Bergamot Comedy Fest brings diversity, laughs and learning to ‘the industry’s backyard’
Stand-Up Comedy
Julie Seabaugh March 28, 2024
Nicole Blaine previously executive-produced the Westside Comedy Theaters annual Comedy Showdown competition for nearly a decade. There were some good parts to the position, like helping talent gain attention from HBO, Conan and Comedy Central. Other aspects proved more discouraging.
We had under 20% women submitting to the festival back then, Blaine recalls. I calculated the numbers every year. The demographics were mostly white men, period. Even by the time it was starting to get closer to 25 or 30, you still have to decide, Whos the best quality? You dont want to lower the quality just to let certain people in. How can we go about changing this?
Los Angeles events over the years from downtowns rollicking
like
Riot LA (2012-2017) and the Burbank Comedy Festival at Flappers to Noho Comedy Festival at the Ha Ha, the Comedy Chateau International Comedy Festival, and multiple festival programs at Pasadenas remodeled Ice House have faced similar demographic questions. It’s an issue that reminds the L.A. stand-up
community
why Blaine’s inaugural Bergamot Comedy Festival is so vital.
Next week’sat the The April 1-6
festival, anchored at her nonprofit comedy club the Crow at Bergamot Station Arts Center,
from April 1-6
offers a
week-long
line-up emphasizing female- and nonbinary-identifying comedians.
Over the last two years since the Crow opened, Blaine has made it the community-oriented venues mission to amplify underrepresented voices of female-identifying, BIPOC and LGBTQ+ talent. To do so, she decided to work backwards. If there werent enough voices from marginal groups, they required the same access to stage time and professional stand-up education.
There had to be more opportunity for everybody else, Blaine says. We needed to produce a female and nonbinary open mic. We needed to produce shows that booked more women, so they had equal time to get better. They needed more groundwork opportunities. We needed to go long game.
In light of Mays second Netflix Is a Joke festival doubling down on seasoned talent and Just for Laughs Montreal canceling Julys intended 42nd edition (including its traditionally overflowing New Faces showcases), Blaine recognizes that connecting with diverse performers could be made increasingly straightforward for L.A. industry.
Out of a thousand submissions received and viewed by eight diverse festival screeners, 54% were female/nonbinary. Nearly 80% of BCF performers among them Andy Erikson, Diana Hong, Jessica Saul, Bee Gutierrez, Melissa Shoshahi, Kristin Chirico, Olivia Flood-Wylie, Greg Roque, Ainsley Bailey, Nina Nguyen, Becky Braunstein, Alia Atkins and Julian Fernandez are locally based. (Future years fundraising will sponsor festival talent accepted from out of town.)
Jodie Sweetin channels Full House dad Bob Saget with her inappropriate and dark comedy
With JFL being in existence prior to the last few weeks, I felt there needed to be something in Los Angeles that specifically helped connect the industry to talent, and they dont have to go all the way to Canada to get it there,” Blaine said. “My goal is to bring everyone together here in the industrys backyard.
The Santa Monica resident sees herself as a stand-up first and producer second. In designing BCF, I wear these two different hats, Blaine says. I wanted to create a festival for comedians by a comedian who turned into a producer, and produce it from a comedian point of view to serve the industry what they need to help change the landscape of voices.
While performing at Atlantas Laughing Skull comedy festival, Blaine remembers seeing a panel of bookers asking other bookers questions that werent relevant to most comics. At Bostons Women in Comedy Festival, the biggest connections she developed werent with industry types like agents and managers, but professional relationships with comedian peers from across the country.
Both in the Crows ground-level showroom and upstairs in the intimate Nest space, BCF programming includes ticketed showcases, educational panels and workshops, parties, an evening highlighting nine college-student performers, and more. Opening night even welcomes Kim Princes Hotville Chicken food truck. Parking is free; the Metros E Line stops directly at the lots 26th Street/Bergamot station.
Among BCF talents Private Perks are headshots, meditation, a speed-dating session and private daytime intensives on getting staffed, managing mental health and The Big Pitch, an in-depth guide to pitching a pilot, with Friends showrunner Andrew Reich and Melanie Frankel, former comedy head at ABC.
Free-to-the-public evening panels begin Monday with Make Your Tight 5 Tighter with speakers Michael Cox (The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon), Emilie Laford (The Comedy Store) and Comedy Gives Backs Zoe Friedman (The Improv). Tuesdays Agents and Managers features Sabina Kashi (CAA), Brendan Berger (CAA), Katie OBrien (3 Arts) and Bruce Smith (Omnipop), while Mike Lawrence (SNL, Conan) discusses How to Write for Late-Night TV on Friday. Among Saturdays final offerings, showrunner Danielle Sanchez-Witzel (Netflixs Survival of the Thickest) plus writer Mathew Harawitz (NBCs Night Court) enter The Writers Room: From Script to Screen; Marianne Ways (After Midnight) and Naela Durrani (Americas Got Talent) answer What Makes a Good Stand-Up Submission Video?
Audience members who upgrade $20 show tickets to VIP status for an additional $25 receive a one-year subscription to the MasterClass educational platform.
I feel passionate about educational opportunities for the public because it is helping more than the lucky few that get in, Blaine says. Thats a hole I wanted to fill that wasnt fair about other festivals, that you have to be chosen to learn. I dont want to be a gatekeeper to education. Anyone who wants to learn should be able to. So making things more equitable is a way to help change the local scene for the better.”
