Phoenix Comedy Festival March 29 – March 31, 2018
Join Headliners Jackie Kashian, Brandie Posey and many others at the 3rd Annual Bird City Comedy Festival, a three-day celebration of comedy that takes place every spring in downtown Phoenix. Since our first fest in 2016, we’ve featured hundreds of the hottest stand-ups, storytellers, improv groups, sketch groups and more across various central Phoenix stages. For our third annual festival, we hope to grow bigger and better as we present an electric roster of talented comedians from Arizona and beyond.
Headliners
Ian Abramson is from Moreno Valley, California, where he learned to walk, read, and drive, but not in that order. His stand-up is a mix of precise wordplay, longer emotionally absurd jokes, and larger conceptual pieces. In 2014 Chicago Magazine named Ian “Best Experimental Comedian” and also listed him in a separate article as one of the “16 Comedians You Should See This Fall.” In 2015
Ian was LA Weekly’s Best Up-and-Coming Comedian and a New Face for the world renowned Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada.
Ian Abramson is a regular contributor to The Onion and also the creator and host of the buzzed-about Comedy Central digital show 7 Minutes in Purgatory where comedians perform to a camera in one room while the audience watches in another room. He was also a creative consultant for Funny or Die’s digital series Our Fascinating Planet starring Demetri Martin. Ian has appeared on CONAN,
SeeSo’s The Comedy Show Show, Hulu’s Coming to the Stage and performed at Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Pemberton Music Festival in Canada, SXSW and Moontower Comedy Festival in Austin, New York Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, Bridgetown Comedy Festival in Portland, The Onion/A.V.
Club festival in Chicago and Funny or Die’s Oddball Festival. Recent TV credits include appearances on History Channel’s Join or Die and on ABC’s The Middle.
Too lazy to shoot hoops and too tall to model, Marcella Arguello stands over 6 feet. Although she may be taller than most men, the only thing more intimidating than her height is her comedy. Marcella mixes a combination of genuine reason with a sexy suggestion of street. Deemed as “sexually and ethnically ambiguous” she appeals to everyone and is not afraid to tell you how she really feels about subjects concerning race, gender, politic, relationships, family, work, music, pop culture and whatever else is on her mind that day.
Time Out Magazine deemed Marcella an “LA Comedian to Watch in 2017” and is a fan favorite on Comedy Central’s @midnight. Most recently, she won her appearance on TruTv’s Comedy Knock Out
and can be seen on The UCB Show’s upcoming second season on Seeso. She was featured on Viceland’s Flophouse, and in 2015 on NBC’s Last Call with Carson Daly; her stand up has been highlighted on rapper Tyler, The Creator’s mobile app and on Fox’s The Real. Her Twitter account (@marcellacomedy) has been featured on CNN, TIME.com, HuffingtonPost.com and various entertainment websites. Marcella just wrapped a stint as a write on the series “Bill Nye Saves the World” for Netflix on which she did some on-camera work as well.
She is a regular opener for Last Comic Standing Winner Felipe Esparza as well as NBC Superstore’s Nico Santos. She has opened for David Alan Grier, Norm MacDonald, J.B. Smoove, Hannibal Buress, Ron Funches, Godfrey, Bryan Callen, Aries Spears, Hasan Minhaj, Al Madrigal, Joey Coco Diaz, Melanie Comarcho, Melissa Villaseñor and has shared a stage with Bill Burr, Paul Mooney and Robin Williams. She has worked at The Improv Comedy Clubs all over the country and is a regular at The Punch Line Comedy Clubs in Northern California. She has performed at San Francisco Sketchfest, Riot LA Comedy Festival, overseas for American troops and comedian Sean Keane referred to her as the “finest export
from Modesto since George Lucas.”
Kyle Ayers is a comedian, writer, actor, and all of that sort, living in New York City, by way of his hometown near Kansas City, Missouri. He brings his satirical look at growing up in the small town to the big city, with a unique viewpoint on his generation, our childhoods, and daily life. He has performed in the Brooklyn Comedy Festival and the Laughing Devil Comedy Festival.
He has written for the Roasts on Comedy Central and Friar’s Club Roasts. He’s written / writes for CBS and its Untitled Sports Show, the New York Times, the Huffington Post, BBC, Wired, Post Grad Problems, Buzzfeed, Yahoo’s front page, and more. He also writes for the satirical sports website Korked Bats.
Once a month he hosts Game Night, a Comedy Show, in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The show has been featured in the New York Times, Village Voice, and more, and kicked off the inaugural Brooklyn Comedy Festival.
