This year's Milwaukee Comedy Festival was just a bit bigger than last year's, with a number of new comedy groups from all over the continent joining returning favorites. Now in its fourth year, the festival has grown to include stand-up comedy along with the standard sketch and improv fare. The festival opened on Thursday with comedy from a Scottish zombie comedian from Madison, which served as introduction to a mockumentary about a Beatles-like zombie music group. After a fairly slow start, opening night ended with strong performances by irreverent late-night improv groups Meanwhile and The M.U.T.E.S.-a new local silent comedy group that performs skits in the style of Chaplin-era silent films. It's refreshing to see a group in black and white costuming and make-up focusing entirely on slapstick.
With four shows spanning a fair portion of the day, Saturday was one of the longest days in festival history. While groups had come from as far away as Canada and Colorado, the most impressive end of the festival was the comedic chops of a growing number of Milwaukee groups including Meanwhile, The Gentlemen's Hour, The Show and Broadminded. Indigenous Milwaukee comedy culture continues to grow. As evidence of this, Sunday featured two local teen comedy acts developing what could be the next generation of performers: First Stage's Organized Chaos under the guidance of Patrick Schmitz of The Gentlemen's Hour, and Falcon Improv-a kids group from Brown Deer High School taught by Alex Grindeland of Meanwhile.
