Bentzen Ball comedy festival bringing laughs to Washington, D.C.

Click on the picture above to see the schedule for the festival.

Michael Jackson had his Pretty Young Thing and Washington, D.C. comedy fans have BrightestYoungThings.com. The web site, has teamed up with comedian Tig Notaro (Sarah Silverman Program) to bring you Bentzen Ball 2009, an ambitious four-day comedy festival, Oct. 22-25.
 

The festival will be held at various venues in the U Street area and will feature funny folks from movies, TV, and the national stand-up scene, as well as some up and comers. As of this posting, 61 comedians are scheduled to provide some laughter.
 

Tickets cost $15 for a single show and $30 for premium shows, like Sarah Silverman and the cast of the Sarah Silverman Program at the festival finale. There is also a three-show pack for $40 which does not include premium events, and a $110 weekend pass that provides access to every single show.

In an effort to shed some light on the brand new festival, I have conducted an e-mail interview with Svetlana from BYT, who apparently has some help in answering my probing question.  In her words: "Svetlana is a founding member and editor-in-chief of BrightestYoungThings.com. Trained to be an architect, she is oftern completely unprepared to be doing what she is doing now. But she's a quick learner and needs very little sleep, so things have been working out so far."

Check back frequently for interviews with comedians scheduled to perform at the festival, including Patton Oswalt, Todd Barry, Mary Lynn Rajskub, Lizz Winstead, Nick Offerman and Aubrey Plaza.

Where did the idea for the Bentzen Ball come from?

Svetlana came up with it.  But the inspiration was from reading 'How to Really Stink at Golf' by Jeff Foxworthy. That book was the real impetus.  Complete combination of biting humour and sharp wit.  She finished and thought 'if I could only bring this type of drop-dead provoking laughter to my compatriots in DC, I'd die a happy woman.'

One free ticket to the first person who actually figures it out. It's a scavenger hunt.  We'll give you a hint. Jamie Lee Curtis. (E-mail Svetlana if you can figure it out)

We had a team of students at Georgetown Business School draw up a business plan for us as part of their Entrepeneurship class and do most of the work for us.  Being Georgetown University students they wanted to use classy venues like Fur and Dream and Love.  Anything monosyllabic.  Could you imagine Zach Galifnakis performing at Love Nightclub?  Neither could we, so we sacked the Georgetown kids and we sacked Zach and went with Tig Notaro (much easier to work with) and a more comfortable location along U Street and 14th Street.  We met with Tig and City Councilman Jim Graham (he offered us cake) and built outwards from the Lincoln Theater.

How was the schedule of comedians decided?

Cost.

There's been considerable debate about this.  Some say that DC is often a testing ground for comedians to hone their acts because people generally are so much smarter here than they are everywhere else in the country.  I mean, we're not trying to butter up Examiner readers, but the rest of the country is just filled with mental tadpoles and common fools.  It's kind of the opposite of the old 'plays in Peoria' addage.

Why should people go?

How do we answer this question?  The type of person who needs an explanation of why they should go isn't the type of person who would go to this festival.  So we'll just give you a good soundbite.  People should go to this comedy festival because Joe Biden might be there. And not to namedrop, we can't say with ANY degree of certainty, but a certain person by the name of J*rry S**nf*ld might be there.  Or might not.  Who knows. This ball is full of surprises.

It's a complex algorithm of straw-drawing and hat/name drawing.  Plus, there's the usual bulls*** where this comedian can't stand to be within 75 feet of that comedian.  We really try to put those divas on the same bill.

Proximity to Ben's Chili Bowl (swear to God)

You are ingrateful, thankless wretches and you should not buy tickets.