The New York Comedy Festival stretches laughs to 10 days this fall
NEW YORK CITY (WABC) -- One of the biggest entertainment events of the fall in the city expands from one week to 10 days come this November.
The New York Comedy Festival welcomes more than 200 comedians for more than 150 shows and organizers gave Eyewitness News a preview.
The festival is the brainchild of Caroline Hirsch, who ran the club that bore her name for decades, before closing it at the start of this year.
It takes someone with a lot of contacts to pull together so many acts in one city and Hirsch is just the person to do it. She may have closed the club bearing her name, but "We're still here finding emerging talent," she said.
The comedy festival she began almost two decades ago is continuing.
"The New York Comedy Festival is in its 19th year and is bigger and better this year. We're going for 10 days of big shows around the city," Hirsch said.
Home base is the venue at the Hard Rock Hotel on West 48th Street where organizers gathered and one of the headliners, Bill Burr, joined via Zoom.
"I'm going to come in there. I'm going to do what I always try to do: give people their money's worth," Burr said.
He'll play the Garden for the festival, but in this room, there will be a competition in this room to discover the city's funniest new comics, and the festival will also include a familiar charity event.
"We're hosting stand-up for heroes. It's a night of hope, healing, and laughter," said Anne Marie Dougherty, CEO, Bob Woodruff Foundation.
The event benefits the Bob Woodruff Foundation, started by the ABC News correspondent and his wife, Lee, to help our injured veterans.
"We just got to let them know everybody in this country is grateful for what they've been able to do," said Bob Woodruff, co-founder.
The laughs begin November 3rd and ABC 7 is one of the sponsors of The New York Comedy Festival.
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