David Cross, Janeane Garofalo, more comics you like headline this year’s Riot LA festival
If it seems like there are a lot more comedy festivals now than, say, 10 years ago, that’s because there are. Los Angeles’ Riot LA festival stands out from the crowd, though, with consistently strong lineups and creative showcase ideas that cover the wider-than-you-might-think range of styles that is “alternative comedy.” This year, The A.V. Club will be at the festival talking to some of our (and probably your) favorite comedians about, well, all kinds of interesting things. Here are a few of the people that will be there with us:
On the opening night, January 29, David Cross and Gilbert Gottfried will each be performing solo, while Natasha Leggero, Janeane Garofalo, and Maria Bamford co-headline a show at the Ace Hotel. The lineup also includes Patton Oswalt, TJ Miller, Silicon Valley’s Thomas Middleditch and Kumail Nanjiani, Fortune Feimster, Ron Funches, Eddie Pepitone, Kyle Kinane, Dana Gould, Brody Stevens, Iliza Shlesinger, Pete Holmes, Baron Vaughn, Kate Berlant, the incomparable Bridget Everett—deep breath— and podcast tapings from Paul F. Tompkins, Jackie Kashian, Jonah Ray, and more.
Those are only a few of the many funny people appearing at the festival; many more are listed on the Riot LA website, some of whom, like Chicago’s Puterbaugh Sisters and former Chicagoans Dan Telfer, Liza Treyger and Ian Abramson, are not household names (yet), but should already be familiar to A.V. Club readers from their appearances in (and, in Dan’s case, contributions to) this online pop-cultural digest.
We’ll have more to tell you as the festival dates approach, but for now, here is a video of Ron Funches talking about creating chaos by feeding children too much sugar. Passes for the Riot LA festival are available here. Enjoy.