Gilbert Gottfried Headlines Woodstock Comedy Fest, Where You Can Pay for Things With Jokes

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This weekend there are comedy festivals happening all over the place. There’s Toronto, there’s Austin and there’s also the 4th annual Woodstock Comedy Festival (WCF). The three-day-long celebration of comedy, is serious business, with serious stars and it runs Friday Sept 23 – Sun. Sept 25, in one of the greatest settings in the world- Woodstock, NY.  It’s all to benefit charity, and you get to spend the weekend in a beautiful place in the Catskill Mountains.

Susie Essman, Gilbert Gottfried and Eddie Brill will perform, Liz Miele will be there, the co-creator of The Simpsons is coming to talk about the iconic series, plus there will be after parties, movie screenings and more. You will also have the chance to enjoy some Woodstock hospitality, because a bunch of local stores are letting you pay for selected items without taking out your wallet. They’re calling it, “Our Economy is a Joke” and for one day only on Saturday, September 24, festival-goers will be able to “pay” with jokes (instead of cash) for items such as a large coffee, a slice of pizza or a book from 10am-5pm at 12 participating locations in Woodstock like Bread Alone, Catskill Mountain Pizza, H. Houst & Son, Lily’s Boutique, Peace, Love and Cupcakes, The Golden Notebook, Tinker Toys, Village Apothecary, Woodstock Emporium Woodstock Library Book Sale, Woofstock and Woodstock Wine.

The Festival is all done in support of some great causes- with all net profits going to Family of Woodstock, for domestic violence survivors, and Polaris, for the battle against human trafficking.

What: 2016 Woodstock Comedy Festival (4th Annual)
When: Friday, September 23, 2016 – Sunday, September 25, 2016
Where: Woodstock, NY – Various Locations
Tickets & Information: http://www.woodstockcomedyfestival.org
**Tickets for the Friday, September 23 and Saturday, September 24 nighttime shows at the Bearsville Theater are available at www.bearsvilletheater.com.

Gilbert Gottfried took on the Woodstock culture and hippie rep, in a series of excellent promo videos which you can see throughout this post.

Here’s the full schedule.

Friday at 8pm, Susie Essman hosts Laughstock! with Karen Bergreen, Kendra Cunningham, Jaye McBride, and Liz Miele, plus Katie Hannigan, the winner of the 2016 WCF New Faces of Comedy stand up contest.

At 10pm head over to the opening night VIP party at the Cucina Barn, tickets are $20 at the door.

Saturday at 1pm, Eddie Brill will moderate a panel on podcasts with Jonathan Braylock (Black Men Can’t Jump Podcast), Laura Lane (This Is Why You’re Single podcast), Marcus Parks (Last Podcast on the Left), and Nic Rad (HeadGum podcast network producer) at the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum.

Saturday at 2:30pm, filmmaker Bob Small will moderate a conversation about Freedom of Speech for Comedians with Gilbert Gottfried, Marcus Parks (Last Podcast on the Left), and Henry Zebrowski (sketch group Murder Fist, Last Podcast on the Left, star of Adult Swim’s Your Pretty Face Is Going To Hell and NBC’s Heroes Reborn).

Saturday at 7pm you can see Eddie Brill and Gilbert Gottfried at the Bearsville Theater.

At 9:30 stick around at the Bearsville Theater and grab a ticket to see Mike Reiss talk about the iconic series he co-created, The Simpsons.

Finish off the night at the After Party at the Commune Saloon, right in the same complex as the theater secrets and scandals. If you don’t have an invite, it’s just $20 at the door.

Sunday the festival winds down with a film program, screening “Can We Take a Joke?” at 1pm. It’s a great documentary, with Gilbert Gottfried, Penn Jillette, Lisa Lampanelli, Jim Norton and others at the Mescal Hornbeck Woodstock Community Center, and then at 3pm, “In the Name of Comedy” will screen, documenting Brett Eidman’s experience being threatened and blackballed for a staged event he did, with Lisa Lampanelli and Johnny Lampert.

If you’ve never been to Woodstock, what a great time to go. Our pick for where to stay is the White Dove Rockotel. The rooms are so charming, designed piece by piece by the inn’s owners and which are sixties themed, but it’s not weird or cheap like many theme hotels. There’s a record player and some vinyl in every apartment, and incredible attention to detail. You can also go to VRBO, air BnB and stay in some really unique places. Shindig and Oriole 9 are the best places in town to grab some food, and if you have time, head over to Phoenicia to the Phoenicia Diner, because the drive over is just breathtaking. Stay an extra day and head up to the top of Overlook Mountain for a great hike to the ruins of the Overlook Mountain House, a hotel started, but not completed in the 1920’s.

Get more information at woodstockcomedyfestival.com.

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