It’s the one elemental truth of putting yourself out there in the dating world. You have to slog through a lot of rejection to find the person who’s right.
Love Sucks — a Valentine’s Day stand-up special brought to life by CloudTop Comedy Festival — will celebrate the awkward first dates and the soul-crushing monotony of courting in the instant-match era.
Local comedian Isabel Madley will host the evening, and headliners Christie Buchele and Robert “Buck D” Gipson will share their war stories of hot dates and bewildering encounters with people seeking connections.
“Everyone that I’ve chosen for this show has some great experience with relationship drama,” says Jessica Baxter, founder and director of CloudTop Comedy Festival. “They’re going to bring that to the stage.”
You won’t have to look too far into their catalogue to find dating humor.
Buchele, a Denver-based comedian, has joked that her chief hazard as a single person is “trying to keep cat hair off my vibrator.” In the same routine, she remarks that same-sex couples may have an advantage over heterosexual couples because “they’re working with the user’s manual.”
You can expect a gentle send-up of the trials and tribulations of romantic engagement, but don’t be thrown off by the title.
These comedians aren’t necessarily turned off on the idea of love.
“I think it’s just a little tongue in cheek,” Baxter says of the Love Sucks theme. “People have been doing the same boring thing for Valentine’s Day for so long. We’ve reached peak frustration with dating apps, with dating in general, and with the commercialization of Valentine’s Day.”
Baxter created CloudTop Comedy Festival in 2019, and it endured a two-year hiatus during the pandemic. It came back last September, and Baxter says a few members of the Santa Fe Playhouse creative team attended.
Now, with its involvement in the Santa Fe Art + Sol Winter Festival, CloudTop is scheduled to play the Playhouse for the very first time.
“We’re just over the moon to be in this gorgeous, intimate, historic theater,” Baxter says. “This is just a perfect place for us to host the show.”
