Comedy Extravaganza, also known as ComEx, will be returning for its annual comedy showcase in person this weekend for the first time in two years.
Presented by The Center for Comedic Arts, the student-run festival will last from Saturday, April 23 to Monday, April 25. Junior comedic arts majors Sophie Bellone and Cole Alberti, the lead producers, began planning ComEx at the start of the spring 2022 semester.
“This is a culmination and a celebration of comedy at Emerson, but it’s also being hosted through our class, the ComEx showcase class,” Bellone said. “We’ve been working all semester to sort of produce the [main] showcase, which is called $5 Shrimp.”
To kick off the event, there will be three shows—a stand-up comedy show, an improv show, and a sketch show—held in the Greene Theater on April 23. Performing Their Sketch Comedy will present “There’s Ten of Us” at 6 p.m. Performing Improv Comedy will present “The Wednesday Club” at 7:30 p.m. Comedy Writing Standup will present “Please Clap: A Standup Showcase” at 9 p.m.
“Those are all showcasing the talents of [comedy] classes that have been going on throughout the semester, and this is sort of their final showcase,” Bellone said.
On April 24, the ComEx students will showcase “$5 Shrimp” at 6:30 p.m. and present The Jess Ilias Clavelli Comedy Awards at 8:30 p.m. The Jess Ilias Clavelli Comedy Awards will showcase 10 finalists who are comedic arts majors or in a comedy troupe.
On April 25 at 8 p.m., there will be a live Zoom webinar called “An Appointment with Dr. Ken Jeong: A Comedy Q&A.”
“This group of people is like some of the most talented people that I know at Emerson,” Bellone said. “It’s going to be awesome. We’re going to see something really great.”
