SAN FRANCISCO COMEDY BLOG

by Chad Lehrman

The 4th annual dccomedyfest will be held August 7th-9th in Washington D.C. Blaire Postman is the festival’s founder, and her past experience includes working for Second City, the Washington Speakers Bureau, and the William Morris Agency. In this interview, she discusses the upcoming festival and also gives advice to upcoming comedians.

What led to you starting dcomedyfest?

Well, I had worked in comedy a bit. I had become a corporate and college booker, but at an agency that did mostly speakers- very famous political types like Margaret Thatcher and Tim Russert. I’d always continued doing small comedy projects on the side and after awhile, it just became what I wanted to do all the time again. I left that job after 5 years, and tried to think what the first project I wanted to tackle was. There had always been talk of doing a comedy festival in DC, and I thought it would be a great way to bring talent into the city, show them what it’s like to perform here, and show DC audiences the full range of comedy that’s out there.

How many performers get accepted?

Every year it’s different. We’ve had these comedy jams, that are on a lower key part of the festival, giving a lot of people 10 minutes. If you include all the sketch and improv performers, we’ve had easily 100 or more performers in the city. We’re not trying to target a specific number of acts, we’re trying to see what is the best of everything that comes in and how we can use it efficiently and fill houses and make it worth everybody’s while. We did really well last year, and this year we have expanded to bigger venues.

Will there be shows about the Presidential election?

We are not a political comedy festival, but being DC, that’s always something that’s of interest. Last year we had a few political shows, like Annoyance Theatre’s President Bush Is A Great Man, and we had a stand-up show called the Political Comedy Convention, which was a lot of comics with political content that did 15 minute sets. That was a lot of fun and they sold out a 200 seat venue. This year being an election year and the festival being just a couple weeks before the conventions, we’re amping it up and we’ll have a bit more this year. We’re having two sections for the film festival part, one for general short comedy films, and one for politically-themed short comedy films.

So there is a screening for the films?

Yeah, we have a screening and then we do sort of a judges’ panel who picks a winner, and we’re working to finalize who our online sponsor is. Last year it was collegehumor.com. So the films will also be featured on a nationally-known website and get attention that way.

Since you have so much experience at booking talent, what advice do you have for comedians looking to find representation?

Oh gosh… you know, I can only tell you what I think, because it is so subjective. It is a matter of taste and intuition, it’s not science. When it comes to representation, I would say be funny and be patient. You may be very funny, and if you’re 2 years in, you might be funnier than everybody else on your experience level, but for representation it’s so competitive now. It’s so hard getting into clubs in a way that really makes you money and therefore can make a representative money.

It’s very boring, my advice, I’m afraid- you’ve got to really really work your craft, you’ve gotta really experiment, you’ve got to write all the time. You’ve gotta be good, and then once you get good enough, you’ve gotta go some place where representatives and industry have a chance to see you. I wouldn’t advise people to say, “Well, I’ve been doing it a year, so I’m gonna move to New York,” although some people do that and it works out- but when you get there, you’re going to be leaping into a really competitive world. In one way that’s great because the amount of talent should help you get better, but you’ve gotta be ready for that. It’s nice to make your chops in San Francisco, or DC, or Austin or Chicago, first, and then once you’ve got a good base of material and have a good idea of who you are on stage, then you’re gonna have to move to that place where the industry is.

So you don’t think the need to move to L.A. or New York will go down because of the internet?

Unfortunately, I don’t think so. I lived in Chicago when I worked for Second City, and that was such a vibrant comedy community and there are others that I mentioned, that are great breeding grounds and learning places, but in the end, you’ll have to go to where the industry is. Even if you’re in New York, if you want your own sitcom, you’re gonna have to move to L.A. eventually. The industry occasionally has something like the Montreal Comedy Festival, or a Live At Gotham audition on the road, but to really get industry attention, you’re going to have to be performing where they are. Maybe they will come to see you in Chicago or San Francisco, but most of them are gonna say you should move to New York or L.A. There are always exceptions, so I don’t want to make it seem like such a hard and fast rule, but that really hasn’t changed.

I hope I don’t come off as negative- I’m such a big believer that there’s so much talent out there, but I’ve gotta be realistic. It’s great to be based where you’re gonna get a lot of comedy chops, but there’s a certain point where, to really break through, you’re going to have to move to L.A. or New York, and only each individual performer knows what that point is for him or her.

So can you tell us any of the big names that are booked for the dccomedyfest this year? [past festivals have included Demetri Martin, Daniel Tosh, Mitch Fatel and Emo Philips]

Well, I don’t wanna say anything because nothing is confirmed yet, but we do have a couple acts that we’ll be announcing in the next couple of weeks. The one person that has already been set is (Daily Show co-creator) Lizz Winstead, but as for additional names, I have a couple ideas who I think it will be, but it hasn’t been confirmed yet. Some will be announced in the next couple weeks, and then the rest of them will be announced at the beginning of June.

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