{"id":66714,"date":"2019-08-22T18:21:48","date_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:21:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-comedy-festival-gets-funny-in-durango\/"},"modified":"2019-08-23T00:21:48","modified_gmt":"2019-08-23T00:21:48","slug":"four-corners-comedy-festival-gets-funny-in-durango","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/four-corners-comedy-festival-gets-funny-in-durango\/","title":{"rendered":"Four Corners Comedy Festival gets funny in Durango"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Comedian
Comedian Jay Whitecotton will headline Four Corners Comedy Festival\u2019s \u201cBest of the Fest\u201d show Sunday night at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College.<\/span>Courtesy of Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Some of the players may have changed, but this weekend\u2019s Four Corners Comedy Festival will have no shortage of gut-busting laughter.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, it was announced that festival headliner comedian Bobcat Goldthwait had to cancel his appearance Sunday night at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. It was reported the comedian suffered minor injuries in a car crash last week and was unable to travel.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo lose our festival headliner in our third year is devastating. We are asking the community to rally behind the 50-plus talented comics and dozens of organizers and volunteers who have been working tirelessly to bring this event to Durango,\u201d festival director Wes Stein wrote in a statement. \u201cWe plan to move forward with the Sunday night showcase at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, however Bobcat will be replaced with a stacked lineup of the very best comedians our festival has to offer.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe will offer full refunds to any ticket-holders for Sunday night and any VIP wristband holders, however, we ask that you help support our local scene, our festival and our passion for local comedy by holding on to your ticket and attending what will be an amazing comedy show experience despite this sudden loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

The festival, now in its third year, began Thursday and will run through Sunday, offering up a reception, parties and a show at El Rancho Tavern, workshops to help comedians fine-tune their material and learn the right way to be offensive onstage, and showcases featuring the comedic styling of dozens of comedians.<\/p>\n

In Goldthwait\u2019s place will be Austin, Texas-based comedian Jay Whitecotton, who will headline the show, now called \u201cBest of the Fest Showcase.\u201d Along with Whitecotton, comedians deemed most popular by attendees to the Comedy Showcase will take the stage for a full night of comedy.<\/p>\n

Whitecotton is no slouch in the comedy department: He\u2019s been working as a comedian for 15 years, and he\u2019s been seen on Fox, Hulu and FusionTV; has performed at Funny or Die\u2019s Oddball Fest, Moontower Comedy Fest, Australia\u2019s Adelaide Fringe Festival, Las Vegas Punk Rock and Bowling and more. His debut album, \u201cHi, Lonesome!\u201d reached No. 1 on iTunes.<\/p>\n

And yet he remains relatively low-key when it comes to getting ready to get on stage.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t get psyched about things because if I do, then it\u2019s hard to concentrate,\u201d he said. \u201cI just go in, I have no expectations, and that way, I\u2019m always pleasantly surprised.\u201d<\/p>\n

A lot of what he\u2019ll end up doing on any given night is up to that evening\u2019s crowd, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never know. I come in prepared \u2013 I want people to have a great time. It depends on the audience. My regular club set is for, you know, date night people who just don\u2019t give a s***, who are so done talking to their spouse that they\u2019re just like, \u2018Let\u2019s do something different tonight so we can pretend our marriage is interesting.\u2019 So, I definitely have that material,\u201d he said. \u201cI also have material where \u2013 not to break anything down, but I\u2019ve been beating myself in the head for the past year working on this set where the whole construct is \u2018Happiness is kind of an illusion, it\u2019s not a destination. Positive thinking is destroying us, it\u2019s just being used to enslave us to a corporate mentality and we\u2019re all gonna die.\u2019 And somehow, people laugh at that, so it really depends \u2013 if the audience is going with me, I\u2019ll go that direction. If they\u2019re not, then I\u2019m going to find a way to entertain them.\u201d<\/p>\n

And Stein is confident the reworked show at the Concert Hall is going to be awesome, and the community should come check out it and the rest of the festival.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re trying to do this for the town; we want to provide local comedy,\u201d Stein said. \u201cWe\u2019re just asking the community to rally behind us. We\u2019ve got 50-plus comics coming to town; we\u2019ve got some amazing features and headliners. We\u2019re just going to stack the lineup with as many quality comics as we can. It\u2019ll be a fast-paced, really fun night of comedy. I think people will be pleasantly surprised at the level of comedy. I think it will prove to be a good thing in the end.\u201d<\/p>\n

katie@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Four Corners Comedy Festival Schedule<\/h4>\n

