Moontower Comedy Festival 2025 - Sam's Picks

Com­ing in right off the heels of South by South­west (SXSW) is anoth­er city-wide Austin event. SXSW brings in tens of thou­sands of atten­dees every year eager to see live music, film pre­mieres, tech show­cas­es, and a small sliv­er of live com­e­dy. If you weren’t sat­ed by those com­e­dy offer­ings and you want for a fes­ti­val with laugh­ter at the fore­front, you’re in luck. Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val returns with anoth­er stel­lar line­up of head­lin­ers and up-and-com­ers alike.

If you’re vis­it­ing Austin for the fes­ti­val it would be remiss not to check out the local comics, so my first order of rec­om­men­da­tion is that you make time to see The Tex­ans. Work­ing at a com­e­dy the­ater myself I’ve had the priv­i­lege of watch­ing such hilar­i­ous per­form­ers as Avery Moore, Justin Hicks, Ash­ley Shar­ma, and Andrew Wag­n­er (to name a few). I can’t think of a bet­ter sell­ing point than the fact that I’ve heard each of these comics sets dozens of times and still find them immense­ly fun­ny, but if you need cre­den­tials, six of the nine comics on the Wednes­day night line­up have been final­ists in Cap City Com­e­dy Club’s Fun­ni­est Per­son In Austin con­test. Also fea­tured on The Tex­ans line­up is Liz Splatt, the most recent crowned cham­pi­on. We’ve got pod­cast episodes with most of the per­form­ers, so you can learn about them before you go laugh. If you’re look­ing for the fun­ni­est this city has to offer, this is the show to see.

To see all of these comics in one out­ing, check out this show­case specif­i­cal­ly on Wednes­day, April 16^th, 9:30pm, at the Velv Com­e­dy Lounge.

New York’s Finest fea­tures a sta­ble of comics that includes Gian­mar­co Sore­si and Isabel Hagen, among oth­er big names. I men­tion these two up front as par­tic­u­lar favorites, but giv­en the Big Apple’s place as an incu­ba­tor for ris­ing standup stars, this is a show I high­ly rec­om­mend no mat­ter who is on the lineup.

Sore­si is high-ener­gy, quick-wit­ted, and has the charis­ma to dive into dark­er top­ics with­out los­ing the room. The unini­ti­at­ed may find this fif­teen-minute set on YouTube con­vinc­ing, but if you’d rather avoid spoil­ers, let this New York show­case be your intro­duc­tion. Sore­si will also be doing a solo show at Creek and the Cave and host­ing a live ver­sion of his pod­cast The Down­side to boot.

I love a good one-lin­er, and Isabel Hagen deliv­ers. A tra­di­tion­al come­di­an in her own right, Hagen is also a clas­si­cal­ly trained vio­list who (some­times) punc­tu­ates her short­er jokes with short solos. If you’re lucky she may bring out the vio­la, but the jokes stand on their own.

To see both comics on the same bill, catch New York’s Finest on either the 16^th or 17^th at Antone’s Nightclub.

Speak­ing of musi­cal­ly inclined come­di­ans, The God­damn Com­e­dy Jam should be part of any fes­ti­val-goers itin­er­ary. Come­di­an Josh Adam Mey­ers is the MC for a three-night run of pop­u­lar songs per­formed by pop­u­lar come­di­ans. Half of the fun of Moon­tow­er is the chance to hang out with your favorite per­form­ers and this show is a full-on par­ty. Last year I saw the Sklar Broth­ers join Mey­ers on stage for a mashup of ​“Be My Baby” and Mus­es’ ​“Starlight”, so I would actu­al­ly call it an expe­ri­ence. Slat­ed for the last show three nights of the fes­ti­val makes it the per­fect way to end a full evening or ten whole days of com­e­dy depend­ing on when you go.

To see The God­damn Com­e­dy Jam, head to Antone’s Night­club at 11:00pm Thurs­day to Sat­ur­day of Club weekend.

So much pas­sive enter­tain­ment might leave you want­i­ng more engage­ment. Like the God­damn Com­e­dy Jam (and a cer­tain buck­et-based improv show), Stand-Up On The Spot is a slight­ly more inter­ac­tive expe­ri­ence. Host­ed by Jere­mi­ah Watkins, this show sees comics impro­vise mate­r­i­al in the moment based on sug­ges­tions shout­ed out by the audi­ence. The show has been a sta­ple of famed Los Ange­les venue The Com­e­dy Store since 2010, and in the suc­ceed­ing years has expand­ed its reach to fes­ti­vals in New York, Mon­tréal, and of course, Austin. The Sat­ur­day line­up includes Sklar Broth­ers, Casey Rock­et, Lau­ra Peek, and Matthew Brous­sard. The Thurs­day line­up has not been announced as of press time. Go for the laugh­ter and for the promise that you your­self get to con­tribute to the show. It’s nice to have your voice heard.

Don’t miss your chance to see Stand-up On The Spot Thurs­day April 17^th, 8:15pm at The Creek and The Cave, and Sat­ur­day April 19^th, 6:30pm at Vul­can Gas Company .

Dead­pan mas­ters Aaron Chen and Mohanad Elshieky each hold a spot on The Inter­na­tion­als and for them alone I rec­om­mend attend­ing this show­case. Also fea­tured on this line­up are Ian Bagg, Nathan Mac­in­tosh, Vit­to­rio Angelone, and Sophie Bud­dle. Bud­dle has an infec­tious ener­gy on stage that makes her that much fun­nier; I’ve been a fan since see­ing her per­form at last year’s fes­ti­val and I can’t rec­om­mend her enough. On top of tour­ing with Tay­lor Tom­lin­son and appear­ing on The Tonight Show, Bud­dle is also a four-time recur­ring guest on the Com­e­dy Wham Pod­cast. Are you not impressed?

Don’t miss your one chance to see The Inter­na­tion­als at The Creek and The Cave, Thurs­day, April 17^th, 10:15pm.

There is so much in store for Moon­tow­er atten­dees that I can’t cov­er it all, but if you have time for even just a cou­ple of these picks, you’ll be more than sat­is­fied. At Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val there’s always some­thing to laugh at.