With all of the news surrounding other comedians, it’s amazing and sad to remember that it has been almost three years since we lost Patrice O’Neal.
O’Neal was only 41 when he died on Nov. 29, 2011, cut down by complications from a stroke he had suffered less than a month earlier. Oh, the things he would have said about Cosby, about Ferguson, about rape jokes, about everything, really. He was brutally funny and brutally honest.
The comedians who loved and knew him painfully more than audiences ever did when he was alive are gathering once more to share their love for O’Neal, to pay tribute to him and raise money for his family left behind. Tickets went on sale yesterday for The 3rd Annual Patrice O’Neal Comedy Benefit Concert — Feb. 11, 2015, at New York City Center — with performances by Ben Bailey, Bill Burr, Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, Hannibal Buress, Jim Florentine, Jim Norton, Michael Che, & Rich Vos.