Curious Comedy Archives ⋆ Virginia Jones

HA HA HARVEST COMEDY

This Turkey Day, I return to my comedy home of Portland, OR to perform at the Ha Ha Harvest comedy festival! It’s three days of shows, short films, and laughs! Here’s a sampling of the shows on which I am scheduled to appear! Passes for all three days are available here.

virginia jones on poster comedy cornucopia

Opening the festival in the Show Bar in Revolutionary Hall is this “OOPS, ALL HEADLINERS” lineup, with my hilarious friends Lizzy Cooperman, Ron Lynch, Mav Viola, Janae Burris, and Adam Cayton-Holland. This show is like a taste-test for what’s coming the rest of the weekend. Tickets for this show here!

This show features a band and audience sing-along and play-along, I’m bringing my guitar and I’m ready to rock! Grab an instrument and let’s make noise! This is an early show, and again, a nice warm-up to other shows over the weekend! Tickets here!

Chaos reigns supreme on Ron Lynch’s CRAPSHOOT, where random selection determines what happens all night! This show usually happens at midnight, so Portland is really lucking out with this show! Tickets here!

This is a loverly little closing show. The very funny and very lovely Riley McCarthy hosts hilarious friends Stephen Agyei, Mav Viola, and Geoff Tate! Tickets here!

I may be stuck onto another odd little show here or there, but rest assured I’ll be on these and I’d love to see you!

So, You’re Going To A Comedy Festival!

So, you’re going to a comedy festival! Congratulations!

It’s so exciting for a new comic to be accepted into a comedy festival! You’re going to travel, meet other comics, do shows, and have fun!

My Credentials

Who am I to tell you this stuff? I’ve done festivals like Sketchfest, Altercation, Bridgetown, LAFF, WICW in Boston, All Jane in Portland, Palm Springs Comedy Festival, Santa Cruz Comedy Festival, Big Pine Comedy Festival, NW Women’s Comedy Festival, Funny Women Festival, Chico Comedy Festival, and best of all, the Antelope Valley Comedy Festival.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS

Q: Should I drive or fly?

A: If the festival is within a day’s drive of your home, many comics will drive their own car because this affords the opportunity to bring all the weed they need. You can also save some scratch by sleeping in it!

Q: How many times can I expect to perform?

A: In some festivals, you’ll get 3 shows! These are great festivals! Sometimes, you’ll pay to fly yourself across the country to do one show in a small room for twenty people. These are “Festivals Virginia Jones doesn’t give a shit about returning to”

Q: What will I get in my swag bag?

A: Your festival swag bag is a Shroedinger’s box of mysteries. It could contain valuable merchandise and secret information! What it is likely to contain is coupons and small items the sponsors didn’t want, as well as the booker’s 2010 CD and a map to find the afterparty.

If you get a t-shirt, that’s pretty good!

The one thing ALL swag bags will contain is a laminate. The laminate will have your name on it and it is your key to parties, your shows, and any other shows that aren’t too popular.

If your comedy festival doesn’t have a laminate, it’s not a real festival, and it might be a human trafficking ring. Go home.

Q: Will I meet famous people?

A: No. Famous comics don’t go to the afterparties, so you’ll be likeliest to meet comedy celebrities if they happen to be on a show with you, and are not going up too far ahead or after their slot. Don’t worry, you can still add “Opened for (famous comic)” to your bio right away!

Q: Will the festival bookers be super funny people who can help me in the industry?

A: In most cases, the people you are sending your thirty bucks and tape to, the people you are throwing yourself open to for judgement, are no funnier or more successful than you are. They’re just the people who got it together to throw a festival. Your thirty bucks bought them a couple days of burritos and weed.

Q: Will I get DISCOVERED at a festival?

A: There are a couple festivals that can be really good for your career! They are in Montreal and Edinburgh! Most other festivals will really just expose you to local comedy fans and other festival comics.

Q: If I’m not going to mix with the headliners, the bookers are just some dudes who live here, and I won’t get discovered, what am I doing the festival for?

