In case you’re not aware, there’s a whole scene worth of indie improv in LA as evidenced by the annual LA Indie Improv Festival. It’s pretty huge with the amount of teams they have performing and if you want in, there’s still time to submit (deadline is May 8th).
The 2013 Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival Starts Tomorrow
From Wednesday to Saturday, Austin gets a whole festival worth of comedy with the start of The Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival. The line-ups amazing, per usual, and, if you’re somehow following this blog in, around, near, or headed towards Austin, TX, you should get some passes ASAP.
In case you’re one of the stalwarts holding out on Twitter, what we were trying to say with the headline is that Comedy Central is starting their first comedy festival just on Twitter, aptly named #ComedyFest. Next Monday, they’ll have all sorts of shenanigans limited to 140 characters like Mel Brooks joining Twitter, dining with Steve Agee through Vine, live tweeting day time drinking with the comedians of Comedy Central’s Half Hour, a live roasting with Jeff Ross, and much much more.
Sounds fun, huh? Then, get over your digital prejudice and follow @ComedyCentral on Twitter for #ComedyFest next week.
Every year, around just about now (specifically next weekend Apr. 18th-21st), the city of Portland, OR hosts the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, an amazing weekend of great comedy that has been oft and best described as “comedy summer camp”. SoundCloud has partnered up with the great folks at CleftClips (Super Serious Show, Hot Tub LA) to have the festival covered and documented with one of our favorite comedians, Andy Peters.
There will be comedian interviews, random encounters, and overall silliness coming from the Peters’ “Wandertown” at Bridgetown dispatches. You can and should hear all of that coming up very soon here.
Riot LA debuted last year and turned out to be the long overdue comedy festival that Los Angeles needed. Dozens of wonderful, hilarious comedy shows confined to just one block in Downtown LA made for one hell of a festival and if you weren’t there, you missed something really great.
Luckily, there’s this montage that will hopefully fill in some blanks for you. Oh, and Riot LA is coming back in 2014!
Line-up for The Bridgetown Comedy Festival 2013
This year in Portland’s ultra fun comedy festival, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, that goes from Apr. 18th-21st as an oft described as “comedy summer camp” will be (just as a taste):
Dana Gould
Reggie Watts
Peter Serafinowicz
Moshe Kasher
Matt Braunger
Karen Kilgariff
Laura Kightlinger
Todd Glass
Kurt Braunohler
Chris Fairbanks
Adam Cayton-Holland
Cameron Esposito
Eliza Skinner
Matt Kirshen
Dwayne Perkins
Dave Anthony
Greg Behrendt
Dan St. Germain
Drennon Davis
Guy Branum
Jared Logan
Greg Barris
Emily Heller
Barbara Holm
Nate Craig
and much much MUCH more…
Passes are now for just under $75 on pre-sale and we highly recommend that you get them.
Tig Notaro, Pete Holmes, Maria Bamford, Jackie Kashian, John Roy, and many more very funny people are coming to Bloomington, IN for a comedy festival that looks great. A lot of great comedy has come to Bloomington, especially The Comedy Attic, to the point where a festival, The Limestone Comedy Festival, has to be thrown.
Badges are already on sale for the weekend of June 6th-8th and, if you wish to possibly be a part of this festival, there’s still time to submit.
In it’s 3rd year, Denver’s comedy festival, Laugh Track, blends great stand-up and great short films as a part of Denver’s burgeoning comedy scene at the beginning of August.
You can submit as either a stand-up or filmmaker or both, if you so choose until the deadline on June 25th.
People’s hunger for comedy shorts, whether they be sketches, web videos, actual in-depth produced short films, is undeniably on the rise. The viral video alone, arguably, has given a shot of life into comedy that has revitalized several other disciplines within the art form. So, why not have an entire festival for it? In it’s 4th year, the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival fills that void quite well over a scheduled, jam-packed 4 day extravaganza out of the Downtown Independent Theater (an LA destination for comedy, which also houses the amazing weekly stand-up show, Holy Fuck, and monthly comedy shorts screening series, Channel 101).
Under the guidance of Gary Anthony Williams, Jeannie Roshar, and Ryan Higman, a careful selection of films that has included the likes of Scott Thompson, David Alan Grier, Margaret Cho, and more have been screened to filmmakers, industry, and comedy fans alike. Funny or Die even put up a block of their own FOD Exclusives on opening night to lend even more legitimacy to a festival of comedy shorts, despite being plenty “legit” with being the largest comedy film festival in the U.S.
Here’s a quick rundown of what’s happened on Days 1 and 2:
-Interestingly enough, the Funny or Die block of videos had been all available for watching online for at least a week, if not a few months, but got uproarious laughter. There’s something to be said for the longevity of the approximately 3 min. comedy short film and the desire to watch and, consequently, laugh again at it.
-As said before, there’s a lot of star power to be seen here at the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival. We’ve seen, in films, anyone from Scott Thompson to his Kids in the Hall co-star Dave Foley to Michael Cera to Margaret Cho twice to Wilmer Valderrama to David Alan Grier to even Morgan Spurlock & Ken Burns in the funny meta mockumentary Glue Man by Joe Pickett. Even though Funny or Die has set the precedent, it’s great seeing comedy big names doing short films.
-There have been plenty of selections from around the world, even so far as Australia, such as Nathan Lovejoy’s funny and endearing Animal Love that’s refreshing to see in a city so saturated in comedy.
