Brooklyn Comedy Collective Will Make 2024 The Biggest Year Ever

The Brooklyn Comedy Collective is exploding. But in a good way. After the rousing success of the BCC's 2023 edition of the FUN AND DUMB IMPROV FESTIVAL – which included over 130 shows and 600+ improvisers as perhaps the LARGEST IMPROV FESTIVAL IN THE WORLD THAT YEAR – the BCC is preparing for its best year ever. The FUN AND DUMB IMPROV FESTIVAL was featured by Isabelle Lichtenstein at Paste Magazine raving that BCC wants audiences to “love NYC improv”.

As the BCC continues to grow, it retains its intimacy and specialness as a platform for some of the most interesting, weirdest, freakiest, and exciting comedy in the city. “It feels like the community at the theater has tripled,” long-time performer CHLOE TROAST (“SNL”) shared. “I think everyone's like, ‘Wow, this is becoming a true institution now.'”  New York Magazine declared that BCC “has been producing some of the wildest comedy in the city for years now”, and Time Out New York raved,“Some of the most talented — and demented — members of NYC's comedy elite unleash all hell at the always-lit BCC.”

The BCC took the NY COMEDY FEST by storm in 2023, with 36 shows – nearly more than any other theater in the festival, leading the New York Times' Jason Zinoman to call BCC “a leading house of improvisation.” According to Artistic Director Philip Markle, this is only the beginning. PITCHFEST, launched in collaboration with producer DANIEL CRAMER (prior Sony, now WME) and now partnering with producer Jose Acevedo (“Phoebe Robinson: SORRY, HARRIET TUBMAN”), wants to pick up where it left off, with a thrilling mix of scripted comedy and live performance, presenting new and promising pilot scripts for industry. With the promise of getting talented and unique writers the chance of presenting their wild and inspiring new ideas for shows in front of real producers, PITCHFEST helps bring the immediacy and fun of performing in front of a live audience with the novelty of discovering new stories. Having featured performers and writers like JO FIRESTONE (head writer on “Ziwe”), MAX WITTERT (The New Yorker), Dylan Adler (“The Late Late Show with James Corden”), CHARLIE BARDEY (Vulture), JD AMATO, ("The Problem with Jon Stewart"), BCC PITCHFEST was featured on Deadline, and will continue to be a launch pad for other writers, creators, and comedians. 

But BCC's continued growth is not just based on the continuation of these larger festivals and opportunities, but on the fraternity that is fostered at BCC. With shows happening across four spaces (Eris Mainstage, Eris Deep Space, BCC Doghouse, and BCC Pigpen – all within a 2-minute walk in East Williamsburg) – and with over 24 shows a week, the opportunity for audiences and comedians, amateurs and professionals, and people just looking to laugh are limitless. The BCC has long been a home for comedians honing their craft, with comic firebrands capturing people's attentions such Dylan Adler, Kyle Gordon (viral TikTok video “Planet of the Bass”), and SNL's Chloe Troast - along with legendary performers like Maria Bamford (Netflix's “Lady Dynamite”), Tami Sagher (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Chris Gethard (“The Chris Gethard Show”).

Rising superstar Dylan Adler (“The Late Late Show with James Corden”), named one of Vulture's Comedians You Should Know in 2022, said of BCC, “[They] really foster an incredible sense of community. It really feels like a home base” He continued, “It's not only one of my favorite places to perform in NYC but it's also my favorite place to be with my friends. The BCC has also helped me tremendously when it comes to experience with showcases and pilot presentations. The community at the BCC is truly incredible”. 

In addition to shows, the BCC offers a range of classes taken by over 2500 students in 2023, taught by comedy luminaries like SHALEWA SHARPE (Comedy Central's Featuring) and Sam Morrison (“Late Night with Seth Meyers”), featuring courses on disciplines from stand-up to sketch, from improv to musical improv, from clowning (the only comedy theater in NYC that offers that, with expert teachers like TALLIE MEDEL, featured in “Everything Everywhere All At Once”) to classes on pilot writing and more. As part of its mission to foster comedy from a diversity of voices, the BCC's 2023 diversity scholarship gave out $55k in free classes for students from marginalized communities. The BCC would be nothing without its sense of community and camaraderie, with a focus on bringing people together without hierarchy — a space where no one is ‘cooler' than anybody else.

With its focus on curating the wildest, freakiest, most unconventional kinds of comedy in the city, BROOKLYN COMEDY COLLECTIVE is creating a comedy community that feels like home.

Visit Brooklyn Comedy Collective's website here.

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