The spotlight shines on La Nuit Comedy Theatre over the next three days, as the small 80 seat venue draws national attention with their annual New Orleans Comedy and Arts Festival January 28-30.
Locals and interstate visitors will be descending on La Nuit – located in the Freret Arts and Entertainment
District, the eight blocks between Napoleon Avenue and Jefferson Avenue – in what the founder of La Nuit and producer of the festival Yvonne Landry, expect to be a sellout event.
NOCAF has six shows – two performances a night at 8 p.m. and 10 p.m. featuring 11 headlining and 50 showcasing comedians. Many of these comedians who have a large following, such as DJ Dougg Pound who has just under 80,000 twitter followers, will draw fans to La Nuit from interstate.
“People are coming to this festival from all over, several groups from Austin, people coming in from New York, Los Angeles and Chicago,” Landry says.
Comedians performing at the festival will not be doing any other appearances around town – so comic enthusiasts who are keen to see “American Horror Story’s” Naomi Grossman, plus Randy Liedtke, Susan Messing, and Bill Chott – will need to head down to Freret Street over the next three nights.
For those who are not familiar with La Nuit Comedy Theatre; it is a small space, which comics apparently prefer
“Comics like a small, intimate room as opposed to say an arena. They like to feel like they are in a living room,” Landry says.
With its origins in improvisation, the event has morphed into more of a standup festival that has been lighting up the stage since 2007 – Landry is hoping to reverse that slightly by dedicating Thursday night events to improvisation and sketch shows, plus workshops, speed-dating, and talent scouts who will run a pitch session.
As one of the first entertainment venues on Freret Street since the new zoning changes in 2006, Landry says that they have seen the neighborhood through the good, the bad and the ugly – these days though, the neighborhood still tends to attract predominately locals, but they are seeing more tourists venture in to the area.
For more information about New Orleans Comedy and Arts Festival visit www.nolacomedy.com
