Hosted by Hot Girls Organize, with Chika, featuring Hannah Mitchell, RuAfza, Grace Johnson, Bertha Vanayshun and Lumberob
Join us for a special Election Night edition of our raucous and singular variety-show-meets party, Showgasm, hosted by Hot Girls Organize, with Chika! We’re serving up everything hot & wild the city has to offer, from ground-breaking drag to genre-breaking comedians to burlesque, theremins, and everything (and anything) in between.
Cast your ballot then raise some hell with the freshest and freakiest of what NYC has to offer.
Hot Girls Organize is a women-led non-profit empowering young people to participate in political organizing, both locally and nationally. HGO leads with community and culture, meeting young people where they are most comfortable and creating spaces that allow them to develop as both individuals and organizers.
Chika is a Brooklyn-based stand up comedian, producer and writer. She is the show runner and host of Do It Live w/ Chika, a live late night talk show that speaks to the greatest human need of all — getting off the internet. She is also the Program Director for Hot Girls Organize, a political and social organization that creates a culture of cool to the movement for social change.
Hannah Mitchell is a performer and writer/creator of live performance works that spring from improvisational arts of clown and bouffon. She is a founding member of the experimental performance collective CHILD, whose creative output “so insistently defies human logic” (Helen Shaw, The New Yorker), and her work has been featured in The New Yorker’s year-end “The Best of Theatre” list. Her evening-length shows have been supported and presented through Mabou Mines Resident Artist Program, The Philadelphia Fringe Festival, The Exponential Festival, and !?:New Works Festival. Hannah premiered her latest bouffon project TRAD–about a trad wife whose perfect life cracks open–to sold-out audiences at The Exponential Festival in January 2026 and at The Philadelphia Fringe Festival in September 2026.
RuAfza (she/her) is a multidisciplinary artist and drag performer born in India and based in Lenapehoking/Brooklyn. Her work explores the figure of the showgirl as a site of spectacle, labor, and survival under capitalism, drawing on her trans, desi, and immigrant identity and her collaborative worldmaking in nightlife spaces. Working across live performance, photography, sound, and installation, she uses glamour, humor, and camp excess to examine how bodies are marketed, disciplined, and desired. She is a graduate of the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, where she received two Bachelor’s degrees in New Media and Studio Art. Her work has been presented at La MaMa, The Flea Theater, and The New York Historical, and she was featured in PAPER’s NYC Theater Portfolio in 2024.
Grace Johnson is a Nigerian New Yorker and a rising star in comedy, recently named one of the New York Comedy Festival’s 2023 “Comics to Watch” and a finalist in New York’s Funniest 2024. With a comedy special on Don’t Tell Comedy and a finalist spot at the Big Sky Comedy Festival, Grace makes audiences laugh coast to coast. In 2023, she was crowned the Bell House Newcomer, and her sharp, delightfully nerdy perspective—what she calls “Glasses Comedy”—invites you to see the world through her witty, unapologetic lens. Johnson was a Just For Laughs “New Face” in 2025, and a Vulture Comedian You Should Know for 2026. She currently cohosts the “CRANK THAT” Comedy Show, a monthly comedy event showcasing a mix of established and emerging talent.
Bertha Vanayshun is Brooklyn’s Premiere White Woman of Color and GLAM Award Winning Breakthrough Artist. She’s the she/he that makes ya he/he and New York’s hobby historian hottie. Creator of the online show Drag History Minute and the live show Drag History Hour – you can find her twirling across the New York Tri State Area that is accessible by public transit.
LUMBEROB is Rob Erickson. He teaches 8th grade honors humanities at a public middle school in Manhattan. Somehow this makes sense when you see his act: a scrambling demonstration of splatter-paint looping and elegant big beat sing-song. Drawing attention to its own process of making, a LUMBEROB show is a workshop in exuberant sound and physical response. Inspired by eclectic psych-noise and avant-garde experiment, LUMBEROB plays the part of DaDa dancehall toaster over a skillful yet haphazard improv building of this art dance madness. It is heavy gabber. It is trance blanket. It is nursery rhyme. His is wild. Guitar, synth, voice, kick and snare, He comes from a tradition of sonic mess-making, experimental world-building and language-mangling.
This show will take place at Ars Nova, located at 511 W 54th Street, New York, NY 10019.
Seating is general admission and first-come first-served. So, the earlier you arrive at the theater, the more choice you’ll have about where you sit! (Bonus: cheapest drinks in Midtown are at Bars Nova!)
The only way to guarantee you reserved seats is to become a Super Nova. Super Novas never hear “sold out,” get reserved seats in prime locations, and make fair wages and accessible tickets possible. Learn more about becoming a Super Nova here!
If a performance is sold out, you can join a standby line for day-of-show tix made available by minute cancellations and no-shows. Standby will begin 1 hour prior to curtain and will form outsideFolks from the standby line will be admitted into the show on a rolling basis as availability is confirmed.
Yes. The processing fees are charged by our ticketing and credit card processors, and increase along with the base price of your ticket.
All sales are final – there are no refunds or exchanges.
If you’re unable to use your tickets, you may donate them in exchange for a letter of tax credit by emailing tix@arsnovanyc.com.
Ars Nova is uncensored. We provide content advisories — to the best of our ability — to inform audiences when shows contain racial violence, racist language, sexual violence or nudity. We provide information about this type of content in advance, based on our core values, so that each audience member can make an informed decision about if and how they’d like to engage with that content. We welcome artists to share additional information about their shows based on their own core values.
Ars Nova is wheelchair accessible. If you wish or need to remain in your wheelchair throughout the show, our staff will remove the theater chair. This can be done by letting us know your needs/plans in advance; just email Taylor Rey. It can also be done without prior notice when you arrive! If you wish to transfer to the theater seat from your wheelchair, we are happy to store your wheelchair or motorized mobility aid in the lobby during the performance. The House Manager will return your mobility device to you at the end of the performance as this show has no intermission.
About 25% of the seating is on the ground floor of the theater and does not require using stairs to access. There are five six-inch steps to get into the building.
All remaining seats require no less than one and no more than three steps to access.
Licensed service animals (any dogs that are trained to do work or perform tasks for people with disabilities) are welcome at Ars Nova. They must rest in your seating area throughout the performance and are unable to occupy the aisle. Please bring proof of certification or a license for your service animal and be prepared to present it to the House Manager upon request. You can send advance notice to tix@arsnovanyc.com, which is appreciated, but not required.
Our bathrooms are stalled, all gender restrooms – everyone is welcome to use any bathroom of their choice. We have two single-person restrooms in the lobby; with the wheelchair accessible option located right outside the theater on the first floor (doors 7 feet 10 inches x 3 feet 10.5 inches).
We have space that can be made to offer privacy for feeding should you need at any time. See the House Manager onsite and they will arrange a comfortable space, with storage and refrigeration for your materials.
The audience seating locations could be in, around and throughout the playing area. Performers will be within 3’ of you.
The seating is a combination of chairs.
Black Chairs with back: 19” wide x 32.25” high x 21.75” deep with a 500lb capacity
Black Counter height: 16.5” wide x 38” high x 18” deep with a 500lb capacity
The doors for entry into the building are 7 feet 10.5 inches x 3 feet 7 inches (external) and 7 feet 10 inches x feet 10.5 inches (internal).
Box Office height is 3 feet 6 inches and the Bar height is 3 feet 8.5 inches.
