Don’t laugh, but Las Vegas is getting another festival. Actually, this one pretty much requires that you do laugh.
Dates have been confirmed and other details are firming up for the Crapshoot Comedy Festival, three nights of stand-up showcases and live podcasts set for May 18-20 in venues across Downtown’s Fremont East Entertainment District. “The Strip isn’t for the comedy fan; it’s for the entertainment fan who’s staying on the Strip,” organizer Paul J. Chamberlain says. “With the comics we’re bringing in, people are gonna be like, finally, I don’t have to go to LA to see this person.”
Chamberlain has experience with both Las Vegas and comedy fests, having previously resided in Henderson (his parents still live there) before going on to found the Maui Comedy Festival in 2014. That fest featured the likes of Craig Robinson, Reggie Watts, Tig Notaro and Aisha Tyler. Chamberlain says he plans to announce the Vegas lineup of roughly 30 comics around the end of January. “Virtually everybody on the bill will have late-night television or Comedy Central credits, a sizable media footprint. If you’re gonna do it right, you have to come in like a wrecking ball and have everybody go, these guys aren’t messing around.”
Most Crapshoot shows (planned for 7 p.m., 9:30 p.m. and midnight) will feature three or four comedians doing about 20 minutes apiece, comics will perform multiple times throughout the weekend and many events will be themed. Pricing is still being determined—“It’s dependent on talent,” Chamberlain says—but he expects to offer a variety of full-fest and single-night passes, along with some individual show tickets. The weekend’s cap will be set at 10,000, and Chamberlain projects a 65 percent local/35 percent out-of-town attendance split.
“I feel confident [it will sell],” he says. “We’ve got a population of 2 million, and a fair percentage of that fits the demographic we think will come out for this. There are festivals and other comedy things going on in LA and the same thing in New York, but it needs to come back to Vegas. I see that as the true hook of this festival: getting Vegas back to its 1963 comedy roots.”
