Patton Oswalt, Christopher Guest, Mike Judge and a cast reunion of The Adventures of Pete & Pete are among the attractions on tap for the misleadingly named 26th Annual Comedy Festival, coming to Chicago May 31 to June 4.
The comedy fest, assembled by the teams behind the Onion, the A.V. Club and ClickHole, is actually in its fourth year. Oswalt’s headlining sets at the Athenaeum Theatre, Friday June 2 at 7 and 10pm, will be recorded for a new TV special. Guest will appear at the Music Box Theatre on May 31, in a conversation and retrospective of his film career, including This Is Spinal Tap, Waiting for Guffman, Best in Show and more. Judge will also appear at the Music Box, hosting a screening of his depressingly prescient 2006 feature Idiocracy. And cast members from Pete & Pete, the delightfully weird early-’90s Nickelodeon show, will gather at Lincoln Hall on June 1 for a discussion with the A.V. Club’s Marah Eakin.
Also set to appear are comedians Aparna Nancherla, Bobcat Goldthwait and Nathan Fielder, and live tapings of podcasts Bitch Sesh with Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider and Guys We F@#ked with Corinne Fisher and Krystyna Hutchinson. New this year is a parallel, invite-only series for comedians, Rise Up: Comedy for Change, exploring the role of comedy in politics and social movements.
A VIP Festival Badge, priced at $310 and on sale now at 26comedy.com, will net you entry to nearly every show (some performances run concurrently) and the nightly after-parties at the Virgin Hotel. Individual show tickets go on sale this Friday, March 10, at noon; prices are TBA. The complete lineup as announced this morning is below; more events are expected to be added. [Update, Friday March 10: A double bill with Eugene Mirman and Jon Glaser was added this afternoon.]
Wednesday, May 31
Christopher Guest in conversation, Music Box Theatre, 7pm
Aparna Nancherla, The Hideout, 7 and 10pm
Thursday, June 1
Idiocracy screening with Mike Judge, Music Box Theatre, 7pm
The Adventures Of Pete & Pete reunion, Lincoln Hall, 9:30pm
Eugene Mirman and Jon Glaser, Thalia Hall, 9:30pm
Friday, June 2
Patton Oswalt, Athenaeum Theatre, 7 and 10pm
Bitch Sesh live with Casey Wilson and Danielle Schneider, Lincoln Hall, 7 and 9:30pm
Jena Friedman, The Hideout, 10:30pm
Saturday, June 3
Nathan Fielder of Nathan For You, Athenaeum Theatre, 7pm
Guys We F@#ked: The Experience, Thalia Hall, 7 and 10pm
7 Minutes In Purgatory with Ian Abramson, Lincoln Hall, 8pm
ClickHole Live, Lincoln Hall, 10:30pm
Crabapples with Bobcat Goldthwait and Caitlin Gill, The Hideout, 7 and 10pm
Sunday, June 4
Adam Ruins Everything Live!, Lincoln Hall, 7 and 9:30pm
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