Richard's Moontower Comedy 2018 Picks!

All images source: Moon­tow­er Comedy

It’s that time of year again, to buck­le your­selves in for Austin’s com­e­dy Christ­mas. Or Han­nukah, or the hol­i­day of your choos­ing. And I guess tech­ni­cal­ly speak­ing, there are sev­er­al com­e­dy bonan­zas that hap­pen through­out the months. The point is, Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy 2018 is here, and I’m (also) here to drop some of my must-see choic­es dur­ing this bonan­za of a festival!

[su_row][su_column size=“1/4” center=“no” class=“”][/​su_​column] [su_​column size=“3/4” center=“no” class=“”]Mike Bir­biglia looks like the guy on the street that would help­ful­ly point out your dropped your fedo­ra, hand it back to you, and then some­how come up with a fas­ci­nat­ing 20 minute sto­ry about how the whole thing went down. He’s mas­tered sto­ry­telling in a way that pulls you in and sneaks up on right when you least expect it. I like to think he’s the ​“every­man” you’ve known all your life, with the per­spec­tive of some­one who’s just met you (or all of human­i­ty) for the very first time…and knows exact­ly how to point out just how crazy we all are. He has shows on Fri­day and Sat­ur­day at the Para­mount, so pick a night and get out to see him.[/su_column][/su_row] [su_row][su_column size=“3/4” center=“no” class=“”]I would say my next pick needs no intro­duc­tion, but then this would­n’t be much of a rec­om­men­da­tion arti­cle, would it? That said, you’ve def­i­nite­ly been touched by Weird Al Yankovic at some point in your life. Well, even that sounds weird, but the point is that he’s been a pow­er­house of par­o­dy and com­e­dy longer than many of us have been alive. Whether you grew up on his songs like the Michael Jack­son par­o­dy Eat It, or have been a fan of his pas­sion­ate takes on pol­ka music of all kinds, Weird Al has been there, done that, and prob­a­bly made a song or video about it. This year he brings his The Ridicu­lous­ly Self-Indul­gent, Ill-Advised Van­i­ty Tour with Spe­cial Guest Emo Philips show to the Para­mount on Sat­ur­day night, and it’s guar­an­teed to be a high ener­gy, mul­ti­me­dia expe­ri­ence full of hilar­i­ty you don’t want to miss.[/su_column] [su_​column size=“1/4” center=“no” class=“”][/su_column][/su_row] [su_row][su_column size=“1/4” center=“no” class=“”][/​su_​column] [su_​column size=“3/4” center=“no” class=“”]Look, it’s no secret that the nation is in a bit of polit­i­cal tur­moil right now. No mat­ter what ​“side” you’re on, chances are you’re dis­grun­tled about some­thing. So take a breather and get out to see An Evening for the Com­e­dy Resis­tance Star­ring David Cross, Maria Bam­ford, Ted Leo, and Friends!. The #Resis­tance may seem like a left-lean­ing con­cept, but these come­di­ans all have a unique way of look­ing at the even-cra­zier sto­ry behind crazy sto­ries we hear and read about every day. It’s a safe bet you’ll learn a new way to look at the state of the world, and have a laugh while doing it.[/su_column][/su_row] [su_row][su_column size=“3/4” center=“no” class=“p”]Fans of the Howard Stern Show, its fol­low up the Wrap Up Show, her show on Sir­iusXM, or our own local Dud­ley and Bob with Matt morn­ing show will be famil­iar with Nik­ki Glaser. One of the many pow­er­house female acts at Moon­tow­er this year, Glaser is some­one who does­n’t hes­i­tate to share sto­ries of her per­son­al life, trou­bles and suc­cess­es, and opin­ions on just about every­thing. Glaser is also pulling off a uni­corn of an event: a com­e­dy show in the morn­ing, with an 11am per­for­mance at Palm Door on Sixth. So if you’re not a night owl, or are one of those weirdos that likes to get mov­ing before the sun cross­es the mid­dle of the sky, catch her at You Up w/​Nik­ki Glaser, or one of her sev­er­al oth­er evening appear­ances through­out the festival.[/su_column] [su_​column size=“1/4” center=“no” class=“”][/su_column][/su_row]

I could go on and on here (and would, if some­one did­n’t stop me), and these are just a few of the oppor­tu­ni­ties to catch some of the best names in com­e­dy around, all in our lit­tle berg. I’m going to do my best to scoot over and catch vis­it­ing per­form­ers like Janeane Garo­fa­lo and Tig Notaro, locals like Matt Bear­den, Chris Cubas, Arielle Nor­man, and Christi­na Par­rish, and just about every­one I can squeeze in time to see. You can’t catch them all, but you should absolute­ly give it your best shot. Check out the full Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy sched­ule, and get to plan­ning now!

Bonus Moon­tow­er Tips:

• As always, wear com­fort­able shoes/­clothes/all-pur­pose-futur­is­tic-cov­er­alls. The venues are gen­er­al­ly close togeth­er, but you’re going to want physics on your side as you sprint from amaz­ing head­lin­er to inti­mate showcase.
• Plan ahead! Or don’t, but I like to plan ahead. The sched­ule is packed, and suc­cess favors those who at least try to have a strat­e­gy in place before they head out.
• Have fun. Seri­ous­ly, it’s a com­e­dy fes­ti­val, and I don’t feel like I need to say this, but I have and now you real­ly can’t com­plain some­one did­n’t sug­gest it ahead of time.