Tonight is another benefit show at the Neptune for the families of those killed by a mass murderer on May 30 (colloquially known as the "Cafe Racer shootings," though the killer also murdered a woman by Town Hall and, later that day, himself).

The music/comedy lineup includes host Diva LeDeviant, Star Anna, Cathy Sorbo, Kasey Anderson, Liam McCormick, Kermet Apio, and musical guests the Maldives.

I'd never seen Kermet Apio perform—though I'd often heard his name—until one night just after the shootings when I was supposed to perform something at the Weird & Awesome cabaret, founded by comic Emmett Montgomery, at Annex Theater. I couldn't think of anything to do that would be both entertaining and fitting for the circumstances, so I bought a case of beer, hauled it onstage, and told dopey jokes that some of the shooting victims (circus and vaudeville folks) used to tell onstage as a tribute. (They were joke machines.) I paused before each punch line and, if anyone got it, I tossed him or her a beer from the stage. ("What's the difference between an erection and a Corvette? [Pause.] I don't HAVE a Corvette!")

To my shock, the audience was calling almost all of the punch lines. I ran out of beer, which I hadn't anticipated. When I went backstage afterwards, somebody said: "Of COURSE they got all the punch lines. That's an audience full of comics!" Right. Duh.

Anyway, Kermet Apio did a set later that night that was gloriously funny, both nodding to the heavy hearts in the crowd but also detouring into his own stories and taking people's minds off the troubles of the day. And he'll be performing tonight. I recommend it.