Jon Stewart & Pete Davidson Reunite For 9/11 Charity Benefit At MSG
Five years after heading up NYC Still Rising After 20 Years: A Comedy Celebration to benefit 9/11 charities, Jon Stewart and Pete Davidson are re-teaming to lead NYC Still Rising After 25 Years: A 9/11 Charities Comedy Benefit, marking the 25th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
In addition to Stewart and Davidson, the benefit will feature A-list comedians Aziz Ansari, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Ronny Chieng, Nikki Glaser, Josh Johnson and more yet-to-be-announced performers.
The event is set for September 10 at Madison Square Garden in Manhattan.
The format will be a revival of the 2021 benefit that featured Chappelle, Burr, Chieng, Amy Schumer, John Mulaney, Jimmy Fallon, Wanda Sykes, Colin Jost, Michael Che, Colin Quinn, Dave Attell, Jay Pharoah and Tom Segura. “We wanted to put on a fun celebration to honor this great city’s resilience,” Stewart and Davidson said in a joint statement at the time. “It’s nice to be able to do this with friends and people we love.”
Davidson was 7 years old when his father, FDNY firefighter Scott Davidson, was on duty with Ladder Company 118 in Brooklyn Heights when a call came in about the attack. Davidson, along with five other firefighters, raced to the scene at the World Trade Center. All were killed while evacuating the Marriott World Trade Center hotel as the North Tower collapsed, burying the building and the fire truck in the destruction.
Stewart has been a longtime public advocate fighting for the health care and financial compensation of 9/11 first responders and survivors. In 2019, many will remember Stewart’s impassioned “empty room” speech at a Capitol Hill hearing in front of rows of empty seats, where he slammed lawmakers for their inaction over the re-authorization of the World Trade Center Health Program.
He said of the first responders, “They responded in five seconds. They did their jobs with courage, grace, tenacity, humility. Eighteen years later, do yours.” Congress later reauthorized the fund and Stewart received New York City’s highest civic honor, the Bronze Medallion.
Tickets for the September 10 benefit go on sale Friday at 10 a.m. ET.
