In the latest hour from San Francisco comedian and labor organizer Nato Green, The Darkest Hour, Nato wanted to go beyond jokes about the news to understanding this political moment in history.
A solid set of new material that he toured nationally, he carefully and humorously guides the audience through a large conversation about fascism, zionism, transphobia, white supremacy and the political spectrum.
The show provides Nato’s definitive explanation of American politics using a white board (an homage to a Mort Sahl bit from a 1967 tv show) which illustrates the basic idea that as Nato says, “centrists see their mission as fighting the left instead of fighting fascism, and thereby make way for fascism.” This is an hour of work walking through how Nato was more angry at the failure of liberals to stop fascism than at fascists for being fascists.
Nato Green is the country’s only semi-functional hybrid of standup comedian and union organizer, so it stands to reason that this hour is part comedy special – part study group on how to defeat fascism. In the early phases working the hour on his national tour, The Darkest Hour was well received by countless audience members who told Nato after shows that they were feeling hopeful for the first time since Trump’s inauguration. Said Nato, “there is comedy of escapism, but this is whatever is the opposite of that.”
Nato starred along with W. Kamau Bell and Janine Brito in the streaming series Laughter Against the Machine on Means.tv, the first worker-owned post-capitalist streaming platform. He also appears regularly doing political comedy chat on the podcasts The Bugle and The Bitchuation Room. His second comedy album The Whiteness Album was named a best comedy album on NPR’s Bullseye. He appeared in the film Sorry to Bother You and his writing has appeared in the LA Review of Books, the San Francisco Examiner, In These Times, VICE, Huffington Post, and many more. Nato has been named San Francisco’s Best Comedian by the SF Bay Guardian, SF Weekly, Huffington Post, SFist, and CBS. Nato wrote for Totally Biased with W. Kamau Bell on FX, the show that the New York Times called “five years ahead of its time.” He is currently working on his book slated for 2027 release on Haymarket Books which he describes as “a comedy book about union organizing” entitled Your Boss is Lying to You: And Other Life Lessons from the Break Room, the Bargaining Table, and the Picket Line.
The Darkest Hour is out on YouTube July 31 and out as a comedy album August 14.
