Stops in West Palm Beach and Tampa
Funny or Die and Live Nation is partnering up once again, with the help of Redd’s Apple Ale, to present the third annual nationwide Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival. The festival is currently touring the country, and will stop in the Sunshine State for two performance dates in October. The first is at the Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre (formerly the Cruzan Amphitheatre) in West Palm Beach on Friday, October 2 beginning at 5 p.m. The second brings the comedy tour up to Central Florida, where they will be performing at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds in Tampa on Saturday, October 3 at 5:15 p.m.
“The Oddball Festival has been one of Funny or Die’s most successful brand extensions so being able to crank up the midway for a third time is very exciting,” said Dick Glover, CEO at Funny or Die. “With such an incredible line-up of comedians joining this year’s tour, it clearly will be the best Oddball yet. We are so thrilled to take it back on the road.”
A very talented roster of entertainers will be performing at the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival when it comes to Florida, including the top-billed Aziz Ansari and Amy Schumer. Here’s a little bit about each of the comics:
Aziz Ansari has been a standup comic for the past fifteen years. He is recognizable for his roles on NBC’s Parks and Recreation and starring in the MTV sketch comedy show Human Giant, and in such films as I Love You, Man; Funny People; and 30 Minutes or Less. He has taped four television comedy specials, with the most recent, Live at Madison Square Garden, released on Netflix in 2015.
Amy Schumer started performing standup comedy in 2004 and went on to place fourth on the fifth season of NBC’s Last Comic Standing in 2007. She taped a number of specials for Comedy Central, including episodes of Live at Gotham and Comedy Central Presents, before earning her first one-hour televised special in 2012. Since 2013 she has produced and starred in her own comedy series for Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer. Her first leading movie role was in the film Trainwreck, released earlier this year.
Big Jay Oakerson, who is hosting the event, comes from Philadelphia, and has appeared in a number of comedy specials, such as Comedy Central Presents and BET Comic View. He is the current co-host of The Bonfire, which airs twice weekly on SiriusXM’s Comedy Central channel.
Anthony Jeselnik‘s first Comedy Central special aired in 2009, after which he was hired as a writer on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. He has hosted his own show, The Jeselnik Offensive, on Comedy Central, and now hosts NBC’s Last Comic Standing.
Bridget Everett performs a unique brand of comedy mixed with cabaret. She has appeared in the Sherry Vine comedy series She’s Living for This, performed with her band The Tender Moments at the Miss Fag Hag Pageant, and recently taped a one-hour Comedy Central special, which aired in the summer of 2015.
Jeff Ross is well-known as “the Roastmaster General” of the New York Friars Club, and by extension the Comedy Central roast series, and has participated in every celebrity roast since 2005. His most recent comedy special, Jeff Ross Roasts Criminals, was a standup special taped at a Texas prison. He has been performing standup comedy since 1994.
Nikki Glaser started out in standup in 2002 at the age of 18, and went on to place in the semi-finals on Last Comic Standing two years later. Since then, she has hosted her own podcast, starred in her own comedy talk show with Sara Schaefer called Nikki & Sara Live, and is a recurring face on Inside Amy Schumer.
Sebastian Maniscalco, in West Palm Beach only, rose to fame after being featured in Vince Vaughn’s Wild West Comedy Show: 30 Days & 30 Nights – Hollywood to the Heartland. Originally from Chicago, he has lived in Los Angeles for over a decade, where he has appeared on a slew 
of late night shows and Comedy Central specials.
Tim Minchin, originally from Australia, crossed over to the U.S. comedy scene in 2007 when he won an award for Best Alternative Performer at The Comedy Festival. His specialty is musical comedy. He is also the composer and lyricist of Matilda The Musical.
T.J. Miller is known for his work in television, film and comedy. He was originally introduced to audiences as one of the “round table” panelists on the E! series Chelsea Lately. He currently stars in the HBO series Silicon Valley, for which he won the Critics’ Choice Award for Best Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series.
Tony Hinchcliffe, in Tampa only, started in standup comedy when he moved to Los Angeles from Ohio in 2007. He is an acclaimed comedy writer, having written jokes for the Comedy Central Roast of James Franco.
Tickets are available for purchase via LiveNation; you can access Florida-specific tour dates by going to oddballfest.com/dates. Prices range from $25 per person for both dates to $150 per person for front-row seating.
For more information on the Oddball Comedy & Curiosity Festival, visit www.oddballfest.com, or on Twitter @oddballfest.
