Hamptons Comedy Festival Comes to Bay Street Theater

If you like a good laugh, you’ll be happy to know that The Long Island Comedy Festival is coming to the East End. On Saturday, April 15, Bay Street Theater will host a local installment of the island-wide festival with a show featuring comics Kendra Cunningham, Bryan McKenna, Chris Roach and Rich Walker. This Hamptons Comedy Festival is the first of a three-part comedy series at Bay Street. Additional performances will follow this fall, on September 29 and October 21.

“People need to laugh more,” said Paul Anthony, The Long Island Comedy Festival’s executive producer. “There’s so much going on in the world … with the bank crashings and all the negative. You can’t turn on [the TV] without seeing the negativity. The larger goal of the comedy festival is not just to bring great talent to the theater, but to give people an opportunity to laugh, and have a good time and to forget some of their problems.”

The Long Island Comedy Festival has been a staple throughout Nassau and Suffolk Counties since its founding in 2006. Its showcase format has multiple comics performing in one show, so audiences gets a mix of different comedic styles and talents.

“Everywhere in Nassau and Suffolk County, we’ve played basically every theater, you name it, we have been there at some point,” Anthony, who is emceeing the show, said.

A comedian himself, and the opening act on April 15, Anthony’s goal with the festival is to allow local theaters to bring top talent to their audiences. Now, at any given time, he says the festival is working with over 100 comics from the New York area.

The comics for this upcoming first installment of the Hamptons Comedy Festival each have quite the resume. Kendra Cunningham has been a finalist in the Boston Comedy Festival for two years in a row, twice appeared on NBC’s “Last Comic Standing,” and sold out her solo show “This Could be You” at Don’t Tell Mama in New York, seven times. Bryan McKenna has toured nationally with Jim Breuer and his first album, “Jim Breuer Presents Bryan McKenna: The Fight is Never Over,” hit iTunes as the No. 1 debut. Chris Roach, of Ronkonkoma, has opened for comedian Kevin James and tours around the country. Finally, Rich Walker has been onstage with Ray Romano, Kevin James, Dom Irrera and Johnny Maestro. Despite their extensive experience, none of the comedians have performed at Bay Street Theater in the past, which is where Anthony works as the sales and sponsorship manager.

In addition to their varied resumes, each comedian has a different style, Anthony said, noting that Roach is self-deprecating and Cunningham is a little more cutting-edge. Walker talks a lot about his family, he added, and McKenna references his status as a newlywed.

Cunningham said she met Anthony through a mutual friend and told him she would “love to be considered” to perform in the festival, in any location. It happens that her boyfriend’s family has had a place in Southampton his whole life, and he has always been a “big fan” of the venue.

So, naturally, Cunningham wanted to perform at Bay Street too. It was the first show Anthony asked her to do.

“I got really lucky,” she said.

Originally from Boston, the comedian added she has a self-deprecating style, but tries to keep her work positive.

“I think it’s more inclusive and silly and less like mean-spirited and bullying,” Cunningham said. “I like to think of it as kind of fun-loving and maybe I’m the type of person you’d meet at your neighborhood cookout gathering.”

Roach explained that much of his self-deprecating humor stems from anxiety. His material also centers around destigmatizing mental health.

“Especially after the pandemic, it’s something everybody can relate to,” he said. “People are more open to talking about it now. I ask the crowd sometimes if anybody is having anxiety or taking medications and it’s amazing how many people are willing to just admit it. That it’s not something to be embarrassed about. It [takes] strength to go and get help.”

The idea behind having several comics perform at one event, rather than featuring a single headliner, stems from Anthony’s time performing at Manhattan clubs on the weekdays, when there were as many as 15 acts, giving the audience variety and making it so they are bound to find jokes they find funny. It also allows Comedians to use their best material, as opposed to stretching to fill an hour-long set, said Anthony.

“It gives a tremendous amount of diversity in terms of the level of talent, types of comedians and the types of material that you’re going to experience,” he said. “The shows are a lot of fun. So we took that concept and that's how we present the Comedy Festival.”

“It kind of keeps the audience on their toes a little bit,” Roach added. “They don’t know what they’re gonna get next, but it’s a lot of fun. For me, I love this show because I get to see friends I haven’t seen in a while and fellow comedians. It’s always a good time.”

The Bay Street show will open with Anthony for about 10 minutes, followed by the four listed comedians and then a surprise guest to fill the 90 minutes of content, which Anthony said is the “magic amount of time in 2023,” before the audience’s attention starts to waiver. Each act will perform for about 15 to 20 minutes, give or take, with Roach, the headliner, taking the stage for about 25 minutes.

“This is not a Titanic movie. It’s just a comedy show. People are coming out to have fun. This is what works,” said Anthony, adding that each comic has mass appeal and avoids politics and vulgarity. “You may hear some adult language, but you’re not going to be grossed out.”

Still, Anthony recommends that audience members be over the age of 18 because most younger teenagers wouldn’t get many of the jokes that will be told. All of the comedians that will be performing are intentionally older, Anthony said, as it takes years to fully tune a comic’s craft.

Anthony said that comedians mics come to the showcase largely through referrals. He will occasionally recruit from Manhattan Comedy clubs and there is an outside application process, in which aspiring performers can submit their material.

The response from audiences is always telling when they come to meet the comics after the show, Anthony said.

“I can’t tell you how often people will just be so enthusiastic and say, ‘Oh my God, I haven’t laughed this hard in so long. My stomach is killing me. And that’s a great feeling,” he said. “Think about how often you laugh to the point where you get stomach cramps. It’s a rare occasion.”

Hamptons Comedy Festival is Saturday, April 15, at 8 p.m. at Bay Street Theater. Tickets are $35 at baystreet.org or 631-725-9500. Bay Street Theater is on Long Wharf in Sag Harbor.