-A surprising amount of non-dialogue (or barely any dialogue) shorts played quite well such as Gareth Tunley’s Special Forces (two special forces operatives can’t communicate quietly).
-The shorter has proved the better. Three of our favorite films thus far, Tony Yacenda’s Last Words (the disputing of a civil war hero’s last words), Adam Jones’ The Stay-At-Home Dad: Eat My Meat, and Jason Axinn’s Runyon (two “bros” running into each other in Runyon Canyon) are well under 5 minutes and played to big laughs.
-The panel with legendary comedy writer (SNL, Get Smart), Buck Henry, (even though he claims, “everyone in Hollywood is legendary) was fascinating as he dissected the ending of the Graduate, which he wrote. Apparently, Mike Nichols wished to have an ending that continued on-going internal generational struggle with Benjamin as he was on the bus with Elaine by giving no specific direction to the actors and having the camera roll out on the final shot. The author of the original novel Charles Webb abhorred the ending.
-Another great Buck Henry quote "I never mentioned the word ‘satire’ around Columbia [Pictures] or any other studio because it was a deal killer.”
-Thugs the Musical by Kevin Avery was astounding. Questioning the entertainment industry’s current take on black actors, Avery made an entire musical for marginalized black actors that don’t feel “ghetto” enough for the roles that black actors normally get. Hilarious, poignant, and thought provoking, it’s one of the best shorts we’ve seen so far.
We’re almost running late on a screening for Day 3, so, as you can read, there’s definitely more to come from the wonderful LA Comedy Shorts Festival.
Get ready! It’s the Ultimate Comedy Bash at Franklin Village Street Fair…
On Sunday, May 1 from noon-6pm the 5900 block of Franklin Avenue will be closed for the Franklin Village Street Fair.
Entrance is FREE for outdoor festivities including food, fashion, art, auctions, gifts, games, fun for kids plus music and high-octane comedy from UCB Theatre.
Outdoor stage to include (line-ups subject to change):
Musical Acts
Rattlesnake Daddy, One Trick PonyFranklinpalooza
Music and sketches from Tremendosaur, Good Neighbor, Hip Hop Penguin, Happy Campers, Jim Hanft, Karen Kilgariff and Jon Daly
hosted by Mookie Blaiklock & Dave HorwitzThe Greatest Show on Franklin
Stand-up and characters from Matt Besser, Tig Notaro, James Adomian, Matt Braunger, Moshe Kasher, Brent Weinbach, Scott Nery, Tony Sam & The Franklin Fly Girls
hosted by Brandon Johnson & Emily Maya MillsThe Greatest Concert Ever
Comedians James Adomian, Jill Donnelly, James Pumphrey, Pete Holmes, Andree Vermeulen and Brendan Hunt cover their favorite songs impersonating the rock singer of their choice.
hosted by Matt BesserPlease consider an increased amount of travel time as the 5900 block of Franklin between Bronson and Tamarind will be closed to traffic from 10am-7pm for the 2011 Franklin Village Street Fair. We STRONGLY encourage public transportation, biking or carpooling. The nearest metro stations are roughly 15 minutes away by foot from UCB Theatre at Hollywood/Western and Hollywood/Vine. Valet will also be available at the SW corner of Franklin & Bronson.
“This is your Bureau Director speaking. The Ultimate Comedy Bash is what everyone should be doing today. Thank you. You may now return to watching analysis of Obama’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner Speech.
The Comedy Bureau is actually taking its first excursion from LA this weekend to Portland for the 3rd Annual Bridgetown Comedy Festival!
Not only is it a more than reasonable festival to attend with $75 all access pass, but over a third of the scheduled performers at Bridgetown are currently based out of LA, many of whom I see at performing at various bars and garages and rearranged apartments on a regular basis. Now, many of the best, funniest, most original, well-known, on-the-rise, and hardly known (even back home) comics from LA’s comedy scene and from several other places around the U.S. will take the stage for all of Portland, the Pacific Northwest, and perhaps some real hardcore comedy nerds who flew out from elsewhere, and the Comedy Bureau will be here at Bridgetown for all of it.
I could make a long list like everyone else blogging about it is doing in regards to who is showing up to this thing, but I think it’s a waste, especially when Bridgetown was voted Punchline Magazine Readers’ Favorite Comedy Festival of 2010.
If you really want to find when Kyle Kinane is going up or see Kristen Schaal’s name on the list of performers, then here you go:
Expect daily recaps, interviews, pics, and whatever else the Bureau Director can muster. For those back home stuck in traffic trying to come up with #obamatraffic jokes, LA news, comedy crawls, and open mic runs will still be there.
I won’t be at an open mic in LA to find new ways to depress anyone whose listening unless you’ll be at the all night open mic that’s here for Bridgetown at the Tanker. Details on that to come as well, perhaps in live-tweet form @thecomedybureau.
Stay tuned.
Another round of these showcases to see who gets to strut their comedy chops in the prestigious Just for Laughs Montreal Comedy Festival. The Comedy Bureau highly recommends catching one of these as all the comedians are (supposed to be) putting their best foot forward.
All taking place at the revitalized Hollywood Improv Lab (8165 Melrose Ave., Hollywood, CA) for $5 check out one or all of the shows below.
Tuesday April 5th 9:30PM (Character Showcase)
If you have any detail as to who is on the show or if there is another show for Just for Laughs, e-mail thecomedybureau@gmail.com so this post can be updated promptly.
