New festival aims to cement Austin's comedic standing

Late great comedians Bill Hicks and Mitch Hedberg came of age at the Cap City Comedy Club. Comedy legends and rising stars such as Don Rickles and Demetri Martin have consistently played to sold-out houses at the Paramount Theatre. Austinites Matt Bearden and John Ramsey serve as testaments to the quality of stand-up comedians who are cementing Austin's reputation as a home of great talent. And improvisation classes across town are packed with eager students.

As Stacey Fellers, Paramount Theatre's executive marketing and public relations director, is fond of saying, "Austin knows funny."

It seemed only a matter of time until the city would have a signature event that represents the city's love affair with the comedic arts.

The Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival, presented by the Paramount Theatre for four days in April, will welcome to town some of the most respected names in stand-up, improv and performance-based comedy and champion Austin's wealth of homegrown talent. The Austin Theatre Alliance is the parent company of the Paramount Theatre and Stateside at the Paramount.

"It was always our hope and dream to be involved in a dedicated comedy festival in Austin," said Colleen McGarr, co-owner of Cap City Comedy, a festival partner. "It's finally time for this. This has been a dream to have a festival of this kind in Austin, to put stand-up and comedy full-on front and center. We have such an amazing local scene. … Things happen when they happen sometimes."

The Moontower festival expects to have about 60 acts performing at a dozen venues across town, including the Parish, Velveeta Room, the Mohawk and Cap City, with the Paramount serving as the festival's premiere stage. Badges will be offered at two price points - $99 for regular badges (which offer access to all non-Paramount shows) and $799 for VIP badges, which come with access to after-parties, dozens of drink tickets, downtown parking and preferred access to all performances. Individual tickets at varying prices will also be sold for each performance at all Moontower venues. Badges will go on sale on Wednesday, with single tickets scheduled to go on sale Feb. 23.

By comparison, music badges for South by Southwest run about $700, and Producers Badges at the Austin Film Festival for an individual begin at $550. SXSW wristbands started at $139 last year, and AFF film passes sold for $50.

Top-tier talent at Moontower will include "Saturday Night Live" head writer Seth Meyers, whose topical brand of humor featured on Weekend Update should prove especially timely in a presidential election year. In addition to current big names Aziz Ansari and Maria Bamford and rising stars Brendon Walsh and Hannibal Buress, McGarr said the promoters are "really, really fortunate" to bring comedy legend Steven Wright to town. The deadpanning New Englander created an absurdist comedic style that has often been imitated but never replicated, and Austin is one of the few dates on his current calendar.

"It's an interesting thing to be in a comedy festival because comedians perform so isolated most of the time; their paths cross only occasionally," Wright said. "You hear about people, and it will be great to be around all of these comedians in one place. From a comedy fan perspective, the Moontower Festival is an amazing opportunity to see so many diverse, excellent comedians. Plus I've always wanted to live in Texas even if it's only for a few days."

Fellers and her co-workers traveled to the Just For Laughs comedy festival in Montreal last summer to see how the world-renowned festival operated and check out potential talent for Moontower. She left impressed not just by the comedians' liberated performances but by the camaraderie they cultivated off-stage with peers and festival-goers alike.

"Comics like to go to the festivals because they like to try new material. They love to hang out with other comics, they love to pop up at other places and riff," Fellers said. "They like it because they can be quirky and know they're not being filmed, for example, for a special or something like that. You felt like you were part of the show, like you were in on something secret. This wasn't a typical comedy show that most people are going to see when the comic's out on tour."