Nora Grace-Flood photo
Tom Goldenberg and Alex Taubes at a comedy campaign fundraiser to remember.
What does a mayor even do?
That question was posed during a two-hour comedy-fueled fundraiser for mayoral candidate Tom Goldenberg — with no punchline, or answer, delivered.
Goldenberg is the meditator-turned-bartender-turned-McKinsey consultant looking to unseat two-term incumbent Mayor Justin Elicker in this year’s Democratic primary. Fellow Democratic challengers Shafiq Abdussabur and Liam Brennan are also running for the city’s top office, as are independents Wendy Hamilton and Mayce Torres.
On Thursday night, Goldenberg — who has spent recent campaign outings catching the bus to survey riders about their thoughts on returning fares and interviewing individuals outside a Congress Avenue methadone clinic — found a new way to make his mark.
He did so by selling tickets to a comedy line up that focused mostly on laughing about the mundane burdens of middle age and less on the issue of who is best suited to become the city’s next mayor.
Around 40 people packed into the back of 80 Proof American Kitchen and Bar on Crown Street at 7 p.m. to catch that comedy night, paying $20 for a ticket to the show, one drink, and a chance to contribute to Goldenberg’s mayoral campaign.
Goldenberg and Dan Altano grab drinks before the show.
The comedians included Dan Altano, a New Haven-based stand-up artist whose child attends kindergarten with Goldenberg’s daughter, and out-of-state comedians Matt Jenkins, John McClellan, and Robyn Jaffe.
According to Goldenberg, Altano largely organized the event and selected the night’s performers. (Check out more about Altano and his upcoming shows here.)
Goldenberg himself, meanwhile, did not tell any jokes Thursday, but milled around greeting guests and released belly laughs at the evening’s comedy artists while chowing down on waffle fries and drinking ginger ale with bitters.
Matt Jenkins: “He spared no expense, he gave us all free French fries!”
“This is the weirdest political rally I’ve ever performed for,” Jenkins, who hails from New Jersey, confessed. “Thank you for having us and giving us a job tonight. This is a great fundraiser, you’ve probably raised $38!”
“He spared no expense, he gave us all free French fries!” Jenkins declared. (Goldenberg clarified that a line of French fries displayed on a front table in the room were not a formal spread for Thursday’s audience, but a casual snack for the comedians before the show. He was also seen eating some himself as a late dinner.)
“Responsible use of taxpayer dollars!” someone shouted from the audience.
Jenkins took in the event alongside the audience yesterday, his eyes shifting from the bar’s neon pink lettering of “Girl Boss” on the wall to a few scattered and more subdued, blue and yellow signs reading “Vote Tom Goldenberg.”
“I’m gonna take one of those signs home so I can prove when you’re president that I got waffle fries from you,” Jenkins joked. Then he clarified: “I don’t think you’re gonna make it to the White House with just waffle fries.”
That logic, however, was one of the reasons that Thursday night’s crowd was not made up of Jenkins’ fans, but of Goldenberg’s.
Li and Russ Martin with Tom Goldenberg.
“Elicker is a nice man, but it seems like New Haven is a stepping stone for something else,” one audience member, Russ Martin, told the Independent. He said he was backing Goldenberg over Mayor Justin Elicker because “he is very genuine — when Tom says, ‘I don’t wanna be governor someday,’ I believe him.”
Martin attended the event with his wife, Li Martin, because they had met Goldenberg through their children: Both the Martins and Goldenberg have kindergarteners who attend Worthington Hooker School.
“When Toni [Harp] was mayor, you could walk into her office and see her. DeStefano, you saw him on the streets, you could see him getting pizza,” Russ Martin said. He argued that the current administration is “cliquish” and the “door is closed on the public, when you call up no one answers the phone.”
He said he appreciated Goldenberg’s focus on accessible leadership and public education. For example, he said, Goldenberg has called on the Board of Education to return to in-person meetings, which he said could allow for improved communications between the school district and parents.
Li Martin, a health teacher in East Haven, said “We have a five-year-old who is going through the whole system,” so issues like chronic absenteeism in New Haven’s middle and high school are of particular importance to her and her family.
They said they love New Haven and hope to grow old here because of the tight knit community and vibrant food and arts scene. Goldenberg, with his comedy club and Beatles cover band fundraisers, they said, seems to participate in and enjoy those same aspects of New Haven more than the other candidates.
“He’s hosting all these cool events! It feels like he really wants to be here in New Haven,” Russ Martin said. Not the governor’s office or the White House.
"We Want This To Be Fun!"
Goldenberg giggles at Thursday night comedy night.
