Both shows at Joe’s Pub last summer sold out. If you caught those performances, you know why.
Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville didn’t feel like theater about weed—it felt like someone finally told our story right. Seventy-five minutes that moved through jazz clubs and Beat poetry and AIDS activism, and kept you locked in the whole time.
Now it’s back. Two different formats, two different venues. Pick your entry point.
About That November Thing
We got involved with this project last year and haven’t stopped talking about it since. When The Other was invited to help promote the show’s investor showcase last November, we signed on as media sponsor without hesitation.
Why? Because watching Baba Israel, Grace Galu Kalambay, and Nicolas Benacerraf pitch this show to actual cannabis industry people who understand what it represents—that’s the whole point of what we do here. Building bridges, making connections, supporting the work that matters.
April 27: Nublu Gets the Music
151 Loisaida Ave. 7:00–10:00 p.m.
Grace Galu, Duv, and the band perform songs from the show. No full theatrical production, no elaborate staging—just the music that carries this century-long story, pared down and performed live.
But paring it down doesn’t diminish it. The music holds up on its own.
This is part of Lift Up, Baba Israel’s monthly hip-hop night, so you’re getting the full downtown experience: DJ Rickman, The Lift Up All Stars, hip-hop group Get Open, bringing that authentic energy, and threaded through all of it, the sounds of Cannabis!—Louis Armstrong’s jazz morphing into Beatnik rhythms morphing into funk morphing into hip-hop.
Because that’s the actual trajectory. Cannabis culture didn’t stay in one lane, and neither does this music.
May 4: The Whole Thing on Screen
Cinema Village. 22 E. 12th Street. Evening (exact time TBA).
Want the complete experience? The immersive design, the full narrative arc, all the theatrical elements that drew attention from Forbes and The New York Times?
They shot the 2022 La MaMa E.T.C. run with multiple cameras, professional setup, cinema-quality sound and picture. This isn’t someone’s iPhone from the back row.
Cinema Village is the right home for it. That theater has championed independent voices and boundary-pushing work for decades. Stories that matter, told by people who refuse to play it safe.
You’re getting the show that made the rounds, the one that regional theaters in legal states declined to book even after their artistic directors said yes.
Why This Thing Won’t Die
Most theater does its run and that’s it. Done. Archive it and move on.
Cannabis! A Viper Vaudeville keeps finding new formats, new audiences, new ways to exist in the world.
After those regional theater boards overruled their own artistic directors—in California and Massachusetts, where cannabis is fully legal—the team pivoted. They stopped asking permission from nonprofits, too cautious to engage with the topic, and went commercial instead, finding the producers with actual courage.
Now they’re planning bigger productions: enhanced design, celebrity advocates, more immersive experiences, activist voices built into every performance. The show is growing, but the core stays put—cannabis history told with respect, artistry, and without apology.
Pick Your Entry Point
The Nublu show gives you the music straight. Raw and live, no filter.
The Cinema Village screening gives you everything—the full theatrical vision captured on film.
Hit one or hit both. Either way, you’re supporting something rare: a project that treats cannabis culture like it deserves to be treated. Louis Armstrong and his “gage.” Beat poets getting philosophical. Brownie Mary and Dennis Peron fighting for AIDS patients. The Mexican Revolution’s role in prohibition. Dylan and The Beatles opening doors. The justice fights happening right now. It all connects, it all mattered, and it shaped where we are now.
Watching it claim real estate on New York stages—and screens—feels different than it used to. We’re not in the shadows asking for scraps. We’re building our own platforms now.
Updates: https://www.vipervaudeville.com
Photos: Kelly Cook / Ambitious Eye
Consume responsibly and legally.
