Boston Comedy Festival Has Chip Chipperson, Gary Gulman and Ophira Eisenberg This Year
2018 is promising to be an amazing year for the Boston Comedy festival once again. Last year’s festival honored two of our favorite comedians- Barry Crimmins and Robert Kelly. This year, the BCF plans to honor Boston area native Gary Gulman with their comedian of the year award, and the lifetime achievement award will be presented to Jennifer Coolidge.
The 19th annual Boston Comedy Festival opens on September 11th with a world premiere and red carpet screening of a film that is the perfect way to kick off a regional festival. It’s about stand up, its about Boston and it stars and includes appearances by so many Boston greats. The film Sweeney Killing Sweeney stars Steve Sweeney, Tony V, Frank Santorelli and Jonathan Katz in a movie about aging Boston standup comic Sweeney, “The Character King,” who gets a shot at a national cable special in Los Angeles. The only caveat is that Sweeney must drop the locally referenced colorful Boston “characters” that have become a staple of his home field success. Sweeney makes the hard decision to cut the characters out of his act. But, to his dismay, the characters “come-to-life” and seek their revenge; they try to kill him. Sweeney is a gritty fantasy about never giving up on your dreams…no matter what kind of nightmares may come from them. Cameos by Steven Wright, Lenny Clarke, Nick DiPaolo & Bobby Slayton. Written by Bill Braudis and directed by Lisa Aimola. The Film will be followed by a short celebrity panel of the cast writer and director of the film.
The rest of the fest runs through September 15 and includes a live podcast with Chip Chipperson, a live film screening with MST3k’s Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu, a headlining show starring Emo Phillips, the annual BCF Gala featuring the annual awards presentation as well as the finals of the Boston Comedy Festival’s stand up contest that awards a $10,000 prize. The Festival’s closing Gala this year features Ophira Eisenberg.
That’s just the highlights. There’s also the preliminary rounds of the BCF stand up competition, a debate show called “Pick a Side, Stupid”, and more showcases and performances by Boston’s best performers.
The Boston Comedy Festival has featured a galaxy of established comedy stars as a well partial list including ; Steven Wright ,Shelley Berman, Mort Saul, Lewis Black, Vin DiBona, Smothers Brothers, Tom Werner and Marcy Carsey, Robert Klein, George Wallace, Jonathan Katz, Barry Crimmins, John Ratzenberger, Emmanuel Lewis, Bill Burr, Marc Maron, Robert Kelly,Lenny Clark, Dana Gould, Eugene Mirman, Emo Philips, Gabriel Inglasious, and many more. You get the idea.
Jim McCue is the Founder and Producer of the Boston Comedy Festival, which is run by Jim and his sister Helen McCue. Additional festival information is on the Festival website at www.bostoncomedyfestival.com.
