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| New York Comedy Festival |
Comedy Festival brings its annual load of laughter to New York
November 1, 2010
By Carl Unegbu, ComedyBeat
NEW YORK - Festival season is here again and the Big Apple is ready for another full dose of comic fun as this year’s New York Comedy Festival gets underway on Wednesday, November 3. The five-day fiesta which ends on Sunday November 7 is the seventh in the series which began in 2003, and will take place in different venues across the City, including Carolines on Broadway; Town Hall Theatre; Carnegie Hall; Beacon Theater; Lincoln Center; and the Hammerstein Ballroom.
Among the main highlights of the festival are the New York’s Funniest Standup Competition; Short Film showcases and the Andy Kaufman Awards for Alternative Comedy, a growing phenomenon in stand-up comedy. On the stand up circuit, the festival boasts an impressive line up that includes some of the huge stars in comedy today, including Joel Mchale; Rosie O’Donnell; Louis CK; Margaret Cho; Jeff Winger and rising star Aziz Ansari.
But the festival is about more than just the known stars. Since it festival is well attended by agents, managers and producers who call the shots in the industry and hold the keys to the gate of success, the festival could also be a breakout moment for talented rookies as well as some really good comics who are not yet known.
“The goal of the festival first and foremost is to entertain people and to sort of bring to the forefront some of the really great comics who otherwise are sort of unknown,” said Linda Smith, director of New Talent and instructor at the school of comedy at Carolines on Broadway, the main host of the festival. “There are lots of great talents who are unknown…It’s hard to get exposure in show business in general”
But not every comic wishing to participate in the festival is given a shot at the mic.
Those looking for their moment in the sun have their work cut for them in their push to be accepted. Of the hundreds who audition for spots at the festival, after sending in their taped work, only about 10% of them actually make the cut, said Smith, who will be a judge on the New York’s Funniest Standup Competition. Past winners of the competition have received money prizes and spots at the headliner shows at Carolines.
And the festival remains such a big deal to the organizers and their fans that not even the deep recession has diminished the tempo of activities at the festival this year compared to previous years. To the contrary, this year’s festival is making a big statement on the technology front as it pushes to reach fans way behind New York City.
On opening day on November 3, starting at 9:30 p.m. EST, the festival will feature a live streaming of stand-up comedy from Carolines, hosted by comedian Bobby Lee, which will be carried on Comedy Central’s Jokes.com.
“We are excited to be able to bring the first live streaming events from a club that has seen a lot of firsts,” said Caroline Hirsch, festival founder and owner of Carolines, to Punchline magazine. “We wanted to be able to include fans who are not able to make it to New York City for the shows and Jokes.com is a great partner to make this happen.”
For good measure, comedians at the Festival’s events will respond to questions sent in via Twitter and Facebook and people will be able to purchase a digital download version of the shows from iTunes the day after the shows.
For more event information, visit http://www.nycomedyfestival.com.