A: Good question! There are three great reasons to go to festivals.

The Credit

At the start of your comedy career, being one of the 85 top applicants to the Pig’s Snout, Arkansas Crawdad Bake and Comedy Festival is a flex! Let everyone know. All the time.

The Shows

Especially if you are from a small scene, these festivals are an opportunity to do some big shows in front of people you don’t know! If you do well, it can feel really good, and if you don’t, it will be educational!

The Other Comics

Seeing the acts of comics from other places is really good for your development. Watching only the acts of the comics in your scene can limit your growth. Maybe you’ll learn that your scene really is the funniest there is! Maybe not! But connecting and networking with comics at or near your own level will give you opportunities to perform in their towns, and visit their scenes! This is, in my opinion, the most important thing about a festival. You’ll run into many of these people again and again through your life, and you can have a laugh and remember, years later, how excited you were to get the t-shirts with the little pig snout and crawdad on it.

My Open Mic!

My beloved open mike is happening again at Curious Comedy Theatre on Sunday, December 12th. We’ve been having fun on 2nd and 4th Sundays for over a year now, and I’d like to see you there. Sign-up is at 8:30 and the show starts at 9! Full bar and snacks available!

Right Hand Red!

Come see the show that everyone’s talking about, RIGHT HAND RED! At least I think they’re talking about it! It’s fast, it’s funny, it’s a little weird, I’m in it!

Dear Dead Comics

There’s a show opening this weekend that has been a big topic of conversation amongst the local comics for a couple of weeks. Like musical tribute shows, we’re doing a cover show of our favorite dead or retired comedians all July, as a paean to the form and as tribute to some of our heroes. I think it’ll be really interesting.

Pros:

1. We’ll have the opportunity to share some older work that we care about with a new audience, which is always cool.

2. Like singing your favorite band at karaoke, there’s a certain satisfaction in posing as someone you respect, stepping into their skin for a minute. When I re-made some of Leigh Bowery’s costumes and wore them around, I really felt like I was understanding things about Leigh’s tendency towards invention over craft, his willingness to be uncomfortable, and his desire to be a spectacle. I am hoping to come away from this show with a similar perspective.

3. I am hoping to learn something from behind the act, by trying to impersonate the timing and cadence of my favorite comedian. Will I get laughs in the same places? Also: will I get laughs at all?

4. My comic is a perfect fit for me, we’re both black-clad Texans with a perverse streak a mile wide.

5. Apprentice painters from the renaissance period forward have cut their teeth by copying the masters. This is much the same.

Cons:

1. Comedy, above all other arts, doesn’t have a rep for aging well. Will older material translate?

2. Will our comics be able to communicate what’s funny about this stuff? Everyone knows comedy is not just in the material, but also in the performance. Well, not everyone. Most people. There was an incident recently where a comic from Davenport, Iowa reproduced Patton Oswalt’s act uncredited, but did not get Patton’s laughs, because he’s not Patton and doesn’t bring his timing, voice, face, etc. to the show.

3. In a medium that values creativity over all other things, is this a worthwhile exercise?

What do you think?

These and other questions will be answered at 8 PM this Friday at the Curious Comedy Theatre at 5225 NE MLK!

Curious Mic Is One Year Old!

I’m proud and privileged to announce the one-year anniversary of the Curious Comedy open mike, happening this Sunday. There will be jokes, awards, rough-housing, and drinking. Please come join!

Sock It To Me!

This Spring, come time-travel to a mutant 60’s variety show, SOCK IT TO ME, where sketch, stand-up, dance, and aerial artistry collide!

Featuring local comedy favorites Virginia Jones and Gabe Dinger! Famous Mysterious Actor troupe members Josh Fisher and Wally Fessler! Curious Comedy founders Bob Ladewig and Stacey Hallal! Comic actors Scott Rogers and Katie Behrens! With dance and aerials from Daniela Steiner, Kyoko Uchida, Stephanie Seaman and Stephanie Cordell!