1st Annual Upper Left Comedy Festival Is Coming to Seattle

1st Annual Upper Left Comedy Festival
Is Coming to Seattle

Three days of stand up and performance events featuring comedians from the Great PNW and beyond.

Northwest Film Forum ~ Club Comedy ~ and more!
May 12th – 14th 2022

Upper Left Comedy Festival is bringing three days of stand-up and performance events to multiple venues in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood. Upper Left Comedy Fest will feature PNW comedy favorites and nationally known acts like Ron Lynch, Derek Sheen, Andy Iwancio, Birungi, Emmett Montgomery and Monica Nevi.

Three years ago, co-founders Sarah Crowe, Isaac Novak and CB Shamah came together with the primary goal of creating a premiere Seattle based comedy festival, one that shines a light on our talented, diverse and inclusive community of performers and creatives, as well as our amazing PNW audiences that love them. With the combination of Isaac’s years of producing comedy showcases and Sarah and CB producing background, Upper Left Comedy Festival was born.

Then, COVID happened.

Amazingly during this difficult time, the city of Seattle continues to grow. We are now not just a city of hardcore Northwesterners that embrace our city’s unique creative spirit, but we are also a city full of younger people from all across the nation. The last few years have produced an influx of streaming stand up specials, giving birth to a new generation of comedy fans ready to attend live shows and connect. Upper Left Comedy Festival plans on engaging with these fans and community, which is currently being underserved by the lack of a bona fide Seattle comedy festival. 

Upper Left Comedy Fest will take place May 12-14 2022, in Seattle’s popular Capitol Hill neighborhood.  Northwest Film Forum and Club Comedy, both within a nice stroll of each other, will act as host venues for the main shows. There will be opening night and closing night Main Stage shows featuring our bigger named performers, followed by after-parties where comics can interact with fans and pass holders.

Birungi is a Ugandan comedian based out of Seattle, Washington. Although he initially moved to America for college, he quickly found a different way to fall into debt – stand up comedy! Within 5 years of performing, he has hit stages in multiple cities including Olympia, Bellingham, Portland, Denver, Boston, Phoenix, San Diego and Los Angeles. He has been featured on the “Best of the Fest” list at the Burbank Comedy Festival. Birungi also had the privilege of opening for DL Hughley (Original Kings of Comedy) at the Parlor Comedy club in Bellevue, an experience he describes the highlight of his comedy career.

Derek Sheen is a cuddly mess of insecurities and a gifted, one-of-a-kind storyteller. His ability to mine humor from the dark, humid corners of the human condition has made him a cult favorite of comedy nerds around the globe. Despite a lack of television or film credits, he has amassed a pretty loyal fan base touring with comedy legends (name-drop alert!) Brian Posehn, Patton Oswalt and Janeane Garofalo. Derek Sheen has released three critically acclaimed albums on Minneapolis based Stand Up! Records, with Grammy Winning producer Dan Schlissel.

Emmett Montgomery is a comedian/storyteller who was made in Utah but has lived in Seattle for most of the 21st century and been failing beautifully on and off the stage for over a decade. Emmett was part of the top 100 in NBC’s Last Comic Standing Season 9 (2015) and was voted Seattle Weekly’s Best Comic of 2015 and named one of City Arts Magazines Artists of 2015. Has performed at festivals across the country including the Bridgetown Comedy Festival, Sasquatch Music Festival and the Women In Comedy Festival and can be heard on nationally podcasts like Risk!

Monica Nevi is a native of the Seattle area, having grown up about 20 minutes south in the glory that is Renton, Wa. The product of a wonderfully humorous family and diverse life experience, she went on to earn a degree from Seattle University and lived in the city for 3 more years after going to school. A collegiate basketball player, after injuries ended her career she decided to move forward with the next most accepted career for a young woman and pursue her strong interest in stand-up comedy. After starting and performing for the duration of her time in college and beyond Monica continues to perform all over the country with great comedians, in great festivals, in great competitions, television appearances and continues to love it.