Draft:National College Comedy Festival

The National College Comedy Festival, also known as ComFest, is a yearly tradition at Skidmore College. The festival, founded in 1990 by Skidmore Alumni David Miner, has been hosted on campus for the past 34 years, and is produced each year by students. Over the years the festival has hosted big names in comedy groups such as Derrick Comedy, Harvard Sailing Team, and the Upright Citizens Brigade. Each year the festival brings a mix of college improv and sketch groups to perform on the ComFest Stage. Though there are groups that come frequently, most years there is significant changeover in the groups that attend.

History

After starting the first Skidmore comedy group in 1988, the Ad liberal Artists, or Adlibs for short, Miner set his sights on a larger impact to the Skidmore community and the overall college comedy scene.   In 1990 the first National College Comedy Festival was born. According to Miner, “I wanted the name to be big, I wanted it to feel like it was going to stick around for a while,” and he was right. Now colloquially known as ComFest, the festival has lasted over three decades, and will celebrate its 35^th anniversary in 2024. Though the festival has changed over the years, the same core structure and function has remained the same. Each year ComFest brings together college comedians from across the country, as well as professional acts and Skidmore’s own campus comedians. Over the years dozens of different colleges and groups have brought members, and thousands have performed. College and professional comedians perform over the two night festival, historically with workshops and talks on the weekend by the pros. Each year the festival takes on new leadership, new producers, ranging in number from one to three typically, who spearhead the festival and organize the event. While there are ‘regulars,’ or groups that have historically taken the ComFest stage, there is no guarantee any group will be there each year. Now because of high interest the groups audition for the producers by sending in examples of their work and answering questions, and the groups that are most interesting or engaging and funny or selected. The only group that has performed each year is the Ad-Libs, the group founded by Miner. For Skidmore’s other comedy groups even, admission was not instant. Now however, Skidmore’s groups are the regulars at the festival. The number of Skidmore groups has changed over the years, The second oldest group being The Sketchies, founded in 2001 by actor Michael Zegen and his friends as primarily a video based group, Skidomedy in 2007 founded by Willy Appleman, and the now defunct AKT, or Awkward Kids Talking, an improv group from the mid 2010’s that disbanded and was absorbed by the Adlibs in 2022. Many non Skidmore groups do attend frequently, with some of the groups from the first ComFest continuing to apply and attend.  Alumni of the festival include other Skidmore graduates and comedians Chris Fleming and Grace Khulenscmidt.

Past Producers

- 1990 - David Miner

- 1991 - David Miner

- 1992 - Jim Kramer

- 1993 - Allyson J. Segal

- 2001 - Kimberly Klopfer, Jerry Maraia

- 2006 - Haley Greenstein, Brian Griffin

- 2012 - Scott Galante, Ruth Morrison, Lex Curry

- 2014 - Ben Journey

- 2015 - Becca Baruc

- 2017 - Grace Kuhlenchmidt, Andrew Uebelien

- 2018 - Emma Sturtevant

- 2020 - Sarah Marlin, Max Grossman, Parisa Kabiri

- 2021 - Hanna Yurfest, Coco McNeil, Nikki Yates

- 2022 - Sophie Petit, Kate Mahoney

- 2023 - Callan Daniel, Mary MacKeen, Abby Thompson