When Moontower lights up Downtown from April 9-19, it’ll be with more than just marquee names and standing ovations. The 11-day comedy festival returns with a blend of national stars and local standouts – mixing the seasoned with the emerging, the personal with the absurd.
Austin comic Kandace Medina will take the stage for her second Moontower with a set as emotionally raw as it is refined. “This is probably one of the most open sets I’ve had … specifically about suicide,” she says. “Comedy is the thing that saved my life. Honestly.”
Medina, a florist by day and comic by night, explains her process steering the audience into more challenging material. “You’re like, ‘oh, this is kind of cool,’” she says, “and then I just Trojan horse it into something very dark and tragic. But they’re already with me, so it’s like, ‘oh, damn. We thought this was a horse, and instead, it’s a whole horse full of sadness.’”
Another local voice making waves is Raza Jafri, co-founder of East Austin Comedy and a first-time Moontower performer. “It feels like kind of a warm embrace from the city, which is sweet,” he says. Though he started in Chicago, Jafri’s developed a following here with his dry, philosophical wit. “If you’re irritated by the brutality of living, then you’ll love my comedy,” he says. “I like observational, cultural, tasteful racism … pointing out our differences in a mocking but warmhearted way.”
Don’t expect new material from Jafri, however, as he says he’s sticking to what he knows. “I’m not gonna try out new material on the fucking Moontower,” Jafri laughs.
Moontower takes place all over Downtown Austin, from the storied stage of the Paramount Theatre to the offbeat energy of the Velv, Antone’s, and Cap City. It’s not uncommon to run into comics grabbing tacos on Sixth Street before hopping between showcases – or wandering past the bat bridge on their way to a podcast taping.
Returning to the festival is national comic Maria Bamford, whose surreal, deeply personal stand-up has earned her a devoted fan base – and not just among therapists. “They pay very well,” Bamford says of Moontower, laughing. “And to be asked to do a job … it’s like being asked on a date.”
Bamford says she’s excited to catch longtime friends like Jackie Kashian and Laurie Kilmartin, who are recording their podcast The Jackie and Laurie Show live during the fest. “There’s so many people I get to see,” she says. “Janeane Garofalo … Fortune Feimster … Tig Notaro …”
The full lineup this year is stacked; other headliners include Pete Holmes, bringing his larger-than-life warmth; Girls Trip breakout Tiffany Haddish; and Alex Edelman, debuting new show What Are You Going to Do following a Broadway run with his one-man show Just for Us.
In a city with no shortage of stand-up shows on any given night, Moontower offers something singular: an atmosphere. “There’s a warmness,” Jafri says of Austin audiences. “They kind of let you play up there. They want to see … what type of person you are.”
Bamford agrees. “They are pumped for comedy as an art form … even if they aren’t into something, they’re very respectful,” she says. “That’s not always true when you go to a regular comedy club, and it’s a Friday night.”
And that’s the real magic of Moontower: What starts as a joke in a Downtown theatre might leave you gut-laughing, crying, or completely undone. “You can’t jump off the train,” Medina says. “It’s already moving.”
Moontower Comedy Festival
April 9-19, various locations
austintheatre.org/moontower-comedy
This article appears in April 4 • 2025.