Great American Comedy Festival

Robert Klein

For more than forty years, Robert Klein has entertained audiences, and he continues to have an acclaimed career incomedy, on Broadway, on television, and in film.

Born in the Bronx, he was a member of the famed “Second City” theatrical troupe in Chicago. He was nominated twice for Grammy Awards for “Best Comedy Album of the Year” for his albums “Child of the Fifties” and “Mind Over Matter.”  He received a Tony Award nomination for Best Actor and won a Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle Award for his performance in the hit Neil Simon musical, “They’re Playing Our Song.” In 1993, Klein won an Obie and the Outer Critics Circle Award for Outstanding Performance by an Actor in Wendy Wasserstein’s, “The Sisters Rosensweig.”  In 1975, Klein was the first comedian to appear in a live concert on Home Box Office. He has done seven one-man shows for HBO, and is currently preparing his eighth.  Among many starring roles in television, he co-starred in the hit NBC series, “Sisters,” and regularly appears on talk-shows, making more than 100 appearances on “The Tonight Show” and “Late Show with David Letterman” alone.

Klein has also appeared in many notable films including, “Hooper,” “The Owl and the Pussycat,” “Primary Colors,” “People I Know,” “Two Weeks Notice,” and “How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days.” Currently he can be seen in “Reign Over Me” and the upcoming, “Ira and Abby.”  “The Amorous Busboy of Decatur Avenue,” his recent first book for Simon & Schuster, is an affectionate comingof-age memoir about growing up in the ‘50s and ‘60s before embarking on a show business career. In it he recounts his journey from an apartment in the Bronx, developing his talent in Chicago and the beginning of his show business stardom. The book is pure Robert Klein: witty, honest, self-questioning and always contagiously funny. Publishers

Weekly writes: "...he unfurls an array of captivating anecdotes, writing with wry wit and honesty." Robert, a lifelong New Yorker, makes his home in Westchester and New York City. 

Jesse Joyce

Jesse Joyce started his comedy career in Pittsburgh in 1998. In 2001 he made the move to New York City and since then and has been making a name for himself in cities and countries you've heard of as one of the hottest young comics working today.
He attributes his comedic instincts to growing up with his entertaining family. By following the example of his Uncle Michael, a former clown in the Ringling Bros.& Barnum and Bailey Circus and his great uncles, founders of the International Juggling Association, Joyce developed his own unique brand of comic charisma without throwing or balancing stuff or getting in or out of a tiny car.
Jesse has been seen on the inaugural season of Comedy Central’s Live At Gotham, and his Live At Gotham segment on Comedy Central’s Motherload website remains in the top most watched clip for the season. Jesse was also invited to be part of the Comedy Central on Campus College Tour throughout all of 2007. He's  been the host of AMC's Date Night, as well as appearing on Entertainment Tonight, and Lifetime. He was a contributing writer for Comedy Central's Roast of Flava Flav and was proud to have made fun of Ice-T to his face from the comfort and anonymity of his living room. His debut CD Joyce To The World has been well received and is played regularly on XM and Sirius Satellite Radio. In addition, Jesse can be regularly heard on the nationally syndicated Bob and Tom morning show and The Montreal Comedy Hour on the CBC in Canada. Since 2007 Jesse has been one of the four members of the nationally touring Comedy Addiction Tour featuring four comedians tackling the subject of their own addiction and recovery performing in theaters nation wide. He’s a contributor and a member of the marginally prestigious “panel of experts” in the book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Jokes and was recently featured in a Wall Street Journal article about comics using the internet to promote themselves. He has also written numerous TV and radio commercials as well as various print ads. In 2001 he received 2 American Advertising Awards (ADDYs) for his writing.
Jesse has entertained audiences all over the U.S., Canada, Ireland, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Djbouti, Qatar, Kuwait, Iraq and Switzerland where he has appointed himself "The Father of Swiss Comedy", as he's the only comedian he's ever heard of performing in Switzerland.

Vince Maranto

Vince  Maranto  has  been  performing  at  comedy  clubs  and  colleges  from  New  York  to  L.A.  for  over  25  years. Some  of  the  over  15,000 shows  that  he  has  performed  at,  include,  Zanies, The  Funny  Bone,  Catch  A  Rising  Star, The  Improv, and Funny  Business.  He  has  opened  for  such  acts  as  Drew  Carey,  Roseanne,  Jackie  Mason,  David  Brenner,  Jeff  Foxworthy,  Martin  Lawrence  and  Craig Ferguson,  as well as  many others.  Vince  has  been  seen  on  Superstation  TBS  and  PBS, as  well  as  local  Fox, ABC, and NBC  stations. Vince is also in the book, “ I KILLED, (stories from the road featuring America’s top comics).”

Micah Sherman

  Bio to Come, please check back

 

 

 

 

Matt Braunger

Matt Braunger was born just outside of Chicago. An actor since childhood, Matt studied theatre in New York and improvisation in Chicago under such luminaries as Susan Messing and Del Close and is currently studying at The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater in Los Angeles. Matt has played every major comedy stage in town, from the Improv to Comedy Death Ray and beyond. His television credits include ABC’s Pushing Daisies and Carpoolers, Fox’s Mad TV and VH1’s Acceptable TV, as well as a number of commercials.  Most recently, Matt was invited to Montreal’s Just For Laugh’s Festival where he performed in the New Faces Show to rave reviews.