Don’t underestimate the cultural value and significance of the Milwaukee Comedy Festival (MCF). This year marks the festival’s 10th anniversary and it’s fair to say that since its start in 2006 it has provided the helium for Milwaukee’s ballooning comedy scene.
At the center is Matt Kemple, an ebullient theater and comedy promoter and champion of local performers who organizes the festival with co-producer Patrick Schmitz. “I originally called it ‘the first annual’ as a joke,” Kemple says. “Somehow here we are celebrating the 10th anniversary.”
Flash back to 2006 when live Milwaukee comedy was scarce if not impossible to find outside of ComedySportz. The Milwaukee Comedy Cafe played host to traveling national comedians, not local talent. The Pabst Theater Group was focused on music. Milwaukee comedians were relegated to performing for handfuls of friends in appropriated spaces. The more popular and enterprising among them would relocate to established comedy scenes in larger markets to test their mettle.
Born of necessity, the MCF has been an ever-evolving labor of love for all involved. The first edition took place at Bucketworks on North Third Street. It included 15 performers doing sketch and improv comedy for a total of four shows on a weekend. Each show ran a marathon-esque four or five hours. “We were all pretty young so the lack of planning was just from inexperience,” Kemple explains.
The festival saw an adjustment in performance lengths, an increase in the number of performers and some changes in venue before arriving in year three at its current home at Next Act Theatre. “A lot changed that year because we had a professional venue and because it became much more theatrical,” Kemple recalls. “And year five was a milestone because the standup scene was really starting to develop in town. People realized that you don’t have to go to Chicago for comedy.
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“A community was building here,” he continues. “I was fueled by their passion and their passion was fueled by the festival. Now there are open mics in Milwaukee every night of the week and multiple comedy shows every weekend. Pabst Theater Group is bringing great people in on a regular basis. People understand that comedy is something we can do and see in Milwaukee in addition to everything else the city offers.”
With nine years in the rearview mirror, MCF has fashioned its best installment ever: 13 shows in five days and the highest pedigree of talent the event has ever seen. Submissions came from Canada and across the United States with the greatest number from New York and Los Angeles. “There were so many really strong submissions this year it was very difficult to choose,” Kemple says. “I attribute it to the reputation we’ve developed throughout the comedy world.”
This year’s event will start with a bang with a kickoff comedy-music show at Lakefront Brewery at 8 p.m. Wednesday, Aug. 5 following an optional 7 p.m. brewery tour. New this year brings pre and post shows at some of Milwaukee’s most inviting bars featuring surprise giveaways and a host of Milwaukee comedians.
The main events on Thursday through Saturday will be at Next Act Theatre, 255 S. Water St. Thursday’s show, hosted by Milwaukee comedian Jason Hillman, includes the Milwaukee groups Broadminded (part of every festival since year one) and T.I.M. (The Improvised Musical), as well as Chicago stand-up artist Zach Peterson.
Friday’s 8 p.m. show includes Chicago stand-ups Shannon Noll and Josh Johnson; improvisation by Milwaukee’s Tall Boys; and Atlanta’s Morgan Freeman in “The Magic Negro and Other Blackness,” a one-man sketch comedy about race in America that Kemple calls “one of the best comedy shows I’ve ever seen.” Friday’s completely different 10 p.m. lineup features stand-up Alex Kumin and sketch comics Jack and the Wolf from Chicago, Milwaukee improvisers Dynamo Kickstand and Green Bay stand-up John Egan.
Saturday shows at 4, 6, 8 and 10 p.m. include a live recording of “Whoremones” podcast; Milwaukee’s Sammy Arechar, Christopher Schmidt and Sketch Marks; and performers from L.A., Brooklyn, Richmond, Chicago and Boston. “I can’t pick just one show as the most exciting,” says Schmitz, ”because all the shows are really solid.”
The festival will culminate in a performance by Brian Posehn at Turner Hall Ballroom at 8 p.m. on Sunday night. Posehn’s performance will mark the first time the MCF will use Turner Hall as a venue. The ineffably charismatic and inventive Posehn has been at the center of the most influential developments in the national comedy scene for the last two decades. His résumé includes writing and acting on the cult-classic HBO sketch comedy show “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” performing standup as a touring member of the Comedians of Comedy alongside Patton Oswalt, Maria Bamford and Zach Galifianakis, and podcasting as the host of the weekly “Nerd Poker” podcast for the wildly popular Earwolf Podcast Network.
Milwaukee Comedy Festival runs Aug. 5-9. Visit festival.milwaukeecomedy.com.
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