Letters to the Editor: Comedy shows alive and well on Cape Cod

Cape Cod Times
·2 min read

Comedy shows alive and well on the Cape

Regarding Kathi Scrizzi Driscoll’s Jan. 21 article about comedy coming to a Dennis Port restaurant:

The article states that one of the partners of “Saltwater Laffy” (the comedy production company) suggests that many Cape residents “didn’t know comedy shows were being held on the Cape. I am trying to change that.”

So sad to read those words, which are so disrespectful to Falmouth’s Preston Simpson and his Flapjack Comedy Productions, which has been producing comedy shows on the Cape at the Coonamessett Inn in Falmouth, Double Tree Hotel in Hyannis, Pilot House in Sandwich, Sea Crest Hotel in Falmouth and other venues since 2015.

And there would be no reason that “Saltwater Laffy” would be unaware of the above as its headline comedian, Jay Whittaker, at the Cleat and Anchor’s opening show, performed for Flapjack Productions on the Cape in the past.

Sadly, Preston Simpson died of lung cancer a year ago. His wife, Andrea Kooharian-Simpson, has kept his memory and Flapjack Productions alive on the Cape. Flapjack has two shows coming up: Feb. 12 at the Coonamessett Inn and March 19 at the Sea Crest Beach Hotel.

I have nothing to do with Flapjack Comedy Productions. But Preston Simpson was a good friend of mine and I don’t find the article in your paper, which erases and dishonors his Cape legacy, to be a laughing matter.

Paul Rifkin, Mashpee

What does America stand for now?

Several weeks back I wrote about our two party political system and questioned whether we truly wanted to retain democracy as our governing principle. Now that question is coming into focus on another front: Europe and Russia.

When our former president was in office, he threatened to leave NATO and displayed great affinity for another autocrat — Vladimir Putin. The impact of those behaviors is now coming home to roost. It appears that there is very little interest among our citizens in supporting Ukraine and that position seems to be the same in Germany, the largest democracy in Europe.

So I guess all those years spent in competition with the world's second-most powerful autocracy — the Cold War and "tear down that wall!" — are about to become another memory in America's leadership on the world stage. What we stood for is certainly not what we stand for now. Just look at our Olympic uniforms next week and the flag that will lead our athletes in parade. No, we are not the United States and that flag was used to bludgeon police defending the Capitol. Many believe the rioters are heroes and patriots.

I finish with my question again. Do we really want to continue with our country believing in the concept of representative democracy, both home and abroad?

James J. Cullen, Yarmouth Port

This article originally appeared on Cape Cod Times: Flapjack Comedy Productions has two Cape Cod shows coming up