comedy Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Comedy Festival Returns To Morgantown

A weekend of comedy kicks off Thursday in Morgantown. Now in its second year, the Red Eye Comedy Festival not only highlights the state’s nascent comedy community, but is also attracting national talent to the region.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with festival organizer Cody Cannon to discuss the event.

A weekend of comedy kicks off Thursday in Morgantown. Now in its second year, the Red Eye Comedy Festival not only highlights the state’s nascent comedy community but is also attracting national talent to the region.

Reporter Chris Schulz sat down with festival organizer Cody Cannon to discuss the event.

This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.

Schulz: What exactly is the Red Eye Comedy Festival?

Cannon: Just basically a celebration of everything the comedy community has done over the past few years here in downtown Morgantown with a couple of lead up shows across the state. The festival itself is held in downtown Morgantown, multiple venues bringing some of my favorite nationally touring talent starting Thursday, March 30. Friday, Saturday, April 1 is the all-day comedy and beer festival just like we did last year at Morgantown Brewing Company. Eddie Pepitone is doing a late-night show at 123, closing out the whole festival. I did my best to make it a really great deal and experience for those who want to attend.

Schulz: This is your second year doing this now. What goes into an independent festival?

Cannon: Everything I’ve done has been super independent and also my first time doing anything like this stuff. I’m just kind of piecing things together as I go along and figuring out what works.

I need to first reach out to potential headliners and lock those in, try to find a diverse group of people. I also do my festival submission-based. All of the local and regional I try to give them a little more favor because they put a lot of work into the community and stuff. But I also want to highlight people around Appalachia and the country in general. If people are interested in flying out for a weekend festival, then I’d love to have you, but definitely want to focus on local and regional talent. This year, I think we probably had a good 100, maybe 80, submissions, something like that.

Schulz: That’s primarily from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Ohio, or…?

Cannon: Yeah! But we got some people from like Colorado, St. Louis. We have a couple of comedians, like coming from Louisville, and, you know, Florida and stuff like that.

Schulz: What did you learn from last year?

Cannon: I need to get so much more done in advance. I’ve done a little better this year. But next year, I’m planning on stepping it up even further. I’m definitely going forward hoping to reach out to and potentially get grants so I can potentially bring in bigger names and things like that. I just have no experience in that matter, and so I’m just kind of figuring all of this out as I go along.

Schulz: The festival isn’t just local comedians, as you alluded to there, you’re bringing in some pretty big names. Why is it important for you to obviously highlight local comedians, but also to bring in some of those bigger names?

Cannon: Well, for me, I’ve committed to staying here. I have a kid here, I want to stay here at least till he’s old enough to travel. So I want comedians to want to come to the state since I’ve committed to staying here. Also I just really love the state. I’m hoping this summer to take a couple of comedians on whitewater rafting trips. And every time a comedian comes through town, always the morning after a show I take them to Tudor’s Biscuit World. I try to make it an experience.

For me, it’s cool because I’m hanging out with people I look up to and aspire to be like one day. But it’s also because I get to introduce a community, the comedy community, to a place that I love very much. Since I started producing shows after things opened up in 2021, most of the comedians that I’ve had through have told me that it’s the first time they’ve ever been to West Virginia, other than maybe driving through but never like stopping for shows.

I would love to see the state thrive. I would love to see more tourism. The music scene is pretty great, and you get a lot of pretty fantastic touring bands. I just saw an opportunity, a vacuum, for touring comedy and decided to open up those roads and have more stops for comedians to potentially make money.

Schulz: Talk to me a little bit about, you know, the local scene and how that’s been progressing since you started this last year.

Cannon: I’m so grateful that I am surrounded with so many talented and excited and enthusiastic comedians because everyone’s pulling their own weight. Everybody’s kind of doing little things here and there to try to make the scene more exciting and interesting to people who might not normally think to come to a show in Morgantown, West Virginia. I’m just so proud of where everyone’s at and how hard everyone is working. Everyone’s constantly coming to the stage with fresh and exciting material and trying to work on new stuff and I’m really proud of everyone that I work with.

Schulz: Why do you think it’s important to set up a festival and not just focus exclusively on your set, your show and yourself?

Cannon: For one I wouldn’t be where I am without the community I have. It’s a chance for me to show off to this great community. So many of these nationally touring comics that you mentioned, have been like, “Wow, you have a great thing set up here. These people are really supportive. These venues are really cool.”

I like to give back. I’ve always enjoyed festivals in general. Wine and Jazz is one of my favorite weekends of the year. I love a good music festival. I’ve always wanted to do something like that. And so this is kind of me making something happen out of what I love. I don’t know, I just want to keep growing the scene and want people to keep wanting to come to West Virginia. 123 is a magical venue. Every comedian that’s performed there, it’s like “This place is something special.” So, I want to keep that going.

