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The upcoming Cinder Block Comedy Festival is taking diversity seriously—it's charging straight white men more to submit their work.
Early bird submissions are now open only to people of color, women, and members of the LGBT community. Those applicants will pay a $19.25 submission fee, whereas general applicants (ahem, white dudes), who can apply April 1 through April 30, will pay $25. You can apply as an individual, team or sketch group, so hop to it! The submission pay difference is meant to mimic the pay gap, the Daily Dot reports—women are paid 77 cents to each dollar men are paid. Today they released a press statement stating, "In addition, we have decided to open our wage-gap priced early bird discount to people with disabilities of all types, as they are an under-represented group as well, and the wage-gap priced early bird deadline will be extended until March 31st. General applications will become available on April 1st and that deadline has also been extended to April 30th."
Festival director Coree Spencer told the Daily Dot she wants to send a message to minority comics who have often played "token" characters: "I want to prove that we're token, but we shouldn't be. We deserve our own shows, and they don't need to be called 'Sexy Latina Night' or something. We don't need any themed 'comedi-enne' [shows]. It is going to be a diverse comedy festival, yes, but they all should be."
The comedy fest is run by an all-female staff, and it will take place Sep 15-18 at an unnamed Williamsburg location.