“DEI” could also be a verboten time period within the present presidential administration, however at Santa Monica’s second Bergamot Comedy Competition, it’s a mandate. The six-day occasion’s 2025 tagline insists, “Inclusivity Isn’t a Joke.”
The pageant reviewed greater than 750 submissions seen by an trade screening panel, says government producer Nicole Blaine. Fifty-three up-and-comers from throughout the nation will carry out at Blaine’s nonprofit Crow comedy membership March 31 by April 5. The lineup consists of 93% female-identifying, BIPOC, LGBTQ+ acts and different views traditionally ignored by gatekeepers in stand-up.
Bergamot‘s talent includes college-age participants and newbies like Kim Reeder, a 2024 scholar with the National Alliance to End Homelessness who also serves on the advisory board at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C. Other attendees include Joel Stetler, a third-grade teacher in Fresno who lives with a rare, incurable cancer that has required nine years of surgeries and chemotherapy.
“Comedy has become a way for me to sort it all out,” Stetler says. “My response has remained one of the few things I can control. Storytelling and stand-up have given me a space to turn something dark into something meaningful, not just for myself but for audiences who know what it means to have life kick the door in.”
Audience at the Crow comedy club in Santa Monica
(Christy Linder)
Like the festival’s inaugural version, this yr’s occasion gives eight stand-up showcases for tickets priced at $30(which features a free one-year subscription to MasterClass, an occasion sponsor alongside Santa Monica Journey and Tourism, Santa Monica Brew Works and Comedy Provides Again). The Crow, a female-owned and operated venue, is positioned within the Bergamot Station Arts Middle on the twenty sixth Road/Bergamot cease of the Metro Rail. A free, guarded parking zone is out there.
“It’s still hard for certain voices to get onstage and be showcased,” says L.A.’s Jeffrey Jay. “Bergamot is going to lift you up, bring [the] industry to you and allow you to be seen without shame, without the idea of, ‘We want you to be more like ‘this.’ “We all have different voices, and we’ve all got an even playing field.”
Jay headlines this yr’s new Storytelling Showcase, which options eight performers approaching the theme of “Metamorphosis.” The pageant veteran initially from Texas Metropolis, Texas, is at the moment finishing a Crimson State comedy tour with Mary Lynn Rajskub. He praises Bergamot for elevating “clearly unique voices that we are not typically seeing,” he mentioned.
“When we get to the other side of these stories,” Jay continued, “they’re changed and I’m changed as the person watching it. As a person who’s transgender, who’s been through a lot, nothing makes me happier than watching someone else’s story bring me into their world and change me. We get richer stories from it, and we create community for each other. There is no competition. All of us can succeed, and we’re stronger together.”
Saturday, April 5, consists of an hour from Cameron Esposito, with new materials developed because the comedian filmed her “Four Pills” particular, which might be launched April 11 by way of Dropout (previously CollegeHumor). Bergamot’s closing present is the Crow’s recurring “Gay Interrupted!,” a month-to-month from companions Kelsey Anonsen and Mahtub Zare that includes a lineup of queer comics plus one token straight performer.
Bergamot’s 2025 version introduces offstage actions and networking occasions for expertise, together with a “Boozy Bingo” trade lunch mixer on Wednesday. Together with performing, contributors can attend panels devoted to “giving underrepresented voices the amplification and professional advancement they need and deserve,” Blaine says. Subjects embody pitching TV reveals, planning a tour, getting booked at comedy golf equipment and addressing psychological well being challenges inside the leisure enterprise. Night and Saturday afternoon panels are free to the general public based mostly on capability.
Comic Nina Nguyen performs subsequent week on the Bergamot Comedy Competition hosted by the Crow comedy membership in Santa Monica at Bergarmot Arts Middle
(Monique Hernandez)
In non-public workshops, pageant expertise can obtain mentorship and recommendation from L.A. performers donating their time and experience. Jay breaks down storytelling with Laura Home on Saturday; Danny Jolles and Irene Tu’s session gives steps for comics serious about creating and filming their very own stand-up specials. Beth Stelling and Zainab Johnson lead a punch-up group targeted on joke construction, punchlines and tags. (Stelling additionally headlines a showcase Tuesday night.) Throughout Bergamot 2024, Stelling anchored a showcase lineup together with Nina Nguyen, then subsequently booked Nguyen on “Beth Stelling and Her Pals” at Largo. Sarah Silverman, additionally on the Largo lineup, then booked Nguyen on a present together with Margaret Cho. Cho in flip booked Nguyen on extra reveals. Nguyen returns to Bergamot to headline a showcase Wednesday night.
“I learned that some of the biggest professional advancements often come from within your own community,” says Blaine. “This is the beauty of what can happen when artists at different stages of their careers come together for a week of career support, education and showcases: We can advance each other.”
