The Apiary

All plans to cover the D.C. Comedy Fest from location fell through two weekends ago, when it was realized that the after-parties would stretch into dawn and the days would be filled with recovery and monument-gazing. Now a full two weeks later, we're left with our cloudy memories and a slight chest cold -- and the sense that the third annual D.C. Comedy Fest was a success for all involved.

We here at the Bastion tend to take a "set down and settle in" approach to all things comedic, so could be found at the rickety HR-57 for most of the weekend and not so much at the hipster artspace Warehouse , due to their proximity to each other and a tight schedule. Luckily, Chicago improviser Mark Raterman (playing with Cook County Social Club ), gave us a brief summary of the fest from his (much more industrious) view:

"Overall, I had a great time. I love going back to DC because I grew up close by in northern Virginia, so I have a lot of friends and family in the area. I stayed at my mom's place with a couple friends: Bill Cochran , who's in Cook Co. Social Club with me, Micah Sherman who's in Boston doing stand-up and is in Chuckle Sandwich , and his friend Myq Kaplan [winner of the college/club audition] who apparently had some pretty good sets which I didn't see. In any event, the four of us had a good time eating my mom's food and hanging out into the wee hours on her balcony doing things that we're not allowed to do by law.

"Other than that, I enjoyed the after parties somewhat, but mostly because anywhere I turned it seemed like I knew a large group of people, whether it was the Blerds guys or people from Washington Improv Theater or random chicago improvisers, so that was a lot of fun for me. The only thing that sucked was having less time in the bars because shows went so late into the night. Spoken like a true alcoholic. I didn't get out of a couple of shows until 12:30 which severely cut into drinking time. But hey, maybe scheduling shows that late was was Blaire [Postman, the festival's executive producer]'s way of watching out for our well-being.

Sean Flannery performs at the Blerds Friday night showcase.

"Surprisingly, I didn't catch a lot of shows. I was in two on Friday night ( Biscuitville and Cook County Social Club ) and saw bits of the shows that followed, Bassprov and Big Black Car , but not enough to get a good impression of what the show as a whole was like. I saw some stand-up at HR-57, but not a ton. I caught Mike Bridenstine 's set which I enjoyed. I had a good time laughing with him on the plane to the festival. It turns out he's a really funny guy. I also got to see Rory Scovel host the pro night on Saturday. Rory is an old friend of mine from DC and he makes me laugh, too, so I was glad I could catch at least one of his sets. Truth be told, I was a little bummed that my show times didn't line up better. Because of when I was performing, I had to miss a lot of shows that I would have liked to have seen. So it goes, though, at these bigger festivals.

"I thought the different venues were well suited for the particular shows they were housing, at least the ones I saw. I wished a couple times--as I was shuttling between HR-57 and the Warehouse--that they were a little closer together. There's something very cool about a festival like, say, the Del Close Marathon at UCB where everything is in the same building. It makes you feel like you're in the center of the universe for that weekend. Short of that, buildings on the same block can approximate that feeling. But in a city like DC, I'm not sure how much the producers can control something like that.

"So, overall, I had a blast. I love the city and the people and I enjoyed the shows I was in and the ones that I saw. Next year you and I will have to get a drink together well before last call, which seemed to come with alarming abruptness."

Kyle Kinane and Allison Leber relax at a post-show gathering at Hotel Helix.

One of the Bastion's favorite things about the weekend was seeing our ex-pat buddies reconvene en masse on the capitol, and spending time with them seeing the sights, or drinking tea in Chinatown, or crashing a Georgetown University party at 2 a.m. One of our now-coastal friends, stand-up comedian Renee Gauthier , gave us her thoughts on the weekend:

"I thought the D.C. Comedy Festival was a blast. I loved the tight-knit group of Chicago comics and I also loved meeting comics I had never seen before. I noticed that along with supporting our own, Chicago (whether based or once were) are very supportive people when it comes down to it. Every comic there was funny and original, that was unique and amazing to see. You would see comics running from show to show just to catch their people doing stand up. My only wish was that the stand up shows and improv/sketch shows could have been in the same venue, so that all forms of comedy could check the others out. The staff was great and I genuinely enjoyed D.C.."

Producer Blaire Postman chimed in with some official business information after having some time to reflect (and enjoying some sunny days out in L.A.): "We don’t have super 'official' numbers since we use the open pass and “cram as many people in as possible” systems. I’d guesstimate that we sold about 1,000+ passes to the festival (could be more by 200) – that doesn’t include industry, etc. who come in under different passes. The Saturday shows and most of the Friday shows at the mainstages were sold out. The stand up mainstage held about 175-200 people, the sketch mainstage about 150+ (they had people literally sitting in the rafters so I can only guess). The other stages seat 80-100 seats and were full to overflowing most of the time. We also had to turn people away from many shows since we were so full. Suffice it to say that we’re already looking for larger venues for next year. It was a very, very, very full fest."

Jordan Vogt-Roberts , TJ Miller , and Tucker Voorhees , 3Arts, hanging at RFD , the festival's designated post-show bar.

Chicago was well-represented at the festival, in stand-up, improv/sketch, and film. With the Chicago voice united in such a prominent way, one could hope that, perhaps, a spectator (like, say, one of the industry people milling about), could see a show fraught with Chicago, and start putting together a picture of the scene and make a note to keep Chicago on their radar, even though we don't have those oh-so-crucial studios and scouts to evaluate and record talent on a regular basis.

Photos by Krystle Gemnich.

- Kristy Mangel