The 14th Annual Bloomington Comedy Festival will bring 48 comedians to The Comedy Attic to compete to find the funniest comedian in Bloomington. Audience members will vote for the winner.
Starting June 8, there will be 22 shows, one every Wednesday and Thursday for 11 weeks, featuring 48 comedians. The venue is for ages 17 and up. Tickets are $10 each show or a summer pass for $40.
Jared Thompson, owner of The Comedy Attic, said the event used to take after shows like American Idol, where the vote consisted of the audience and a panel of judges. Now, only the audience votes.
Notable comedians that have previously won include Tom Thakkar and Emil Wakim. As IU graduates, they went on to appear on shows like The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. Thakkar was even featured in an episode of “Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents.”
Thompson said the winner receives a trophy — the Stanley Comedy, an ode to the Stanley Cup. They have their name put on it and keep the trophy until the following year.
“We send a significantly higher number of comedians out into being paid comedians than towns that are 10 or 20 times our size,” Thompson said.
