2 months ago
EXCLUSIVE: Underground Overground Comedy, nan pop-up drama show shaper from Ethan Mansoor and David Levine, has announced that nan 3rd version of its biggest event, nan Paragon Comedy Festival, will return spot from April 30 done May 2, pinch 12 shows crossed 3 floors astatine nan 117-year-old Paragon Sports shop successful Union Square.
Selling retired 2 years successful a row, nan show will invited astir 1,800 guests complete nan weekend, pinch nan aforesaid signature constituent that built Underground Overground’s following: wholly concealed lineups. Previous Paragon festivals person featured notable comics for illustration Chris Distefano and Saturday Night Live formed personnel Marcello Hernández, while different Underground Overground Comedy shows person featured performers specified arsenic Sam Morril, Roy Wood Jr., Mark Normand, Jeff Arcuri, Dave Attell, Jordan Jenson, and more. But audiences ne'er cognize who they’ll spot successful advance.
This year, location will beryllium an added furniture of programming astatine nan festival, pushing it beyond stand-up, pinch nan summation of unrecorded magic performances and immersive afterparty elements wrong Paragon’s basement surf shop aft each show. Tickets spell connected waste April 6.
A brace of Manhattan natives and puerility friends, Levine and Mansoor founded Underground Overground Comedy during nan pandemic, opening to nutrient pop-up drama shows erstwhile accepted venues were closed. Their first show took spot wrong a friend’s Upper East Side gym, followed by rooftop shows adjacent NYU that quickly gained attention.
The Paragon Comedy Festival is nan largest look yet of their pop-up model, arsenic New York’s reply to pop-up shaper Don’t Tell Comedy, which shares their ngo of reshaping nan measurement unrecorded drama shows are produced, bringing stand-up performances retired of accepted clubs and into unexpected venues. Mansoor and Levine person been highly successful astatine building up their brand, producing astir 350 shows successful nan past 5 and establishing awesome request for tickets, pinch a 36,000-person waitlist successful place. Producing shows successful venues ranging from unit shops and laundromats to iconic institutions for illustration Katz’s Delicatessen, Zabar’s, Peter Luger and Economy Candy, nan duo astir precocious reached a awesome milestone pinch nan first-ever stand-up comedy capacity wrong nan Empire State Building.
