The New York Underground Comedy Festival

The next ten days, from now until Sunday the 17th, will see a variety of shows under the banner of The New York Underground Comedy Festival. The festival is a blend of events with a dual focus. There’s definitely a lot to appeal to people who know comedy from TV with established talent and shows, including Jim Norton, Bonnie McFarlance as part of a benefit performance as well as a special show of “Laughing Liberally”, which has a certain allure to 49-51% of the population (probably larger considering it’s NYC).

But there’s also, like Aspen and Montreal, a focus on looking for what’s next. On the NYUCF schedule you’ll see quite a few shows marked in red such as the 2006 Emerging Comic Contest and audition for the Late Show with David Letterman. These shows are where the industry will be looking. As NYUCF founder George Sarris emphasizes since so much of the industry is here, these shows could be a boon to some of the performers. If you want to see people before they make it to TV (or Aspen or Montreal for that matter), these shows are it.

I’ll be trying to check out a lot of events the next few days, particularly since this year’s festival contains shows on September 11th, which seems like a very interesting day to try and mine for funny. Check out NYUCF main website and see if there’s something that fits your fancy.