The Dallas Comedy House today announced that Saturday Night Live’s Jon Rudnitsky, comedian Jake Nordwind, and The Improvised Shakespeare Company would be the headlining talent for this year’s Dallas Comedy Festival on March 22-25. Featuring 32 comedians and 48 improvisation, sketch, and comedy teams, the Dallas Comedy Festival is set for a record-breaking year in terms of the amount of talent prepared to make fest goers laugh non-stop over the course of the four-day festival at DCH in Deep Ellum (3025 Main Street).
Amanda Austin, the Owner and Founder of Dallas Comedy House, said, “Each year this event grows, just as year-round our audiences have continued to grow and the talent that performs on our stages rises. It’s why top-line comedy talent like Jon Rudnitsky, Jake Nordwind, and prominent touring acts like The Improvised Shakespeare Company keep coming to Dallas Comedy House, because local audiences are increasingly looking to us as the home for comedy here in North Texas.”
Maggie Rieth Austin, the Executive Producer of the Dallas Comedy Festival, added, “We could not be more excited about this year’s lineup. Comedy comes in countless shapes and sizes, attitudes, and delivery, and we may have come as close as you can to literally offering something for everyone this year. We have the very best in Dallas-based and local talent, as well as comedy acts and comedians hailing form every corner of the country this year. It is going to be a great, hilarious, and ground-breaking year for the Dallas Comedy Festival.”
Jon Rudnitsky, known best for his sketch appearances as a cast member of Saturday Night Live, as well as his voice work on Disney’s beloved hit animated film, BIG HERO 6, was selected as one of the “New Faces” at the prestigious Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal in 2015. In addition to his stand-up work, Jon has created and starred in a number of parody videos, including several House of Cards send ups, Straight Outta Newport, inspired by the feature film, STRAIGHT OUTTA COMPTON, and one of his most recognizable sketches, Dirty Dancing Live. performing in Comedy Central's musical number, THE JAM. as well as starring opposite Reese Witherspoon in HOME AGAIN.
Jake Nordwind has been featured on MTV’s Greatest Party Story Ever and was a character voice on the animated series, Neighbors from Hell. He most recently wrote and starred in a parody trailer for TBS digital titled BLACK FRIDAY THE MOVIE. Jake is now working on a new live show at UCB and a series called Backhouse.
The Improvised Shakespeare Company, has been performing its critically-acclaimed show to sold out audiences in Chicago since 2005. The ISC also continues to entertain audiences across the US with its national touring company. They have been featured at the Piccolo Spoleto Fringe Festival, Off Broadway in New York City, Bonnaroo, the Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, Outside Lands, San Francisco Sketchfest, UCB’s Del Close Marathon, and the prestigious Just For Laughs festival in Montreal and Chicago. Based on one audience suggestion (a title for a play that has yet to be written) the troupe remarkably creates a fully improvised Shakespearean masterpiece in the moment.
Additional Improv and Sketch Comedy acts include; Atlantic Pacific Billy, which delivers an improvised version – maybe not “better” – of your favorite movies; BitSing, combining music with improv; the Blacklist Improv; the Bulls on Parade sketch comedy troupe; the 1995 Chicago Bulls, a Dallas improv troupe that it is important to note does not actually include any players from that legendary basketball team; CLR, one of the Dallas Comedy House’s original Ewing teams; Cupcake; the award-winning Damn Gina!, Austin’s first all- black female improv troupe; David & Terry; Denver, a classic “Harold” improv troupe out of Chicago’s Improv Olympic Theater; Duck Duck Pants; the puppeteers of Empty Inside; Encyclopedia Moronica, Dallas’s only comedic historical society; f.a.c.e, a long-form comedy troupe; Family Dinner; FCC Presents: The Wrong Party; For the Birds; Franzia; Friends University, the improv group of women that bring the party to you; the female sketch comedy team of Getting’ It, and Heel Turn.
More wildly creative and simply silly comedy will come from the likes of; Jason: A Campy Musical, about the potentially misunderstood man at the center of the FRIDAY the 13TH films; Just The Funny, featuring Miami’s brand of long-form improv; The Late 90s, which returns after having one of the most popular shows from last year’s Dallas Comedy Fest; Local Honey; Manick, the longest running comedy troupe at the Dallas Comedy House; the Midnight Society, whose comedy emanates from a dim campfire; Midnight Passion,
a female-heavy troupe that demands that you love them; Mojito; The Monthly Junk; Movie Riot, featuring Matt Blake and ready to improvise an entire movie for its audiences; Partners In Time; Pavlov’s Dogs, one of the longest-running troupes in Dallas; Photobomb; Primary Colours, the “hardest working improve troupe in Dallas; Queso Queens; the spellbinding comedy from The Rift; Roadside; the musical improve troupe, Rook; Serious Robots; the Sunglow improve troupe; Small Town; STAN, comedy with a man’s name; Tabooze, which makes a game out of the improv experience for its own players; Warm Milk; the married comedy duo of We Are Thomasse,(Nick Afka Thomas and Sarah Ann Masse); Why it Brite, the female comedy team of Ashley Bright and Sarah Wyatt; and Wiki Tikki Tabby.
The list of comedians set to perform is equally impressive with notable national names like Aaron Aryanpur, Alycia Cooper, Vance Sanders, Son Tran, and Paul Varghese leading the list that includes Hogan Alcorn, Cat Alvarado, Radu Bondar, Lily Callaway, Charmz, Ray Connolly, Erica Dawson, Tom Delgado, Tom Devenport, Tim Edwards, Katy Evans, Susie Falcone, Paulos Feerow, Julian Fernandez, Clifton Hall, Saffron Herndon, Victoria Hoffman, Christian Hughes; Shahyan Jahani, Justin James, Brandan Jordan, Jimmy Nelson, Marc-Anthony Sinagoga, Tyler Simpson, Matt Stofsky, Ashlee Voorsanger, Barry Whitewater, and Gretchen Young.
For festival passes, tickets, and more information go to http://dallascomedyhouse.com or call the box office at 214.741.4448.
