The 15th annual New York City Comedy Festival took place from November 5 to November 11, featuring over 200 comedians and over 100 performances. The festival brought together some of the best comedians of past years. The event served as a way for New York City to attend as many comedic performances as possible in a short amount of time. In past years, the experience has always seemed to draw in a diverse crowd of people that treasure comedy.
Over 200 performers made an appearance, including some of the biggest names in comedy, like Bill Burr, Jim Jeffries, Conan O’ Brien, and Jimmy Carr. The NYCF joined forces with TBS this year which gave even more comedians a chance to go to the festival and expand their audience. This is TBS’ second year partnering with the festival due to its prior success.
The New York Comedy Festival is a much-anticipated event that happens yearly. The festival does some charity work such as “Stand Up for Heroes,” which once even featured Robin Williams. In addition to the comedian performances, many podcasters were invited to perform throughout the week, allowing for a vast array of public interests.
During the week there was a popular stand up set featuring Jonathan Van Ness and Antoni Porowski from the hit Netflix series “Queer Eye.” The pair performed back to back days at the festival, which gave people a chance to see two out of the five members of The Fab Five on stage and in person. This unique experience seemed to reel in a huge crowd of comedy and Netflix lovers.
Some were intrigued by the performers that the TBS Comedy Festival enlisted, in terms of combining modern day media and comedy. University sophomore Colleen McGovern said, “I think it’s interesting that TBS invited Netflix stars to perform at the comedy festival. It really shows how prominent media is in every aspect of public opinion, including drawing in volumes of people for a comedy festival.”
This milestone festival is exciting for NYC, as seen through the turn out of the comedy event. Stand-up comedy, in particular, is becoming increasingly well known; with Netflix specials and a large social media following for its comedians, this event seemed to serve as a platform for these artists.
