Congratulations are in order to Zimbabwean Comedian Learnmore Jonasi, formerly known as Long John who was recently announced as one of the four grant recipients of Steel City Arts Foundation, a live/work/play environment for comedians in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA.
Many comedians applied to the initial call which boiled down to 15 semi-finalists, 6 finalists and then 4 winners. Long John is the only African/Black and non-American recipient.
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| Learnmore Jonasi |
Other winners include Cavin Eggleston from Washington, Caroline Hawthorne from Los Angeles, California and Joe Harman From Kansas City, Missouri
The grant will cover rent, housing comedians for 6 months at a time, on a rotating basis and provide access to editing bays, a gym, a podcast studio, mentorship, and more. There is also a digital showroom with broadcasting capabilities that can be used for open-mics and Zoom shows.
"Thank you so much Steel City Arts Foundation for this opportunity. It was one of my dreams to take my comedy to America. This really means a lot to me, I really appreciate it." said Long John in a statement
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| Steel City AF Buildings, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania |
Funded by donations, Steel City Arts Foundation was created by Steve, in honour of his father Martin Hofstetter who passed on in 2014
"The goal was to help up-and-coming comedians come up a bit quicker. We provided grants to comedians to help with rent, car payments, and other bills so they could quit their day jobs and concentrate on their art full-time. When COVID destroyed every comedian's ability to tour, we changed the grant system - and were able to provide $1,000 in grants to 30 comedians to help cover some of their expenses. In addition, the Social Distancing Social Club provided over $50,000 more in work for otherwise unemployed comedians. And now, Steel City AF takes that to a whole new level." Said The Chairman and Founder Steve Hofstetter in a statement