He was the tweeter behind the internet sensation #roofbreakup, where he stumbled upon a couple breaking up on his roof in Brooklyn, and the entire world joined in. #roofbreakup was viewed over 10 MILLION times worldwide, appeared on NPR, BBC, Yahoo, Buzzfeed (2+ million views), and was even reenacted by Jerry Springer.
He also founded, constructed and runs the heralded underground sketch-acting-theater production-weirdness comedy show, “First Comes Love,” where comedians and actors act out anonymously written adult film scripts from actual aspiring adult film writers, solicited via Craigslist. The show consistently draws crowds larger than its venue, and performs under various themes, such as “Mad Men adult film scene night.”
Joel Kim Booster is a Chicago bred, Brooklyn based comedian, writer and playwright. Born in Jeju, South Korea, Joel was adopted at a young age and moved to the southwest suburbs of Chicago. Both homeschooled and evangelical, Joel has read the bible literally dozens of times, but has no idea where the state of Oregon is on a map. As a comedian he has appeared on Conan, Comedy Central’s The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail and @midnight, Logo’s Comedy Cabaret and truTV’s Comedy Knockout. His writing credits
include Billy on the Street and the Comedy Central pilot Problematic with Moshe Kasher.
Joel has performed at numerous comedy clubs, bar basements and festivals all across the country and the world. Most recently and notably he was a New Face for the world renowned Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal, Canada. Additionally he has featured at Funny or Die’s Oddball Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, Riot LA, The Mardi Gras Comedy Festival in Sydney, Australia, SXSW and The Bridgetown Comedy Festival. Esquire Magazine recently listed
Joel on one of their 10 Comedians to Watch in 2017 and Brooklyn Magazine has named him one of their “50 Funniest People in Brooklyn” saying, “his unbridled honesty feels less like the set-up for a punchline and more like an act of selfless catharsis the rest of us are lucky to witness in real time.”
Brett Davis performs comedy under the guises of his many twisted characters on stage and on his weekly, live late night variety television show The Special Without Brett Davis airing online worldwide.
He was the most recent winner of The Andy Kaufman Award and was named a “Comic to Watch” by Comedy Central, which later presented his live one-man show Brett Davis Is Not Real.
He also is the increasingly frustrated and disturbed host of The Podcast For Laundry where he portrays a laundry obsessive who “forces guests to sit through the truest ramblings of a madman. He wrote, produced and starred in IFC web series Boy Band, the Comedy Central web series Autumn With Dracula and the short film BANANAZZZ.
He has also appeared on The Chris Gethard Show, Jon Glaser Loves Gear, Animals, Our Cartoon President, Comedy Central, Adult Swim, MTV, He has also been on The Best Show, in the films Clara’s Ghost (Sundance) and Long Nights, Short Mornings (SXSW), and in numerous music videos.
He has previously co-hosted the erroneously titled comedy showcase, The Macaulay Culkin Show at Brooklyn’s Shea Stadium before it closed, and hosts and puts on wild shows around NYC like The Lethal Lottery and The Annual Illuminati Orgy. He was a featured act at SF SketchFest, New York Comedy Festival, The Eugene Mirman Comedy Festival (NYC), High Plains Comedy Festival (Denver), Crom Comedy Fest (Toronto, Denver), Fest (Gainesville), Lincoln Calling and the Brooklyn Comedy Festival.
Originally from Boston, SAM JAY was a standout of the 2017 JUST FOR LAUGHS NEW FACES. Sam is currently the host of RICKING MORTY, the Rick and Morty post show on ADULT SWIM. She recently made her late night television debut on ABC’s LATE NIGHT WITH JIMMY KIMMEL. Her half hour stand up special will premiere this fall on COMEDY CENTRAL. She was named to the Comedy Central COMICS TO WATCH list in 2015, and has since performed at the New York Comedy Festival, Portland’s Bridgetown Festival, The Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival and Boston’s Women In Comedy Festival. Her credits also include COMEDY CENTRAL’s WHITE FLIGHT, THE MELTDOWN WITH JONAH AND KUMAIL, MTV’s SAFEWORD, and VICELAND’s PARTY LEGENDS.
Jackie Kashian’s standup has been described as “like listening to a really racy episode of All Things Considered.” Her new album “I AM NOT THE HERO OF THIS STORY” is critically acclaimed and debuted at #1 on iTunes/Amazon and #3 on Billboard.
She hosts The Dork Forest. With over 4 million downloads, the show is a safe space for dork on dork dialog with Jackie interviewing anyone and everyone about what they LOVE to talk and think about.
She is also a co-host to a comedy podcast on the Nerdist Network called The Jackie and Laurie Show. www.jackiekashian.com has links to it all.
