Moontower Lowdown
Fri., April 17, 2015
The fourth Moontower Comedy & Oddity Festival launches Wednesday, April 22, with a badge holders-only performance of Ron White's Texas Toasted show at which "Tater Salad" will be joined by a number of his old stand-up pals from the ATX: Matt Bearden, JR Brow, Tom Hester, John O'Connell, Nancy Reed, Alex Reymundo, Brendon Walsh, and KLBJ 93.7's Dudley & Bob. The only other Wednesday happenings are Rachel Feinstein at Cap City Comedy Club, 8120 Research, and improv and sketch at the New Movement.
Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, though, will be the usual jam-packed fiesta with stand-up shows, podcasts, and special events. Headliners include the wondrous Wanda Sykes, making a return visit to Moontower; Patton Oswalt, actor (The Heart, She Holler; Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), writer (Silver Screen Fiend), and stand-up; Tim Minchin, a musical comedian from Down Under who penned the music and lyrics for the stage musical based on Roald Dahl's Matilda; John Mulaney, former SNL writer and current star of the Fox sitcom Mulaney; Pete Holmes of the You Made It Weird With Pete Holmes podcast and TJ Miller of Mike Judge's HBO series Silicon Valley, performing together; Maria Bamford, who gets three nights at the Stateside, where she'll be headlining and curating her own showcases; and Marc Maron, host of the smash podcast WTF With Marc Maron and star of his own IFC series titled, naturally, Maron.
Also on the 2015 roster: Judah Friedlander of 30 Rock, Emo Philips, Bridget Everett, and many familiar Moontower presences, such as Andy Kindler, Dana Gould, Todd Barry, the Sklar Brothers, Kurt Metzger, Matt Bearden, and Brendon Walsh.
Special events include an open mic specifically for teens (Saturday, April 25, 3pm, Stateside upstairs classroom) and the second Moontower Ping Pong Slapdown, where badge-holding fans match paddles with festival comics while the Sklar Brothers offer color commentary (Saturday, April 25, 2-5pm, Stateside).
For more information, visit www.moontowercomedyfestival.com.