Jamaal Bowman, likening Andrew Cuomo to a mix between Eric Adams and Donald Trump, the “worst of both worlds.” 

After the video, the hosts, Anders and Freddy, introduced their cause, mentioning the different reasons they thought this roast was necessary, citing Cuomo’s laundry list of wrongdoings. They were sure to let everyone know that they “were not here because they hate Italians,” but when discussing the dinastia that began with Cuomo’s father they joked, “though we can all agree though that it would be have been better if Mario was Luigi’d” 

The vibe was cathartic: the kind of laughter that bubbles up from a place of real rage and real hope. As State Senator Gustavo Rivera put it to us after the show, “I can understand why the things that are happening at the national level are displeasing. I live in this world, too, so I’m as just as frustrated and like ‘oh my God, what the fuck?’ I’m in the same place. But, when you can focus on the local things that you can have an impact on, then that’s what you need to focus on.”

Andrew Cuomo’s record is long and not in a good way. As governor, he oversaw the deadly mishandling of COVID-19, including the readmission to nursing home of patients that tested positive for the virus and a subsequent coverup of the 15,000 deaths that resulted from it. Cuomo slashed Medicaid funding year after year; he also faced multiple credible allegations of sexual harassment, including a high-profile accusation from former aide Lindsey Boylan, who joined in on the roast as the last guest of the night, welcomed by the audience with raucous applause. 

“This is a community event that people organically believe in enough to fight against this monster and the least I can do is show up and say I appreciate that fight,” Boylan told us after the show. “Listen, some people don’t care about the abuse of women, but what it means, what he did to women, including myself, is actually a more basic statement about his abuse of power.” During her time on stage, Boylan continually praised comedians for putting themselves out there continuously when some were too quiet to speak up. 

Now, despite his fall from grace, Cuomo appears to be testing the waters for a political comeback but this time with an eye on City Hall. That possibility adds urgency to events like the roast. Under New York City’s ranked-choice voting system, even a low ranking can help a candidate gain traction. The message from the organizers was clear: don’t rank him at all.

State Senator Rivera plainly put it, “Andrew Cuomo would be a horrendous Mayor because he was a horrendous Governor. If you care about the city, don’t rank Cuomo. There are plenty of folks who have real visions, real understanding of the issues around that impact the working people of the city. They have real plans to solve them, and they have different approaches.”

In addition to standout sets from Boylan and Rivera-including a sharp joke from the State Senator about so-called Cuomosexuals (“Listen, I’m a pretty progressive guy, but that is the one sexual orientation I will judge you for”)-the night featured a stacked lineup of comics from across the city. Performers like Nonye Brown-West, Rebecca Kaplan, Dan Wickes, and Jaffer Khan pulled no punches with personal jabs, political barbs, and a truly unhinged impression of Cuomo by Nick Naney.

New York based comedian JP McDade got the biggest laughs of the night with jokes delivered with an en vogue air of detachment but sharp enough to stick with the audience, “I don’t know anything about politics,” he deadpanned, “but then I found out Andrew Cuomo is opposed to congestion pricing and I thought; it’s time to bully the shit out of this motherfucker.” 

The line that elicited the biggest reaction from McDade was, “a lot of jokes will be made about Mr. Cuomo’s appearance tonight but just because he looks like a vampire does not mean that he shares their need for consent,” and the crowd roared. “Verrr is my hugggg?”

“I”m gonna use that one,” I overheard an audience member tell their friend. 

“I’m a comedian, I had an opportunity to roast a weird guy and I took it,” McDade told me after this set, “I am by far the dumbest person here.” 

The Roast of Andrew Cuomo was more than a night of good jokes; it was a reminder that comedy, like politics, is most powerful when it’s local, specific, and rooted in community. It’s easy to write Cuomo off as yesterday’s villain, but his reemergence is very real.

There is no room for revisionism of Cuomo’s record when people’s lives, housing, health care, and dignity are on the line. New Yorkers have the power to choose who leads them and, just as importantly, who doesn’t. 

As Lindsey Boylan told us after the show, “ I don’t expect people to live their lives in politics, but what you would see is that this man has spent an entire career screwing over New York City for his own personal benefits[…]This man doesn’t care about New York City. This man cares only about his own power, and even though that’s most obviously evidenced by his abuse of women, it’s really just an abuse of power.”

Ultimately, the Roast of Andrew Cuomo was not only an event aimed at keeping Cuomo off the ballot but also a way to harness the energy necessary to promote progressive candidates in the June 24th Democratic Primary for Mayor. Especially at a time when political engagement has often been encumbered by national-level frustrations.

It’s no secret that leftists often pull in different directions, and the in-fighting within the community can sometimes feel like it’s blocking real, material progress. But at the event last Friday at Silo, there was something different, an unspoken unity, an underlying current of shared support. 

Like in 2016 and 2020 when we had Bernie to set our eyes towards, it felt like there was someone to rally behind, and that person is DSA endorsed mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani. He wasn’t mentioned by name too often, maybe to preserve the sanctity of the roast, but subtle nods to him drew wild applause every time. 

That post-Bernie, post-second-Trump-election fatigue seemed to lift; if only slightly, and only in this tiny corner of Bushwick. If that had to come at the expense of a perverted disgraced former Governor, then so be it.