Maggie Maye loves candy almost as much as she also loves performing comedy. She made her late night debut on Conan and was featured on Last Call with Carson Daly and AXS TV presents: Gotham Comedy Live. She has also been a featured panelist for Rooster Teeth “What Do You Know?” and has written for the New Yorker. Maggie has performed stand up in festivals such as Bridgetown Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest (as one of the Sketchfest Dozen), FunFunFun Fest, Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival, SXSW, and the All Jane Comedy Festival. She’s opened for Hannibal Burress, Paul Rodriguez, Gladys Knight, and Earth, Wind and Fire. She’s had her name in comedy articles in the Huffington Post, Variety, LaughSpin, the New York Times, Splitsider, who named her among the 2015 top up-and-coming comics and an “On the Verge” comedian, the Austin American Statesman, who named her as one of 2015’s People to Watch, and the Austin Chronicle, who named her 2016’s Best of Austin Stand up Comic. She performed improv comedy with her troupe Damn, Gina! and in various sketch and improv shows around Austin before moving to Los Angeles. Her comedy is described in the same way she is: sassy, charming, and smart. Also, a 6-year-old once told her she was the funniest person ever. And kids rarely lie.
my Miller is a fast-rising talent on the West Coast and national scene. Originally from the East Bay, Amy found her comedy chops in the Bay Area and is still a regular at the SF Punch Line and Cobb’s Comedy Club. After a move to Portland, Amy quickly rose to the top of the Pacific Northwest comedy scene, winning Portland’s Funniest Comedian in Helium Comedy Club’s contest, as well as being voted Portland’s Funniest 2013 and 2015 in the Willamette Week.
Amy was a breakout favorite in Season 9 of Last Comic Standing. Roseanne Barr called her “a star” and a “contender for next alpha female comedian.” Keenen Ivory Wayans said she had one of the “fiercest jokes he had ever heard.” Amy is currently in LA and works comedy clubs and festivals around the country, working with headliners from Norm Macdonald to Arsenio Hall to singer Ryan Adams.
Amy’s debut album Solid Gold is available on Kill Rock Stars, and was named one of the top 10 comedy albums of 2016 by the Interrobang. You may have also heard her on NPR, Doug Loves Movies, or the Bennington Show.
Originally from Annapolis, Maryland, Brandie Posey is a stand up comedian, writer, & producer who calls LA’s comedy scene home. She has been featured as a performer at the New York Comedy Festival, RIOT Comedy Festival, San Francisco Sketchfest, FEST in Gainesville, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Tig Notaro’s Bentzen Ball, among many others. She has opened for the legendary punk band Against Me! and has appeared on MTV, E! and Comedy Central. Brandie made her feature film debut in the indie dark comedy, “The Worst Year Of My Life” directed by Jonathan Smith and her first
stand up record Opinion Cave debuted at #1 on iTunes and #12 on Billboard.com.
Brandie tours the country, headlining every dark corner with a microphone. She is the co-creator and host of Picture This, a popular comedy-animation show with franchises in LA, Portland, New York, Philadelphia and San Francisco. Picture This is currently in development with TruTV. At the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre and The Hollywood Improv, Brandie co-hosts Lady to Lady alongside Barbara Gray and Tess Barker. Lady to Lady is also a celebrated weekly podcast on the Maximum Fun Podcast Network with over 3.5 million downloads and loyal fans around the world.
Shane Torres is a New York based standup comedian, writer, and actor originally from Fort Worth, TX. Having made his late night debut on Conan in 2016, you may have also seen him on Last Comic
Standing or on IFC’s Comedy Bang Bang. He was featured at the Montreal Just For Laugh’s festival as a New Faces in 2013 and was one of Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch in 2012.
Shane has performed at many festivals all over the country including JFL, Outsidelands, RIOT LA, SF Sketchfest, Moontower, High Plains, Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Bumbershoot Music and Arts Festival, and many more. Shane has appeared on popular podcast such as Savage Love and Comedy Bang Bang. He tours across the globe at comedy clubs, rock venues, and theaters.
Shane’s Comedy Central half hour and album was released in fall 2017.
Los Angeles-based comedian Dave Waite is a charismatic oddball whose shows are non-stop fun. Thanks in part to stellar performances on “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon,” Comedy Central’s “Not Safe with Nikki Glaser” and “Last Comic Standing,” comedy fans everywhere are enthralled by the Kentucky native’s offbeat outlook on life. Dave is a beloved guest on several top-rated podcasts and radio shows, including Doug Loves Movies and the nationally syndicated Bob & Tom Show. His highly anticipated album “Dead Waite” by On Tour Records is available now on Amazon & iTunes, and his previous albums can be heard frequently on SiriusXM and Pandora. In addition to maintaining a healthy tour schedule, Dave also co-produces The Secret Show, a popular comedy night at The Blind Barber in Culver City, CA.
