Hey, Chattanooga, Trista here. 👋 Quick question: Is there a better time to seek out some laughter than the middle of spooky season? I don’t think so, and the Lookout Comedy Festival is happening just in time.

This festival is a four-day affair (Oct. 16th-19th) consisting of 13 individual shows across multiple venues (The Palace Theater, Barley’s Taproom, Improv Chattanooga + JJ’s Bohemia). There will be four headliners and 36 up-and-coming stand-up comics from 18 different states. Yeah, that’s a lot of jokes.

Alongside the stage time each comedian will receive, there will also be three editions of Improv Chattanooga’s Improv vs. Stand-up and three variety shows from the Atlanta comedy scene (Comedy Island, Drop Up Video + Comedy Clapback). The festival will end at 11:30 p.m. on Saturday with an after party at The Palace Theater. During the party, any comics who are still in town will get one minute of stage time each followed by a live show by Iron Fez.

Meet your headliners:

🎤 DeAnne Smith of Netflix's Comedians of the World (Endicott, NY)

🎤 Hilliary Begley of Netflix’s Dumplin’ (Asheville, NC)

🎤 Ian Aber of Netflix’s Queer Eye (Atlanta, GA)

🎤 Mo Alexander of Comedy Central (Memphis, TN)

Local stand-up comedian Donnie Marsh created the Lookout Comedy Festival. He started it in 2018 as an invitation-only rough draft of the event he ultimately wanted to bring to the public. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive with a push to make it even bigger this year, so he did.

“The festival is a labor of love for our local scene,” Donnie said.

You can find the schedule, tickets + description for all individual shows on the website. FYI: An all-inclusive pass gets you into every show, or you can buy individual tickets varying from free to $20. If you’re a fan of a good time, this festival is for you.