Friday, Aug. 23
\n 3 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Workshop: \u201cCorrectly offensive,\u201d Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Learn the right way to be offensive. Guest speakers will provide useful tips about how to best send up the stereotypes that plague the comedy world, especially jokes centered around the LGBTQ+ and disabled communities. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/lyCJV<\/a>
\n .
\n 5 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Theatre Show One, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. The opening show of the 4 Corners Comedy Fest packs a full lineup of hilarious acts from each of the Four Corners states. Hosted by Anthony Myers, with headliner Curt Fletcher and feature act JC Anderson. Plus Rich Gary, Austen Brinker, Autumn Horvat, Matt Ziemak, Joe Holt, Matt Micheletti, Kory David and Edward Bell. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/iADX1<\/a>
\n .
\n 8 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Theatre Show Two, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Join the festival founder and host Jill Carlson as she welcomes Jonathan Gregory. Featuring the Season 2 winner of Next Best Comic of the Four Corners, Kali Parmenter. Plus Zach Abeyta, Joshua Fournier, Caryn Carson, Maverick McWilliams, Collin Williams, Justin Tietjen, Danger K Varoz, Ann Gora and John Demming. $15,
\n shorturl.at\/dwHY4<\/a>
\n .
\n 11 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Afterparty, El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave.
\n Saturday, Aug. 24
\n 1 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Workshop: \u201cJoke Writing,\u201d Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Festival headliner Jay Whitecotton will be featuring for Bobcat Goldthwait on Sunday night, but you can hear what he thinks about your material on Saturday. Whitecotton and fellow comic Kyle Pogue will break down joke writing techniques and help you punch up your set. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/ozMYZ<\/a>
\n .
\n 3 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Theatre Show Three, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Virginia Gonzales headlines a stacked lineup of comics: Mary Byrd, Jake Hovis, Steven Marek, Derek Ryter, Jake Hovis, Bailey Carlson, Chris Arellano, Sam Alvarado, Tanner Rahlf, Jandro Sanchez, Ryan MC and more. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/gqQ17<\/a>
\n .
\n 5 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Theatre Show Four, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Jason Thornton, Brandon Henderson, Courtney Wahlstrom, Brian Mystrom, Bubba McComb, Reed Becker, Kallan Reece, PJ Johnson, Georgina Smith, Jason Balmforth and Steve Costa. Hosted by David Oakley. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/itxDS<\/a>
\n .
\n 8 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Theatre Show Five, Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Comic Jay Whitecotton takes the stage with Kyle Pogue along with special guest Elliot Weber. With Jeff Koehn, Brittany Hanrahan, Josh di Donato, Jacob Jonas, Kristofer Royer, Jon Kelley, Joey Johnson, Troy, Leslie Barton. Hosted by Allie Wolfe. $15,
\n shorturl.at\/efikR<\/a>
\n .
\n 11 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Afterparty, El Rancho Tavern, 975 Main Ave.
\n Sunday, Aug. 25
\n 3 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Workshop: \u201cBeing a Bookable Comic,\u201d Henry Strater Theatre, 699 Main Ave. Hear from FCCF selection committee chairwoman Jill Carlson about the importance of quality submission videos, and from Peter K. Yankee, an agent with Phirgun Mair Worldwide, Rio Rancho. Learn how to get more bookings at clubs, festivals and other shows. $10,
\n shorturl.at\/ghyNY<\/a>
\n .
\n 7:30 p.m.:<\/em>
\n Headline show, \u201cBest of the Fest,\u201d Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College, 1000 Rim Drive. Comedian Jay Whitecotton will headline. He will be joined on stage by comedians from the festival. Patrons holding tickets for Bobcat Goldthwait can receive a refund or exchange the tickets for general admission seating for The Best of the Fest. Best of the Fest tickets are $20 per person at
\n www.durangoconcerts.com<\/a>
\n , by phone at 247.7657 or in person at the Ticket Office inside the Durango Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue. Posted ticket prices include applicable service charges. All sales final.
\n shorturl.at\/cehjn<\/a>
\n .
\n For more information, tickets, wristbands and VIP access, visit
\n comedyshowcasedurango.com<\/a>
\n .<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Despite Bobcat Goldthwait\u2019s cancellation, annual fest brings in the comedians<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":66715,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-66714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/66715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66714"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=66714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}