FESTIVAL NEWS: The Dallas Comedy Festival announces full lineup for this year's fest – so big they needed to add another stage
The Dallas Comedy House today announced its full lineup for this year’s Dallas Comedy Festival (March 27-31), led by former SNL comedienne Sasheer Zamata and the award-winning Chicago Improv/Sketch group 3Peat. Featuring 26 comedians and 45 improvisation, sketch, and comedy teams, the Dallas Comedy Festival continues to grow, as the fest has added a second location for performances (Independent Bar & Kitchen at 2712 Main Street) in addition to the Dallas Comedy House (3025 Main Street) to truly make Deep Ellum the city and state-wide comedy hub for what promises to be a hilariously exciting four-day festival.
Amanda Austin, the Owner and Founder of Dallas Comedy House, said, “This year, the event has grown so much that we’ve added an additional location for our performers which will include some Dallas Comedy festival favorites, as well as some exciting new acts for Dallas audiences to see. Sasheer Zamata and 3Peat will be setting the tone as our headliners this year, but top to bottom, this is possibly one of the most talented rosters of comedians, comedy acts and improv teams we’ve had yet.”
Maggie Rieth Austin, the Executive Producer of the Dallas Comedy Festival, added, “To go along with our top notch local talent, this year’s festival will see acts from as far north as Canada, to New Orleans in the South, from New York and South Carolina on one coast, to L.A. and Seattle on the other. In a year of with so much focus on inclusion, we can’t wait to see and hear the funny from our female acts, POC, and LGBTQ entertainers. The performers at the Dallas Comedy Festival have long demonstrated that comedy comes from all walks of life and countless perspectives – and this year it seems as if we’ll be offering nearly all of them. It is going to be a ridiculously silly and wonderful year for the Dallas Comedy Festival.”
Along with the previously announced headlining duo of Sasheer Zamata, and 3Peat, returning favorites among the sketch and improvisation acts include; the 1995 Chicago Bulls, a Dallas improv troupe that despite the name, includes not a single player from that legendary basketball team; CLR, one of the Dallas Comedy House’s original Ewing teams; CUPCAKE!, billed as “the perfect dessert improv comedy show”; Encyclopedia Moronica, Dallas’s only comedic historical society; f.a.c.e, a long-form comedy troupe; Getting It Storytelling, showcasing storytellers in the DFW metroplex; Partners In Time, featuring long form improv performed in various time periods; Primary Colors, which is Dallas Comedy House’s longest running Harold team; Queso Queens, featuring fast-paced comedy with cheese; the spellbinding comedy from The Rift; the musical improv troupe, Rook; Sunglow, creating worlds from a single word; STAN, comedy with a man’s name; Tabooze, which makes a game out of the improv experience for its own players; Warm Milk, with shows ”heavy on support and group mind”; Why it Brite, featuring the female comedy team of Ashley Bright and Sarah Wyatt; and Wiki Tikki Tabby, which delivers fever dream comedy morphing from one scene to the next.
Additional Sketch Comedy acts include: 10:02, a long form improv team from St. Louis; Black Girl Giggles, a group of African-American comediennes out of New Orleans; Hot Pot Comedy, an Austin-based group of Asian-American comedy actors; Canada’s Marv n’ Berry; 90s Mixtape, which heaps on the funny over 90s nostalgia; Nameless Numberhead, Chicago’s Neil Arsenty, featuring over-the-top comedy and under-the-top mustaches; Now Streaming, which parodies current Netflix and HBO shows; Stand By She, which comically creates a movie where girls go through an 80s-style movie adventure; and DCH house sketch teams Walker Dog and Walker Herschel.
Still more inspired comedy improv will come from the likes of: AH OK presents Good Morning Tonight, which will improvise a TV morning show from an audience member’s hometown; Big Turtle, which will make you laugh at what matters to you; BITCHEZZZ (pronounced “Girls”), a comedy duo comprised of actual real life best friends Holly Wyder and Stephanie Philip; The Chairold, which promises comedy to keep you on the edge of your seat; Comedy Sportz; Danny & Arnold; Empty Inside, focusing on the pathos and comedy of puppets; Impractical Magic, where a group of whimsical maidens will make comedy magic before your very eyes; Jackson Soup, an improve duo in which one member loves Michael Jackson and the other member digs soup; Lime, Luxury Cruise Singles Mixer, which finds the funny in relationships; Midnight Passion; Pavlov’s Dogs; Revenge Society, which seeks comedy vengeance for those who have been wronged; Watermelon; and ZOOM!, a wordless physical improv troupe from Oklahoma City.
The list of comedians set to perform is equally impressive with notable national names like Marc Anthony, Brian Bahe, Lily Callaway, Rob Christensen, Charmaine Christie-Primo, Wes Corwin, Tom Devenport, Mike Devore, Katy Evans, Paulos Feerow, Mitch Gruen, Saffron Herndon, Amanda Holstein, Shahyan Jahani, Ky Krebs, Connor Larsen, Drew Lausch, Jordan Makin, Catherine McCafferty, Danny Neely, Marissa Nieto, Kevin Sean, Hannah Vaughan, Ashlee Voorsanger, and Gretchen Young.
For festival passes, tickets, and more information go to http://dallascomedyhouse.com or call the box office at 214.741.4448.