News / TV

Comics to Watch 2017: Here’s who’s “Up Next” at Comedy Central’s Colossal Clusterfest

Comedy Central’s “Comics to Watch” showcases, which had featured up-and-coming stand-ups in recent years at the New York Comedy Festival, is now rebranded as “Up Next” and will debut at Comedy Central’s own festival next weekend in San Francisco.

These eight comedians selected to perform at Colossal Clusterfest also will be featured in a 90-minute TV special on the cable network.

Natasha Leggero hosts the “Up Next” showcase next Friday, with highlights airing next Sunday at 10 p.m. ET/PT, June 4, 2017.

Here are the 2017 Up Next comics! Descriptions courtesy of Comedy Central.

  • Curtis Cook is currently a writer on Comedy Central’s upcoming series The Jim Jeffries Show. He will appear in MTV’s upcoming pot-themed comedy show High Crimes and has also been on IFC’s Portlandia.
  • Anna Drezen is a comedian and writer for Saturday Night Live. She’s the editor-at-large of Reductress and coauthor of How May We Hate You? and How To Win At Feminism.
  • Joe Kwaczala is a Los Angeles-based comedian and writer who has contributed to The Onion News Network, ClickHole, and Funny or Die. As a stand-up, he has performed at San Francisco Sketchfest, the Comedy Exposition, and the Ventura Comedy Festival.
  • Teddy Ray has appeared on BET’s Comic View and season 8 of MTV’s Wild N’ Out. He has also continued to make a name for himself through Russell Simmons’s All Def Digital platform.
  • Rae Sanni is a staff writer on Comedy Central’s hit late-night series The President Show. Her writing has been featured in New York Magazine, The Decider and Buzzfeed.
  • Devon Walker is a stand-up based in Austin, TX and has been featured at the Moontower Comedy Festival. Walker was recently named a finalist in the 2017 Funniest Person in Austin stand-up competition.
  • Mo Welch is a comedian, writer and cartoonist who runs a live talk show called The Mo Show at Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theater in LA and co-produces Comedians You Should Know at The Improv. She has guest starred on Amazon’s Gortimer Gibbon’s Life on Normal Street and Life in Pieces.
  • Ramy Youssef is a comedian who appears in the upcoming third season of Mr. Robot, just finished filming Gus Van Sant’s film “Don’t Worry” and recently performed on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert. He was a series regular on Nick at Nite’s See Dad Run with Scott Baio, and was most recently seen in the 20th Century Fox comedy, “Why Him?”

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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