Former “Saturday Night Life” cast member Finesse Mitchell is one of more than two dozen comics who will perform at the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival tonight through Saturday.
We all know the history by now: The HBO-sponsored U.S. Comedy Arts Festival abruptly pulled out of the tony mountain town of Aspen in 2007, leaving a gaping hole in the state’s comedy scene — a hole that web upstart RooftopComedy.com came rushing in to fill (ahem).
Now in its second year, the Aspen Rooftop Comedy Festival has become the biggest, most prestigious event of its kind in the region – which isn’t saying much since it’s still a fairly modest affair, as festivals go. But that’s the beauty of it. Instead of fighting through hordes of publicists and celebrity-watchers, you can do what you’re there to do: focus on the funny.
We talked to Rooftop Comedy’s events marketing director Jenn Stokes in advance of the festival, which runs tonight-Saturday at the Wheeler Opera House in Aspen with 30 comics (including Finesse Mitchell, Lisa Landry, Laurie Kilmartin, Matt Braunger, Pat Dixon and many more), college comedy finals, awards and more.
How has the festival grown over last year’s installment, if at all?
We have a similar amount of performers. Last year we had just around 30 performers and there are just a few more than that this year. Plus last year was two days, and this year is three days.
How many people showed up last year?
We had near-to-sell out shows at every show, and the Wheeler seats just over 500 people. So over six shows that’s roughly about… 3,000 people?
One very cool aspect of this is that you’ll be able to watch it live on Revision3’s ROFL show and via RooftopComedy.com itself. But you guys aren’t just a YouTube channel for comedians, right?
One thing that’s unique about Rooftop Comedy is we work and partner with over 3,500 comedians around the world, so something our company consistently prides itself on is promoting a community for comics. All our videos are professionally produced, as opposed to user-driven content (like YouTube).
And you’re obviously focused specifically on comedy…
We’re another platform to expose and highlight some of our favorite comedians working the circuit today, whether they’re well-known or up-and-coming that the public really should learn about. So I don’t know if we can necessarily compare ourselves to something else.
What else is going on at the festival besides the stand-up sets?
We’ve got the National College Comedy Competition, so we have the semi-finals (Funniest Four) on Thursday night, which is free and open to the public. It’s a sort of East conference vs. West conference and South vs. Midwest kind of thing. Viewers live at the Wheeler and watching online can vote for their favorite comedy teams, then we select two to pair up on Saturday.
And there’s an awards ceremony too, right?
yeah, the Rooftop Comedy Awards ceremony on Saturday are at the Wheeler, which is also free and open to public. It’s a way of honoring those in the biz that are doing great things, whether it’s comedians or those in world of online comedy.
For more information, visit RooftopComedy.com or read our Q&A with Rooftop founder Will C. Rogers in advance of last year’s festival right here.
John Wenzel is the editor of Get Real Denver, co-editor of the Reverb music blog and an arts and entertainment writer for The Denver Post. His book “Mock Stars: Indie Comedy and the Dangerously Funny” was recently published by Speck Press.
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