Moontower Comedy 2021: Val's Picks & Recommendations

2020 was a mess. We made lemon­ade out of lemons when it comes to com­e­dy, but the biggest rea­son it was a mess was because we missed out on the annu­al April com­e­dy Christ­mas tra­di­tion that is Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val. When it did not look like April 2021 would bring back the fes­ti­val, the pan­ic set in…until the Sep­tem­ber dates were announced, that is. And as we’ve inched clos­er and learned of the fes­ti­val’s safe­ty plan (get your vac­ci­na­tion cards or neg­a­tive test results ready!), we’re thrilled to see that Moon­tow­er is back!! For it’s 10^th anniver­sary year no less. 

I like to steer my rec­om­men­da­tions based on 3 guid­ing prin­ci­ples and this year, I’ve got 2 new ones, so buck­le up, this is going to be a wild ride — at least that’s my plan! After near­ly 2 years of chaos, I don’t need a ​“soft entry” back into my com­e­dy Christ­mas, I want some­thing to shake me out of this haze of Covid living.

But first, a few pub­lic ser­vice announcements.…

Val’s 3 Guid­ing Prin­ci­ples for 2021 Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Festival

Home­town Heroes

Absurd is the Word!

• Scis­sor Bros - It’s not secret I’m a huge fan of Jere­mi­ah Watkins (3‑time guest of our pod­cast) and he’s 25 episodes in with his co-host Stee­bee Wee­bee (broth­er of Bob­by Lee, yes, that one) on this hilar­i­ous pod­cast. It’s cen­tered around this sil­ly, but sup­port­ive friend­ship with wild chal­lenges each episode. The pod­cast recent­ly hit 50K sub­scribers so, it’s res­onat­ing with lots of fans.
• Please Don’t Destroy — This New York based sketch com­e­dy group has a ton of videos for you to watch on their Youtube or Tik­Tok chan­nels. The videos start inno­cent­ly enough before launch­ing into an absurd premise. This made me think of local premise break­er, Mac Blake. And guess what? Please Don’t Destroy (in addi­tion to their big head­lin­er shows) will per­form on Fri­day night WITH Mac Blake. Com­e­dy Christ­mas indeed!
• Unhinged — As far as show­cas­es go, a name like Unhinged, sounds promis­ing. I plan to catch a few show­cas­es and with atyp­i­cal standup per­form­ers like Jere­mi­ah Watkins, Jes­si­ca Kir­son, Avery Moore, and Nick Saveri­no, I know I’ll be in good hands!
• Dis­gust­ing Hawk — Speak­ing of Jes­si­ca Kir­son, among the many live pod­cast tap­ing options avail­able this year, I’m look­ing for­ward to Kir­son­’s self described ​“vari­ety pod­cast fea­tur­ing a series of eccen­tric char­ac­ters”, includ­ing Puz­zles the con­spir­a­cy the­o­rist clown or Mandy the spoiled teenag­er. Kir­son is a leg­end of New York com­e­dy, and I’ve only known her as a standup per­former. I’m excit­ed to see the leg­end as char­ac­ter study.
• Joke of Paint­ing — This could be fea­tured in the Home­town Heroes sec­tion, but hon­est­ly, there are a few local shows get­ting their Moon­tow­er debut (notably, Joey Z’s Glow Show, Hunter Dun­can and Carl­ton Wilcox­son​’s Stoned vs. Drunk vs. Sober, and Zac Brooks and Tay­lor Dowdy​’s Home Base). What endears me to this pas­sion project by Andrew Mur­phy and Avery Moore is how absurd the idea is but also equal­ly charm­ing. And, my shame­ful secret, is the show is often very close to bed­time and I have not yet wit­nessed it first hand. Thank you Moon­tow­er for adding Joke of Paint­ing to the roster.
• Just for Us — I can’t fig­ure out what this show is, but with impres­sive reviews, awards, and nom­i­na­tions from Edin­burgh Com­e­dy and the Mel­bourne Inter­na­tion­al Com­e­dy (Bar­ry Award for Best Show), this caught my eye. The show is the third solo show by Boston­ian Alex Edel­man, a pro­lif­ic writer and per­former across the world.

GDCJ (The Peren­ni­al Favorite)

What is GDCJ? If you are among the con­vert­ed, you know that the God­damned Com­e­dy Jam (GDCJ) with Josh Adam Mey­ers is a cathar­tic, near­ly reli­gious expe­ri­ence. Blend­ing tra­di­tion­al com­e­dy show­case with song cov­ers the par­ty is front­ed by fire­crack­er Mey­ers along with his back­ing band and ​“road­ie” (Jere­mi­ah Watkins). The 2021 line­ups for the GDCJ have yet to be announced but in the past, we’ve seen incred­i­ble per­for­mances by Mary Lynn Rajskub, The Sklar Broth­ers, Nik­ki Glaser, Big Jay Oak­er­son, Brad Williams, and Adam Ray. For 2021, the ​“Jam” is sched­uled for every sin­gle night of the fes­ti­val (grow­ing from 3 nights to 4), so pre­pare your hon­ey tea and lozenges because you will be singing your hearts out.

The Plan­ning Details

• God­damn Com­e­dy Jam is every night from Wednes­day to Sat­ur­day night at Antone’s. Start times vary from 10:00 to midnight. 
• Scis­sor Broth­ers — Fri­day 7pm at The Velv Com­e­dy Lounge
• Please Don’t Destroy — per­form­ing Wednes­day through Sat­ur­day at var­i­ous venues and times.
• Unhinged — Thurs­day and Fri­day at The Creek and the Cave. Line­ups vary each night.
• Dis­gust­ing Hawk — Sat­ur­day at 5:30pm at Park­er Jazz Lounge
• Joke of Paint­ing — Sat­ur­day at 7pm at The Velv Com­e­dy Lounge
• Just for Us — Sat­ur­day at 7:30pm at Park­er Jazz Lounge
• Daniel Webb — Fri­day at 9:30 open­ing for Mar­garet Cho at Para­mount Theater
• Vanes­sa Gon­za­lez — Vanes­sa Gon­za­lez and Friends is on Wednes­day at 9pm at The Green Jay. Catch her per­form­ing through­out the festival.
• Chris Tellez — Chris’ album record­ing is on Thurs­day at 9:30pm at Park­er Jazz Lounge. Catch him per­form­ing through­out the festival. 

Check out the www​.com​e​dy​wham​.com/​e​v​e​n​t​s​/​M​o​o​n​tower page to see a list­ing of shows for every one of the 4 nights of the fes­ti­val and be sure to use the search func­tion to search for your favorite per­former’s shows or to search for which shows are hap­pen­ing at your favorite venue.