More information, including a list of featured comedians and participating venues, can be found on the Red Eye Comedy Facebook page.

A KY Comedian Ducks A Flying Bottle And A Talk With The WV Poet Laureate

For working comedians, mean-spirited hecklers are part of the job. But what happens when someone gets angry enough to throw a beer? And, West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman had his own experience with an intimidating gig. We also hear some advice for people caring for aging relatives. You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

For working comedians, mean-spirited hecklers are part of the job. But what happens when someone gets angry enough to throw a beer?

And, West Virginia poet laureate Marc Harshman had his own experience with an intimidating gig.

We also hear some advice for people caring for aging relatives.

You’ll hear these stories and more this week, Inside Appalachia.

In This Episode:

Kentucky Comedian Ducks A Heckler And Catches Fame
West Virginia Poet Laureate Looks Back At 10 Years
More Questions About Elder Care Answered
Miss West Virginia Champions Appalachian Agriculture

Kentucky Comedian Ducks A Heckler And Catches Fame

Catching a break in comedy can take years, decades — sometimes never. Usually, stand up comedians slowly work their way up from open mics and local bars — to the grind of touring on the club circuit.

But getting a spot on a late night talk show? That could be a career launcher — leading to a better spot on club shows, national tours and — every once in a while — real stardom.

Kentucky comedian Ariel Elias recently appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! — but not in the way she expected. She went viral after a video emerged of a heckler in New Jersey chucking a beer at her.

It missed Elias’ head by inches. What happened next ensured her place in standup history. Elias picked up the can — and chugged the rest of the beer.

WFPL’s Stephanie Wolf recently spoke with her.

West Virginia Poet Laureate Looks Back At 10 Years

Marc Harshman is West Virginia’s poet laureate. Harshman has published more than 15 books over his career, many of them for children. His 2017 book “Believe What You Can” won Appalachian Book of the Year. Producer Bill Lynch recently spoke with Harshman about his long tenure, his current collection, “Dark Hills of Home,” and what it was like when he found out he was chosen to follow Irene McKinney as West Virginia poet laureate.

Miss West Virginia Champions Appalachian Agriculture

Miss West Virginia Elizabeth Lynch finished as third-runner up in the Miss America competition. Lynch used the moment to promote Appalachian agriculture. WVPB’s Shepherd Snyder spoke to Lynch about her advocacy.

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Our theme music is by Matt Jackfert. Other music this week was provided by The Company Stores, Mary Hott, Paul Loomis and Montana Skies

Bill Lynch is our producer. Our executive producer is Eric Douglas. Kelley Libby is our editor. Our audio mixer is Patrick Stephens. Zander Aloi also helped produce this episode.

You can send us an email at InsideAppalachia@wvpublic.org.

You can find us on Instagram and Twitter @InAppalachia.

And you can sign-up for our Inside Appalachia Newsletter here!

Inside Appalachia is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting.

Comedy Festival Brings Morgantown Laughs For Days

On March 31, the Red Eye Comedy Festival will bring three days of laughs to Morgantown.

When you think of West Virginia, many things come to mind. But comedy is probably not the first or even second on the list.

Cody Cannon is a Morgantown comedian. He works in the restaurant industry by day, but he’s passionate about what he does. He’s also passionate about where he does it.

“I want comedians to want to come to West Virginia, I want there to be more exciting things happening in West Virginia and I like festivals,” Cannon said. “To create one of my own is kind of like a dream come true almost.”

But that dream was almost never realized, said Noah Basden, another Morgantown comedian.

“This festival was scheduled for 2020 like right before COVID really popped off. It was like it was go time,“ he said.

Alas, a festival in mid-April of 2020 was just one of countless live performances that were hastily canceled as the world adjusted to the emergent coronavirus pandemic. While in-person events have started to recover over the past year, nascent comedy communities across West Virginia definitely took a hit.

“There aren’t as many people, which is a bummer. I really want to see more people coming out to the scene,” Cannon said. “It’s just not the humongous diverse crowds we’re getting right before the pandemic. Now we’re starting to slowly build up steam.”

That steam is culminating with a festival. On March 31, the Red Eye Comedy Festival will bring three days of laughs to Morgantown.

“Red Eye Comedy Festival is a combination of local artists, musical and comedic, and also national acts.Three days, three different venues, three different shows,” Basden said.

Basden spent years working as a comedian in Chicago before moving back to Morgantown. There, he hosted shows in his house under the moniker of “The Potion Castle.”

