Comedy Fest update: Jen Kirkman, Sarah Silverman’s friends, ClickHole, and more

Hello A.V. Club readers of Chicago and driving distance. As you hopefully know by now, we put on an annual comedy festival with our friends at The Onion and ClickHole, called the 26th Annual Comedy Festival. This year—June 1-5 at various venues around the city—features such A.V. Club-approved headliners as Tracy Morgan, Sarah Silverman, Chris Gethard, Jenny Slate (as part of Big Terrific), 2 Dope Queens (Jessica Williams and Phoebe Robinson), Michael Che, Reggie Watts, and more. You can go right here for full details and/or to purchase tickets. Go!

Welcome back. We’ve got some additions to the festival, including one that isn’t actually taking place during the festival, so we’ll start there:

Our pal Jen Kirkman, who provided a highlight of last year’s fest at one of the Virgin Hotel aftershows, is making her way to Chicago far too soon for our festival, on April 23. The show is going to be presented by the Fest, which is almost as good. And it’s not just any ol’ stand-up show: It’s a book-release event for Kirkman’s new I Know What I’m Doing And Other Lies I Tell Myself. She’ll tell stories, do a Q&A (try to make ‘em good, please), and then “sign books and boobs.” (Her words.) Tickets here.

In more “official” Fest news, we’ve added a show called The ClickHole Writers Present Amazing: A Live Show. Perhaps you’ve seen the ClickHole shows at iO and/or the Cards Against Humanity office? This will be different, and also really great. It’s at the Hideout on Friday, June 3 at 10 p.m., and you can purchase advance tickets right here.

Also that night, we’ve added Damien Lemon, host of the truTV show Comedy Knockout, to the 2 Dope Queens shows at Lincoln Hall. That’ll be swell.

Finally (for now), the Sarah Silverman & Friends show at Civic Opera House on June 5 now features some names for those Friends: Todd Barry, Todd Glass, and Dwayne Kennedy. It would be a good idea for you to buy tickets to that one soonish. That’s all for now. We’ll have more information on the Virgin Hotel aftershows in the not-too-distant future. Oh, and if you want Big Terrific tickets, I‘d buy ‘em right now.

The third annual 26th Annual Comedy Festival is presented by Onion Inc. along with our presenting sponsor TruTV and our special friends at Lagunitas Brewing and Lyft.