The flickering lights signaling the show was about to start interrupted chatter as excitement to catch up with friends was replaced by the anticipation of The Rainbow Family and Friends of The Villages’ Comedy Night.
Almost immediately, comedian Dana Goldberg had a room full of Villagers cracking up for an hour at Hacienda Recreation.
Wendy O’Donnell, co-founder of the resident lifestyle group, introduced Goldberg and said she enjoys seeing the community come together.
“I can’t begin to describe the feeling of standing up on the stage and looking at the 340 people we have at this event tonight,” O’Donnell said. “To be standing here, looking at all these people who are here and they’re having a great time is amazing. They’re very connected with one another and they’re enjoying their retirement in ways that I don’t think members of the gay community ever really believed they could have.”
Sheryl Trent, a club board member and the show’s producer, said she has enjoyed planning and participating in social events for the The Rainbow Family and Friends club over the past two years.
“I love the friendliness and sense of community and belonging I feel here,” Trent said.
Goldberg, who traveled from New York to perform in The Villages, said the night was a great experience and she loved performing for the crowd.
“People who come to my show or are fans of me know my work,” she said. “They know I am going to get political and I am going to speak my mind.”
Goldberg, who has appeared in shows on ABC and TBS, and The Last Comic Standing, explained that to prepare for a show, she researches the area beforehand.
“I also have dear friends who live in The Villages,” she said. “The material has to be relevant and something where people can see themselves in the joke.” The Comedy Night is one of the annual events hosted by The Rainbow Family and Friends of The Villages. The group also hosts smaller weekly events, bringing in entertainers for themed or non-themed events.
Next on the group’s events calendar is a Country Night with a live performance from Kitty Kerns from 5 to 8 p.m. April 14 at Belle Glade Country Club.
O’Donnell said creating a sense of connection was the goal in 2007, when she started the group with her wife, Peggy Garvin, who died nearly two years ago.
“When we started it, we knew that there were a number of gay residents here, but they were scattered in little pockets all throughout The Villages and surrounding areas,” O’Donnell said. “They didn’t have any way to get together with one another and come in contact with one another, so that was what our goal was — simply to bring people together so they didn’t feel alone and they could make connections that were important to them.”
O’Donnell said in the beginning, people were reluctant to join because they didn’t want to be outed.
“At that time, the people who were here were people who had grown up in the 1940s and early ’50s,” she said. “They had spent their whole lives looking over their shoulders, waiting for somebody to point the finger at them and, you know, let the world know that they were gay. They felt that exposure would’ve been embarrassing to their families,” she said.
“They could have lost their jobs and, oftentimes, they lost their children. So, these were people who were very reluctant to be identified,” O’Donnell said. “It took quite a while for Peggy and I to convince them that we actually could gather here and that the sky wasn’t gonna fall.”
O’Donnell has noticed that as younger members of the LGBTQ+ community have moved into The Villages over the years, those fears have stared to fade, though they are not completely gone.
“As the community gets younger, they are far more used to being able to be out,” she said. “They don’t worry about the things that the people growing up in the 1940s and ’50s definitely had to worry about,” she said.
Trent said Goldberg’s show was marvelous.
“She was so charming,” she said. “Her very presentation of herself and her material, she’s so believable.”
Many in the audience complimented Goldberg on a good show and thanked the club’s board members for the opportunity to come together.
“There’s always a need to feel a part of a community,” O’Donnell said. “Yeah, we can all feel like Villagers, but if you just look at the number of clubs in The Villages, it indicates the need that people want to belong and to come together with like-minded people.”
To learn more about The Rainbow Family and Friends Club of The Villages, visit rainbowfamilyvillagesfl.com.
Staff writer Brea Jones can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5414, or brea.jones@thevillagesmedia.com.
