With its headliners and stand-up competition, a virtual Boston Comedy Festival will keep the laughs coming

By Nick A. Zaino III Globe correspondent, Updated November 29, 2020

Usually, the Boston Comedy Festival includes a handful of headliner shows with bigger names, and dozens of comics coming to town for the festival’s stand-up competition. But with indoor shows still restricted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the BCF has gone virtual this year.

Shows and workshops for comedians started Sunday and will continue until Saturday. Many comics, including Judah Friedlander and Lewis Black and locals Bethany Van Delft and Dan Boulger, are making repeat appearances.

Festival founder Jim McCue and festival director Helen DiMarzio decided they didn’t want to skip a year and started planning and reaching out to comedians in October, accepting submissions for the stand-up competition. The goal was to make it feel like the annual Boston Comedy Festival. “We’re still doing a lot of panels,” says DiMarzio. “We’ve got a lot of industry coming, we’re even doing after parties. We’re trying. It feels like our first festival.”

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With its headliners and stand-up competition, a virtual Boston Comedy Festival will keep the laughs coming – The Boston Globe