Wednesday night’s Very Good+ Night of Comedy benefit for Jessica Seinfeld‘s Good+ Foundation was mostly an evening of laughs supplied by stand-up sets from comedians Amy Schumer, Kevin Hart, Ronny Chieng, Jim Gaffigan and Jerry Seinfeld.
But Jessica Seinfeld took time at the top of the event to speak about the Israel–Hamas war that has been dominating the news since Hamas’ deadly, surprise terrorist attack Oct. 7.
“I want to take a moment to acknowledge the suffering of Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza and Israel,” she said to applause from a packed audience at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
For me, one light in the middle of all of this darkness is being here together with all of you,” she said, “To quote the great Pete Davidson on [Saturday Night Live] last weekend, ‘Sometimes comedy is a helpful way through tragedy.’”
In addition to raising money for the Good+ Foundation, most of the rest of the evening was dedicated to making people laugh.
Schumer delivered a wide-ranging set in which she joked about the challenges of being a woman, her TV watching habits, how she had once been attached to the Barbie movie, and her husband and son. But it seemed faith was not far from her mind. She spoke about growing up Jewish and joked about some of the inherent problems with the word used to describe her religion, including that it includes “ew” and the uncertain-sounding “ish.”
And midway through her set, Schumer, who like Jessica Seinfeld has posted frequently on social media about the situation in Israel, mused that she “was going to really work hard on this last week and then something happened.” She and the audience shared a nervous laugh.
Chieng took the stage after Schumer and joked about his experience helping his wife freeze her eggs, marveling at how he had been entrusted to administer the injections she needed to receive.
Gaffigan self-deprecatingly spoke about his life as a father of five kids who are either teenagers or about to become teenagers, and such everyday annoyances as selecting email passwords.
Hart, who insisted he couldn’t say no to Jerry Seinfeld when he asked him to participate in the event, humorously recounted the accident that recently landed him in a wheelchair and how he went on a gorilla trek with his family in Rwanda.
Seinfeld closed the night, joking, among other things, about his lack of enjoyment on vacation, his marriage and his upcoming Pop-Tarts movie, Unfrosted.
The event also featured a surprise opening speech from New York City Mayor Eric Adams, who spoke about the importance of helping families in need like the one he grew up in. And D-Nice served as the announcer and DJ, with Good+ board member Ali Wentworth encouraging attendees to donate to the nonprofit.
The Good+ Foundation, founded by Jessica Seinfeld in 2001, provides tangible goods and innovative services to low-income fathers, mothers and caregivers in an effort to dismantle multigenerational poverty. The organization seeks to incentivize parental participation in counseling, health services, employment assistance, financial literacy, co-parenting classes and more.
