Laughing Skull Comedy Festival unveils list of inaugural year’s stand-up contestants

The inaugural edition of the Laughing Skull Comedy Festival will take place March 3-7 at the club's intimate Atlanta space, and the festival producers announced their first picks for their contest that gives out $1,000 and passes to other fests in Aspen, Ashville and an APCA showcase as first prize.

Contestants are broken up into groups. And here they are:

Fresh Faces: Nicole Blizek, Bryan Bruner, Jason Collings, Michael Drucker, Nathan Fridson, Rob Gleeson, Josh Harris, Jason Marcus, Danielle Stewart, Dave Stone, Mike Trainor, Sean Wilkinson, Hampton Yount.

Prelim 1: John Betz Jr, Jordan Carlos, Billy Wayne Davis, Jeff Dwoskin, Mia Jackson, Bryan Kellen, Carmen Lynch, Julian McCullough, Mark Ricadonna, Andy Sandford, Jeff Short, Tom Simmons.

Prelim 2: Danny Browning, Tony Deyo, Denis Donohue, Pat Dixon, Jena Friedman, Jarrod Harris, Cleveland Jackson, Grant Lyon, Phil Mazo, Kelly Pryce, Sam Tripoli, Lavar Walker.

Prelim 3: Rich Aronovich, Brian Bannon, Matt Bergman, Lizzy Cooperman, Leo Flowers, Dan Licoppe, Mark Normand, Michael Palascak, Chris Porter, Ben Roy, Sara Shea, TJ Young.

Prelim 4: Dustin Chafin, Matt Conty, Jessie Geller, Josh Gondelman, Shang Forbes, Tanner Inman, Dan Mengini, Steven Kent McFarlin, Ryan Singer, Seaton Smith, Sara Tiana, Prescott Tolk.

Half of the ticket proceeds will go toward The Lenny Bruce Memorial Foundation to help build a drug recovery facility called Lenny's House.

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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