by Plenty of magazines and websites post slideshows of their hottest 50 up-and-coming stand-up comedians to keep an eye out for before they blaze a trail of glory. Only Variety jets its comedians up to Montreal to fete them in front of the show business industry’s agents, managers and producers.
Here are the 2015 “10 Comics To Watch” as selected by Variety, who’ll be featured in the July issue corresponding with a celebration at Montreal’s Just For Laughs festival.
- Nate Bargatze, who recently debuted the hour stand-up special Full Time Magic on Comedy Central and is a favorite of Jimmy Fallon.
- Tone Bell, star of NBC’s upcoming sitcom People Are Talking. Bell recently sold a show to write, produce and star in for FX.
- Kate Berlant, writer for Billy on the Street known for giving her comedy more than a hint of performance art.
- Flula Borg, recently seen in Pitch Perfect 2 and The Grace Helbig Show, with more than 500,000 subscribers to his YouTube.
- Bianca Del Rio, winner of RuPaul’s Drag Race.
- Bridget Everett, who has her first Comedy Central special debuting in July and often tours with Amy Schumer and appears in Inside Amy Schumer.
- Mega64, a sketch group and gaming podcast featuring Derrick Acosta, Rocco Botte and Shawn Chatfield.
- Nikki Glaser, star of Comedy Central’s upcoming weekly series, Not Safe With Nikki Glaser, plus her own hour stand-up special on the network.
- The Grawlix, comedians Adam Clayton-Holland, Andrew Orvedahl and Ben Roy, who created and will star in truTV’s Those Who Can’t.
- Ricky Velez, a panelist and correspondent on The Nightly Show With Larry Wilmore, who’ll also appear in Netflix’s upcoming Aziz Ansari project.