A festival is certainly a step up from “Do it Yourself” house shows, or even the popular open mics in downtown Morgantown that Basden helped create.

Cannon has been plugging away to create an environment for comedy in Morgantown, too. He’s attracted national names like Myq Kaplan and Joyelle Nicole Johnson to do shows there, often their first time performing anywhere in West Virginia.

For the festival, he has helped to attract touring headliners Aminah Imani and Dave Ross.

Ross will headline Friday’s show, alongside the folks of the satire website “The Hard Times.” Ross came up in the punk and alternative scenes that the site lampoons, with the same kind of DIY ethos that comedy in West Virginia requires.

“I’m really excited to go to West Virginia,” Ross said. “It’s impressive to build a comedy scene from nothing. And that’s a big reason I feel privileged to be booked on this festival. And to be thought of, and why I’m so excited to do it.”

While touring comedians might be a major draw, the upcoming festival aims to highlight local talent. The festival is packed with mostly West Virginia comics, and not just Morgantown’s deep pool of standups. One such comic is Alexandria Runyon of Huntington.

“It’s really exciting for my first participation in a festival to be a West Virginia festival, you know, that was put together by West Virginians,” she said.

Runyon, who works part time as a producer for WVPB’s Inside Appalachia, has been part of Huntington’s comedy scene since she was in college. She sees the festival as a step in the right direction for a region ready for a new way to tell its stories.

“I hope that the future of comedy in the state is just abundant,” Runyon said. “I know that there are so many people here in West Virginia who are storytellers. And I think oral storytelling is a trademark of Appalachian people. And I think comedy is just a very natural way to present those stories.“

That’s a sentiment Cannon can get behind, and drives his desire to see this festival and others like it succeed.

“I want this state to do well. It breeds incredible artists, constantly popping up with incredible talent. And one thing I’d like this thing to do, I only want it to grow,” he said.

Whether the festival will be a success and have a chance to grow remains to be seen later this month, but those involved are giving it their all to ensure some laughs after a difficult few years.

Culture Clash: Back to the Border

Back in the 1990s, Trey got into Culture Clash, a trio of Latino comedians who do social satire. He loved that they skewered public figures and poke sacred cows.

Culture Clash enjoys making the audience squirm, no matter what part of the political spectrum they’re on. Their critically acclaimed work in the 90s had to do with tension along the U.S-Mexico border.

Recently, they’ve been reviving and updating their pieces because – if you haven’t heard – news from the border is pretty relevant these days.

Trey talks with Richard Montoya of Culture Clash about creating satire on the border.

Tina Fey Continues to Uncover 'The Hidden World of Girls'

Host Tina Fey, star of 30 Rock, author of Bossypants and Saturday Night Live alumna, takes listeners around the world into the secret life of girls—from the dunes of the Sahara to a slumber party in Manhattan, from the dancehalls of Jamaica to a racetrack in Ramallah—and reveals some of her own hidden worlds.

Tune in to The Hidden World of Girls on West Virginia Public Radio on Thursday, March 27 at 9 p.m.

As part of this international collaboration, The Kitchen Sisters opened up The Hidden World of Girls NPR phone line and invited listeners to share their stories of groundbreaking girls and pioneering women. Calls poured in from around the world and these stories and messages thread throughout the hours. Stories in this hour include:

Horses, Unicorns and Dolphins—a story of girlhood fantasy and aspiration.
From Afghanistan we enter The Hidden World of Kandahar Girls—girls and young women going to school, working towards careers, standing up to the threats of the Taliban.
We explore the mysterious universe of women’s bodies in the story, Chicken Pills: The Hidden World of Jamaican Girls where homegrown cosmetic treatments and changing ideals of beauty are part of a national debate going on in the music, in the dancehalls and on the streets.
We visit Tiina Urm, a young Estonian environmental activist who spearheaded a one-day clean up of her entire country.
We meet Amira Al-Sharif from Yemen who came to New York City to document the lives of young American women.
We go back stage with singer Janelle Monae and hear about her songwriting process

Oh, the Hipsters Lie!

Music snobbery comes in many forms, but it operates under two basic principles.

The first is that a hipster assumes that they know about bands you couldn’t possible know about and therefore you are much less hip than they. Secondly, once everyone knows about a band, their music or their “hipness,” is no longer viable as they have “gone commercial.”

Jimmy Kimmel has done a social experiment. When a camera and a mic are present, what will they say when asked about fictional bands?

The result is a scream:

Kentucky Comedian Ducks A Heckler And Catches Fame

More Questions About Elder Care Answered

West Virginia Poet Laureate Looks Back At 10 Years

Miss West Virginia Champions Appalachian Agriculture