The local comedy scene has been growing, forcing comics and event organizers to accommodate the rising tide of local laughs.
Take the Coachella Valley Comedy Fest. For the past three years, the festival took place at Coachella Valley Brewing Company, where 30-plus comics performed inside the brewhouse, near the bar area and on the outside patio.
This year, the festival is moving to Little Street Music Hall.
“It was just a natural move,” said comedian and Comedy Fest organizer Dacoda Miracle. “I have done a lot of events with Little Street, and they’ve been great partners with me in the past, so it just felt like a natural progression.”
The Coachella Valley Comedy fest will run Thursday, March 20, through Saturday, March 22. More than 40 comics are set to perform across 10 different showcases and headlining shows. Miracle said the move to Little Street was necessary to meet the demands of the growing local comedy world.
“CVB has been a great partner, but for the fest to grow and expand and hold more capacity, it was just time to move it,” Miracle said.
Little Street Music Hall has been an increasingly popular venue for creatives over the past year, hosting concerts, comedy nights and more in the space—which is 100% indoors.
“I do like the aspect of not having to worry about weather,” Miracle said. “Last year, we had a big wind storm come through, and we had to not only stop the vendors, but we had to move all of the shows that were planned for outside, to go inside. It was a headache that the comedians would prefer to not go through again.”
Miracle listed two top comedians attendees will want to see.
“This year, on Thursday night at the 8 o’clock show, we have Avery Pearson,” Miracle said. “Avery has worked with a lot of people. He actually wrote and performed at the ESPYs with Steph Curry just a few years ago, and he works a lot with Adam Ray, who does the Dr. Phil show on Netflix. He’s worked with a ton of different performers and comedians, usually in the musical genre.”
Miracle said Irene Tu is a can’t-miss performer on Friday.
“She’s headlining the 6 p.m. and the 8 p.m. show, and she is a San Francisco-based comedian,” Miracle said. “She’s opened for Patton Oswalt and Taylor Tomlinson, and she’s just making a big name for herself at the moment.”
Filling out the lineup are other touring comedy acts, and a whole lot of locals.
“A lot of performers seem to be taking note of the Palm Springs scene and reaching out, wanting to come out and join in the fun,” Miracle said. “The local scene has grown exponentially. … Year in, year out, or every time I talk to someone new, it’s just growing and growing.”
“A designated comedy club is what the valley needs. People are looking for things to do outside of the big casinos and the big shows, and there are plenty of up-and-coming performers who can’t sell out a 2,000-seat venue.”
Dacoda Miracle
Local comedians make up much of the lineup, which Miracle said is a sign of the growing scene, even though the local comedy world recently took a hit with the closing of The Rock Gallery in Palm Springs.
“We have about 50 local comedians now, (some who) have just started in the last year, or have been doing it for the last six, seven years,” Miracle said. “Even with the closing of The Rock Gallery, there are still quite a few performers out there opening up their own open-mic nights and stuff with local venues.”
Miracle said the desert lacks one big thing: a comedy club.
“A designated comedy club is what the valley needs,” Miracle said. “People are looking for things to do outside of the big casinos and the big shows, and there are plenty of up-and-coming performers who can’t sell out a 2,000-seat venue, but they would destroy a 200-seat venue. That puts a middle ground into what kind of performers you could see in the valley, because at a certain time, it was: You’re either going to an open mic night to see a local showcase, or you could see Jerry Seinfeld. Having these places like Little Street Music Hall, and if there was another comedy club that could open up, you’re now getting to see these middle performers who are one step away from getting a gig on SNL, or doing a comedy special and stuff like that.”
Josiah Gonzalez, one of the owners of Little Street Music Hall, said comedy shows are important for the venue.
“We’ve always talked about having an ecosystem for musicians to thrive, and we didn’t foresee it, but that ecosystem is also where comics thrive,” Gonzalez said via email (due to illness). “It’s became a natural partnership, because we share many of the same needs and audience.”
With only a handful of comedy shows under the venue’s figurative belt, Gonzalez has been impressed by the local comedy scene.
“I’m surprised by how connected they are to the bigger scene in Los Angeles and San Diego,” Gonzalez said. “They network like crazy and have developed relationships with tons of SoCal heavy hitters in the scene. It seems like a tight-knit community.”
On a good night, Little Street’s comedy nights are as packed as their concerts. The venue trades rock ’n’ roll stage lights for a dark, comedy-club vibe, and instead of standing room for dancing and moshing, the space is filled with chairs and couches. Even though Little Street will continue hosting comedy shows, Gonzalez echoed Miracle’s desire for a comedy-only space in the desert.
“Just like music, you need places to perform,” he said. “The more space people are given to practice, the better the product becomes. I’m seeing promoters and producers developing concepts and growing their following as a direct result of having more places to perform.”
The Coachella Valley Comedy Fest will take place from Thursday, March 20, through Saturday, March 22, at Little Street Music Hall, 82707 Miles Ave., in Indio. Individual tickets for events start at $6.99; VIP day passes start $69.99, while a VIP three-day pass is $139.99. For tickets and more information, visit the event’s Eventbrite page.
Edited on March 12 regarding a show change.