64 Comedians Compete in Joke-Off for 'One Liner Madness'

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Photo by Mindy Tucker

One Liner Madness

A One Liner Madness joke-off

The comedy extravaganza One Liner Madness hits Madison on Saturday, August 2, taking place at The Annex at 7 p.m., where 64 Midwest comedians go head-to-head in a rapid-fire joke-off. Jokes may only be three sentences or under. Over the course of about one hundred minutes, crowd reaction and applause determines who advances, with the winner taking home a trophy and cash prize. Comedians from across Wisconsin are competing in the bracketed tournament.

Milwaukee comedians participating include Chris Schmidt, Bryan Leconte, Laura Strupe, John Berens, Connor O’Hara, Diego Avila, Simba Soto and Aaron Clark.

Emily Winter, creator of One Liner Madness, is excited for the tournament to be in Wisconsin for the first time. “Wisconsin is my favorite place and I’m super pumped,” she remarks.

Winter, who went to college at UW-Madison, started her comedy career while living in New York, where she co-produced a variety show. “My friend and I were trying to experiment with formats and different types of comedy,” she recalls. “We had a dating show and storytelling nights and did one that was like Shark Tank but for comedy.”

One Liner Madness began in 2016 when Winter and her co-producer wanted to try something more large-scale. It ended up being one of the best shows they had ever done. “It was so fun,” Winter remembers. “We had to do this every year.”

Winter subsequently took One Liner Madness around the country, with the show most recently taking place in Pittsburgh. “It’s super fun to see the different styles of one-liners and the different attitudes and what’s trending in different cities,” she affirms. “We’ll get some local jokes.”

Tickets for Saturday can be purchased at eventbrite.com/e/one-liner-madness-madison-tickets-1303749171869?aff=oddtdtcreator