North Texas comedy lovers rejoice. This weekend is the inaugural Denton Comedy Festival. With 40 comedians scheduled to perform in seven showcases, one thing is for sure: this isn’t just a long open mic.
While the Dallas Comedy Festival — no relation — features various forms such as improv, stand-up, and sketch, these Denton showcases will focus on stand-up, at least for now. The festival, the brainchild of founder RJ Avery, will spotlight North Texas’ growing comedy scene and host a handful of traveling comics in the basement of J&J’s Pizza, with a pre-show Thursday night at Killer Tacos.
Avery first got involved with the underground art and comedy scene in Denton about three years ago, before the festival was even a twinkle in his eye. A newly single father feeling adrift, he was looking to meet people outside of his usual social circle and his decidedly unfunny day job as a real estate broker.
After dabbling in stand-up and making connections through his job at J&J’s, the idea of a festival came naturally.
Initially, Avery ran everything by himself, buying a website domain name, odbcomedyfestival.com, for the Old Dirty Basement Comedy Festival, and funding everything else. (He plans to seek more sponsors for future editions.)
“Like anything creative in nature, it’s nerve-racking, but now it’s working out,” he says.
Planning this weekend’s showcases has required an ability to laugh through chaos, although Avery now has five local comedians helping him. Scheduling 40 comedians proved a big task for an upstart festival, but he feels confident about expanding future editions. He envisions up to nine venues, a weeklong series of events, and a date closer to the start of school for students at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University.
“I think next year we want to involve an improv element and a paneling element, getting comedians to come in for panels…sharing the nitty-gritty,” Avery says.
The comedy festival may not be able to afford names as big as Kevin Smith, who will speak in Denton this September, but Avery hopes to bring in comics who can speak about the craft to an audience of North Texas stand-ups.
“There are so many of those (comics) out there that nobody knows of,” Avery says. “When the (local) comedians go to look them up, they’ll be blown away.”
This year’s festival will also be live-streamed on Facebook, for those who can’t make it or just want a better view. Avery also plans to mount a screen showing the stream outside on Denton’s downtown square, and hopes no authority figure asks him to take it down.
“If we can pull it off, I’m just going to do it. I haven’t talked to the county or anyone, really, about it, and if they show up, I’m just going to beg them to let me leave it up,” he says.
As a real-estate broker by day and a comedian by night, Avery knows a little bit about what to look for when it comes to accessibility.
“Denton allows itself to be a better home for comedians,” he says. “It’ll lend itself to a better place for creativity. Three years from now I see it being something like a beacon for comedians to hang out for a week. That’s a goal, a long-term goal.”
Getting to just this point wasn’t easy, but that’s how life works — people just have to learn to laugh it off, literally, which is something Avery has managed to do in the short time he has had to create this festival.
“I don’t have any expectations other than the fact that it’s going to happen,” Avery says. “I’m happy with the way it goes down. I want to make sure that the general public and people that come have a good time, and I think we have enough comedians that that’ll happen.”
The inaugural Denton Comedy Festival is this weekend (July 28-30) at J&J’s Pizza on the Square in Denton. For tickets and more information, go here.
While the Dallas Comedy Festival — no relation — features various forms such as improv, stand-up, and sketch, these Denton showcases will focus on stand-up, at least for now. The festival, the brainchild of founder RJ Avery, will spotlight North Texas’ growing comedy scene and host a handful of traveling comics in the basement of J&J’s Pizza, with a pre-show Thursday night at Killer Tacos.
Avery first got involved with the underground art and comedy scene in Denton about three years ago, before the festival was even a twinkle in his eye. A newly single father feeling adrift, he was looking to meet people outside of his usual social circle and his decidedly unfunny day job as a real estate broker.
After dabbling in stand-up and making connections through his job at J&J’s, the idea of a festival came naturally.
Initially, Avery ran everything by himself, buying a website domain name, odbcomedyfestival.com, for the Old Dirty Basement Comedy Festival, and funding everything else. (He plans to seek more sponsors for future editions.)
“Like anything creative in nature, it’s nerve-racking, but now it’s working out,” he says.
Planning this weekend’s showcases has required an ability to laugh through chaos, although Avery now has five local comedians helping him. Scheduling 40 comedians proved a big task for an upstart festival, but he feels confident about expanding future editions. He envisions up to nine venues, a weeklong series of events, and a date closer to the start of school for students at the University of North Texas and Texas Woman’s University.
“I think next year we want to involve an improv element and a paneling element, getting comedians to come in for panels…sharing the nitty-gritty,” Avery says.
The comedy festival may not be able to afford names as big as Kevin Smith, who will speak in Denton this September, but Avery hopes to bring in comics who can speak about the craft to an audience of North Texas stand-ups.
“There are so many of those (comics) out there that nobody knows of,” Avery says. “When the (local) comedians go to look them up, they’ll be blown away.”
This year’s festival will also be live-streamed on Facebook, for those who can’t make it or just want a better view. Avery also plans to mount a screen showing the stream outside on Denton’s downtown square, and hopes no authority figure asks him to take it down.
“If we can pull it off, I’m just going to do it. I haven’t talked to the county or anyone, really, about it, and if they show up, I’m just going to beg them to let me leave it up,” he says.
As a real-estate broker by day and a comedian by night, Avery knows a little bit about what to look for when it comes to accessibility.
“Denton allows itself to be a better home for comedians,” he says. “It’ll lend itself to a better place for creativity. Three years from now I see it being something like a beacon for comedians to hang out for a week. That’s a goal, a long-term goal.”
Getting to just this point wasn’t easy, but that’s how life works — people just have to learn to laugh it off, literally, which is something Avery has managed to do in the short time he has had to create this festival.
“I don’t have any expectations other than the fact that it’s going to happen,” Avery says. “I’m happy with the way it goes down. I want to make sure that the general public and people that come have a good time, and I think we have enough comedians that that’ll happen.”
The inaugural Denton Comedy Festival is this weekend (July 28-30) at J&J’s Pizza on the Square in Denton. For tickets and more information, go here.
