A Flood of Funny

How do you follow Aziz Ansari, Seth Meyers, Wanda Sykes, Steven Wright, and Nick Offerman? That was the question for the Moontower Comedy and Oddity Festival that premiered last April to great success, and this afternoon the Paramount Theatre, which produces the festival, had the answer – or at least, the first of a series of answers.

Bill Hader. Dana Carvey. Jim Gaffigan. Bill Burr. Jim Norton. Amy Schumer. Anthony Jeselnik.

Those were the marquee names announced by the Paramount for the second annual Moontower fest set for April 24-27. More than 55 comedians were included in the initial release of acts, including several who enlivened the inaugural Moontower: Maria Bamford, Andy Kindler, Marc Maron, James Adomian, Sean Patton, Tom Rhodes, Rory Scovel, and Brendon Walsh. A healthy number of local comics also made the early announcement, so you can count on seeing the ATX comedy scene represented by Matt Bearden, Amber Bixby, JR Brow, Chris Cubas, Brian Gaar, Pat Hazell, Mike MacRae, Ramin Nazer, John Ramsey, and Chris Trew. As was the case last year, additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks.

Moontower promises as big a festival this year as the last, in everything but its footprint. The Paramount has made a concerted effort to condense the geographic range of venues this year, adding more Downtown spaces – the Hideout Theatre; New York, New York; Swan Dive; and Bethel Hall in St. David’s Episcopal Church – so that of the 12 Moontower locations, only Cap City Comedy Club and Scottish Rite Theatre are outside a five-block radius from the Paramount/Stateside center of action.

Moontower badges are on sale now. A limited number of single tickets are on sale now for the Jim Gaffigan and Bill Burr shows. Single show tickets for the remainder of performances at the Paramount Theatre and Cap City Comedy Club go on sale Tuesday, Feb. 19.

For more information, visit www.moontowercomedyfestival.com.