Comedy Night benefits Library Foundation

May 7, 2023

The Wareham Library Foundation is laughing all the way to the bank.

The foundation raised $5,484 at its second annual Comedy Night fundraiser on Saturday, May 6. 

“We’re trying to reach different people to support the library,” said Wareham Library Foundation President Eileen Scully.

About 70 people came to Stone Path Malt on Kenrick Road for food, beer, cornhole, ping pong, the Kentucky Derby and, most importantly, live comedy. 

Three Massachusetts comedians performed: Host Pat McLoud from Weymouth, David Sinclair from New Bedford and headliner Chris Zito from Boston, who hosts a radio morning show on Mix 93-1 in Springfield and 96-1 SRS in Worcester. 

The comedians performed some South Coast-specific humor, including a joke from Sinclair about his hometown of Fall River and the imprisonment of former mayor Jasiel Correia. The most popular topics for jokes were marriage and children.

“It’s like talking to an oak tree,” Zito joked about his less-than-chatty 17-year-old son. “Who is that kid?”

Marion resident Gayle Santello said Zito was her favorite of the three comedians, and she loved having an opportunity to get out and laugh. 

“It’s been kind of a stressful week,” she said, “and this is just what the doctor ordered.” 

She appreciated being able to support the library at the same time.

“Libraries, when I was growing up, [were] my safe space,” Santello said. “I don’t know what I would have done without the library.”

The Wareham Library Foundation was founded in 2007 to raise funds for the Wareham Free Library. About 20% of the library’s overall funding comes from the foundation, which helps pay the salaries of the library’s part-time employees. 

Along with proceeds from ticket sales, the foundation raffled off prizes, many of them donated by the 16 area businesses that sponsored Comedy Night.

Prizes included gift cards, bottles of wine and sports memorabilia, such as a hockey puck signed by Jake DeBrusk of the Boston Bruins.