Up-and-coming comedians to perform in Norfolk

The 2025 Great American Comedy Festival will feature a diverse lineup of up-and-coming, national comedians that would make the man the festival honors proud.
Five comedians will grace the Johnny Carson Theatre stage on Friday, June 13 — River Butcher, David Perdue, Amy Shanker, Adam Tiller and host Chip Chantry.

"I'm frequently amazed by the caliber of comedians who are willing and excited to come to Northeast Nebraska and be a part of our festival," said festival executive director Pat Janssen. "All of our feature acts are regular headliners in their own right, and they will really help give us what I believe will be a fantastic festival."

Butcher is a standup comic, actor and writer. His first half-hour special "A Different Kind of Dude" made its debut on Comedy Central's YouTube channel and was called "a master class in culture war commentary" by Esquire.com. The special also garnered the title of "Some of the Best Jokes of 2022 So Far." River recently wrote on the FX pilot "Belated," previously wrote for "A League of Their Own" and created/starred in/wrote the critically acclaimed TV show "Take My Wife."

Perdue has appeared on Kevin Hart Presents: "Hart of the City" on Comedy Central and "Uproarious" on Fuse. Perdue is also an actor appearing in "Love Is ..." on OWN and "Bobcat Goldthwait"s Misfits and Monsters" on truTV. He also co-hosts the sports/comedy podcast "Forth and Ten" hosted on ForthDistrict.com and is a co-producer of the Atlanta favorite “1AM Secret Show.”

Growing up with a family that her friends dubbed "The Jewish Griswolds," Shanker had no choice but to go into standup comedy. Her dry comedic style stems from her time as an inner-city high school English teacher in Chicago. She performs at clubs across the U.S. and has opened for Chad Daniels, Gary Gulman and Colin Quinn, among others. She also may be found on “Max's Pause” with Sam Jay and on Kevin Hart's LOL channel.

Tiller is a standup comedian, podcaster and writer based out of Seattle. He was a semifinalist in the 2022 Seattle International Comedy Competition. In 2025, not only will he be featured in the Great American Comedy Festival, but also the San Francisco Comedy Competition (San Francisco) and the Savage Henry Comedy Festival (Eureka, California). He has been featured on the road for comedians Dan Soder, Big Jay Oakerson, Dave Landau and Brendan Schaub. He also has opened for comedians Kevin Nealon, Jay Mohr and Ari Shaffir.
"While Adam is based in Seattle, he has family ties to the state," Janssen said. "I'm so excited to have him here because he's a fantastic performer, but I'm also excited that he gets to perform for so many people he knows."

Hosting the Friday show is Chantry, who is a standup comedian and television writer. He has written for “Crazy Talk,” a comedy/talk series for NBC Universal and the syndicated series “Whacked Out Sports.” He most recently wrote on the NatGeo series “Howie Mandel's Animals Doing Things.” Formerly a fourth grade teacher, Chantry left the classroom to pursue comedy and writing. He has opened for national headliners such as Dave Chappelle, Bob Saget and Tig Notaro.

These five comics round out what will be a night of comedy headlined by James Austin Johnson of “Saturday Night Live.”

The Great American Comedy Festival opens Thursday, June 12, with the family comedy/magic show and wraps up on Saturday, June 14, with the festival gala headlined by Yakov Smirnov. All three shows are at 7 p.m. at the Johnny Carson Theatre.

The annual festival opened in 2008 to honor the legacy of Norfolk's favorite son, Johnny Carson, who was host of NBC's "Late Night Show Starring Johnny Carson" for more than 25 years.

"I love how much our audiences love our shows each year," Janssen said. "But I also take a lot of pride and joy introducing all these wonderful comedians to our home. It's a wonderful cultural exchange, and I think everyone gets to benefit from it."

The Great American Comedy Festival is also made possible with the support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.