Modified On May 12, 2006
The folks at Atlanta’s Showcase Comedy, in the Buckhead section of town, are fixing to throw a festival. This one’s going to take place November 3-5 and will be called AtlanHa! (Be sure and cap that “H,” people, elsewise, you just make people sound like they have a speech impediment!) We think they jumped the gun a little on the announcement, as there is no information on the upcoming fest on their website. (And, though this is just a personal quirk, we were taken aback when we read this on their front page: “We’re also one of the only Atlanta night clubs offering stand-up comedy and comedy karaoke, where audience members can get up and tell a joke.” The dreaded comedy karaoke rears its ugly head! We just hope there’s no such thing in their festival.)
Atlanta is in flux right now. We’re headed there for a week at the Punchline starting Wednesday. For the longest while, the Punchline ruled and, in the years after the comedy bust, one club after another would enter the market, then eventually slink away, defeated by bad location, poor marketing or who knows what. Now, however, there seems to be two clubs that are giving the Punchie a run for its money. The market is huge, the folks down there love their standup and they have eye-popping reserves of disposable income– and a cheeful propensity to throw it around on food, drink and yucks. It follows that one of the clubs would get the bright idea to throw a festival sooner or later. Stay tuned.