Lowell gets serious about upcoming festival
At the end of July, the Lowell Folk Festival will celebrate its 20th anniversary by welcoming tens of thousands of music fans to the city. Thursday, the Lowell Comedy Festival kicks off its second year with more modest goals. J. Matthew Coggins , the assistant city manager, would be happy if the Comedy Festival drew 10,000 people.
Even though that would mean sellout crowds at the festival's five venues, it would still make the Comedy Festival the baby of the city's dozen or so festivals. But the numbers are less important to Coggins than the prestige of building a quality festival.
``At some point, I would love for people to say, `Hey, I gotta get into that Lowell Comedy Festival,' " Coggins says. ``I would love it to be known as one of the more premier festivals."
To that end, the city brought back ImprovBoston artistic manager Will Luera, who helped organize the first fest in 2004 (there was none last year). In addition to Wayne Brady, whose performance anchors the festival and was booked separately, Luera has scheduled nearly 40 improv, sketch, and stand-up acts.
A lot of young comedy festivals make the mistake of booking whatever talent they can and throwing the shows together later. Luera's knowledge of the local and national scenes helped avoid that misstep. ``I took the opportunity to review every single submission as sent and get a good understanding of each show and then try to build each time slot with the idea of what each show was," he says.
The Walsh Brothers will handle the stand-up shows. Luera has gathered sketch and improv groups with local ties, from theater collective The Tribe Players to touring group the Late Night Players and sketch duo Somebody's in the Doghouse. He's also pulled in other successful troupes such as New York City's Upright Citizens Brigade, San Fancisco's Stranger Than Fiction, and Chicago's Bassprov.
Matt Sutton, who performs with Bassprov and teaches a class at this year's festival, is impressed with what he's seen so far. A friend of Luera's from the improv scene, Sutton is also the artistic director of the Chicago Improv Festival. He appreciates the fact that Coggins and the city of Lowell have put so much into making the festival successful. ``It's rare that a city gets behind something to this degree," he says. ``I think that's a great thing."
The Lowell Comedy Festival plays several venues June 8-11. For tickets and a
complete schedule, visit www.lowellcomedyfestival.com.