John McClellan and audience Thursday.
“A surgeon can use a knife to heal but it can also be used to hurt,” Goldenberg told the event’s attendees during a brief introduction at the beginning of the night. “Comedy and politics are the same way. You can use comedy to bring people down, but that’s not why we’re here… When we started this campaign, we said we want this to be fun!”
Rather than engaging in partisan politics, he said, he hoped to see growth of affordable housing and educational opportunities “bring people from all parts of our diverse community together.”
The majority of Thursday’s attendees appeared to be millennials and middle-aged parents intrigued by Goldenberg’s campaign focus on increasing transparency around education and improving literacy outcomes (read more here about what Goldenberg has said so far about how to accomplish such feats).
One comedian asked for a show of hands for how many audience members had ever attended a wine tasting before: The whole room applauded. Another asked how many audience members identified as Gen‑Z: Just one individual clapped.
“I don’t understand Gen‑Z,” Robyn Jaffee, who emceed the event, said. The 30-something New York City health teacher said she identifies Gen‑Z’ers as “either wearing a shirt with no bra or a bra with no shirt.”
She also tried a few political puns, noting that she hadn’t “spoken” at a political event “since student council the the fifth grade.”
“I don’t know much about politics, I admit it,” she said. “I don’t even know what a mayor does… You wouldn’t believe I’m a teacher.”
Dan Altano, the only local comedian to perform and who identified as a Tom Goldenberg supporter, centered his set around the woes of raising a young child and navigating married life.
Recently, he recalled, he and his wife hired a babysitter for a date night out. “She said, let’s go to the dance club as long as there’s no copay.”
“I didn’t know what to say,” he remembered. “Honey, I think that club is out of network? I think the jello shots have a deductible?”
Comedian John McMullen tried his hand at a couple of policy jokes: “They wanna pass a law where I live to stop people from using phones on crosswalks. Folks, I don’t think we need a law to stop people from using phones at crosswalks, I think we need to keep hitting more people on their phones at crosswalks and we won’t have the problem anymore.”
Camille Ansley: Education should be center of any candidate's campaign.
Over the course of the night, some New Haven passerby stopped by the bar for a drink, like local criminal defense attorney Alex Taubes or neighborhood activist and involved school parent Camille Ansley.
Ansley said she hoped a new administration could improve parental engagement across the school system, but did not say what policies she might like to see enacted to improve participation. “One third of our 40 schools are missing a PTO or a PTA,” she said, asserting the administration should do more to solicit parent feedback.
Taubes, meanwhile, said that he, like many present Thursday, mainly just wanted to see Elicker voted out.
“He’s vindictive,” he said of the mayor, pointing to a tense and public back and forth between Elicker and former supporter and Westville Alder Darryl Brackeen after Brackeen became Goldenberg’s campaign manager and spoke out against Elicker’s continued candidacy.
“I feel like we need to get rid of him now before he becomes a dictator!” he said. “He has become what he was supposedly against. He was supposed to be about openness, transparency. It’s time for a new Democratic infusion.”
In the meantime, Taubes said he’s donated to both Liam Brennan and Goldenberg’s campaigns.
“If I were dictator Elicker,” he said, he would, as Liam Brennan has suggested, buy up sliver lots across the city and prioritize building housing stock on those properties; halt tax hikes for long-time New Haveners over 65 years; and, last but not least, establish “night stuff.”
Night stuff, he explained, would mean keeping libraries, community centers and courts open 24 hours a day to provide “positive night life for the city.”
He renamed that initiative not night “stuff,” but “night shift.”
Goldenberg, overhearing the conversation, agreed that the city should invest in more community centers and incentivize the creation of “grassroots” youth hubs such as The Shack in West Hills.
Little policy debate took place Thursday, with the majority of those who spoke to the Independent showing up for a chance to leave their kids at home, laugh, and imagine a future city run by anyone else other than the incumbent. It was unclear whether anyone, including Robyn Jaffee, who had asked the question herself, left the event with a better understanding of what the next Mayor of New Haven will or will not be able to accomplish during their term.
The Independent followed up with Goldenberg Friday o inquire how much money the fundraiser brought in.
“That will be released at the filing,” he said, referring to quarterly campaign reporting information that will be made public in early April. Asked how much he spent on the comedy show, he said, “We’re not required — I’d prefer not to discuss the finances with you.”
The Independent also asked some of the night’s out-of-state comedians to offer their impressions of Goldenberg and New Haven’s mayoral race after Thursday night’s show.
“I don’t know,” Matt Jenkins said. “This was just a job. But we’ll see if the check clears.”
The night was a blur of laughs.