Dave's 2017 Moontower Picks

As you’ve prob­a­bly inferred by read­ing Com­e­dy Wham, Austin is becom­ing kind of a big deal in the nation­al com­e­dy scene. The annu­al Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val has been dot­ting that ​“I” and cross­ing that ​“T” for sev­er­al years. As usu­al, the fes­ti­val is throw­ing a myr­i­ad of head­lin­ers, show­cas­es, pod­casts and a 7ft depressed clown singing songs in minor keys at fes­ti­val goers. Here are some of my picks for this year’s Moon­tow­er fes­ti­val. Please remem­ber that com­e­dy is sub­jec­tive and these choic­es are based on my pref­er­ences and sense of humor.

Head­lin­ers

Pat­ton Oswalt is final­ly return­ing to Austin, and he head­lines the Para­mount The­atre on the 22^nd at 9:30pm. I like his scathing social com­men­tary blend­ed with nerdy self-aware­ness. By now most of you are famil­iar with Oswalt, whether it’s through his on screen per­for­mances, or his bat­tles on Twit­ter. Despite all that, it’s real­ly his stand-up that shines through. If there’s an oppor­tu­ni­ty to see him live, it should be tak­en advan­tage of.

Allie Wong is new to me. For what seemed like months, her Net­flix spe­cial kept show­ing up on my rec­om­men­da­tions. I final­ly gave in and real­ly enjoyed myself. Wong is a writer for the ABC sit­com, Fresh Off the Boat. She’s also a new mom and a wife — giv­ing her plen­ty of mate­r­i­al. Luck­i­ly, you can hear her in all her raw glo­ry twice at the Para­mount: April 20^th at 7pm and April 21^st at 9:30pm.

Show­cas­es

For me, the show­cas­es are the real treat. They’re gen­er­al­ly acces­si­ble to all badge hold­ers; fea­ture a vari­ety of come­di­ans; and pro­vide a nice mix of local and out of town come­di­ans. The chal­lenge for me each year is to not lim­it myself to only see­ing our local come­di­ans. Don’t get me wrong, they’re awe­some, and I know it. Watch­ing folks like Chris Cubas, Avery Moore and Matt Bear­den is a sure bet. But not see­ing out of town come­di­ans is a dis­ser­vice. Every year, I’ve found come­di­ans from out of state who are great and jive with my sense of humor.

Stars in Bars is a top notch show­case that is an awe­some blend of elite Austin and nation­al come­di­ans. It hap­pens on dif­fer­ent nights and times at 800 Con­gress, and the cool thing about it, is the line up changes. The show starts at 8pm on April 20^th — 21^st, and 7:30 on the 22^nd. While the line-ups for all three shows are awe­some, I’m look­ing most for­ward to the show on the 20^th. Matt Bear­den host­ing a line-up includ­ing Martha Kel­ly, Bryan Callen, and Bri­an Posehn is right up my alley.

Bye Feli­cia! is an LGBT com­e­dy show­case at the Velv Com­e­dy Lounge on April 20^th at 9pm. Austin’s most recent export to the west coast, Daniel Webb, comes home to host a line up fea­tur­ing Guy Branum, Caitlin Gill, Ralph Hard­esty, Cari­na Mag­yar, Arielle Nor­man, and Alice Wet­ter­lund. I love watch­ing Daniel Webb do com­e­dy and will be hap­py to see him in town again.

The Odd­i­ties

There’s plen­ty of extra going on this year. Aside from the show­cas­es and head­lin­ers, there’s pod­casts, one off shows like 7 Min­utes in Pur­ga­to­ry and… wait for it, A DEPRESSED SEV­EN FOOT CLOWN THAT SINGS… AND HE’S AWE­SOME! I was stoked to hear he’s com­ing back to Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val. I saw him at the fes­ti­val a few years ago and knew noth­ing about him. Then he sang a cov­er of Abba’s Danc­ing Queen and freaked out 200 people.

This year, he has a show at the State­side The­ater on April, 20^th at 7:30pm. Man, the nefar­i­ous Moon­tow­er sched­ul­ing over­lap is going to play me like Sophie’s Choice. You will have to make sac­ri­fices. Any­way one of the more inter­est­ing com­e­dy con­cepts is 7 Min­utes In Pur­ga­to­ry. This is where a come­di­an does their set in a room, away from the audi­ence. They don’t hear or see the audi­ence which means they can’t sense the audi­ence’s ener­gy or adjust their tim­ing or set list. It reminds me of being in the army and try­ing to shoot at paper tar­gets which was a bit nerve rack­ing. The dif­fer­ence is that when come­di­ans are off their game, it can be pret­ty enter­tain­ing. 7 Min­utes in Pur­ga­to­ry is at 10:15pm on April, 21^st in the Google Fiber Room.

Get Your Badges

Per their M.O., the orga­niz­ers of Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fest have stacked their ros­ter. The pre­vi­ous rec­om­men­da­tions are only the tip of the ice­berg. If you’re not hip to my sug­ges­tions, we have three more arti­cles com­ing your way before the fes­ti­val kicks off. If you’re won­der­ing how to get into the events, you have two options: badges and tickets.

Please note the badges have changed since last year:

• VIP

Spe­cial­ist

War­rior

Club/​Podcast

The Spe­cial­ist and War­rior badges are sold out. VIP and Club/​Podcast badges are still avail­able, there are shows which have sin­gle tick­ets avail­able for sale as well. You bet­ter hur­ry. All info, includ­ing badge prices, park­ing and venue loca­tions are avail­able on the Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val website.