Local comedian Andy Wood is the founder of Bridgetown Comedy
Presents, a title under which he’s booking amazing comedy around
Portland. In March, Wood and friends pulled off the three-day
Bridgetown Comedy Festival, which hosted comedians like Patton Oswalt,
Eddie Pepitone, and Tig Notaro. This rad festival will go on annually,
but in the meantime Wood is presenting smaller one-night-only shows at
venues like Berbati’s Pan and the Bagdad Theater (see myspace.com/bridgetowncomedy for details). Go Andy! Now let’s ask Portland’s own comedy czar a few
questions.
MERCURY: Why do you think comedy has come back into style
so quickly?
WOOD: It’s probably all MySpace and Facebook. I think the distance
between comics and their fans has become a lot shorter, because they’re
actually talking to each other on the internet. Even though I don’t
like Dane Cook that much, he’s a good example. He did an amazing job of
marketing himself on MySpace and writing back to his fans right away.
So if you like comedy, you might have been pulled in by Dane Cook, and
then a couple years later you found Patton Oswalt and a whole bunch of
other great comics.
Give us an overview of what Bridgetown Comedy Presents is and
will be?
I’d like for it to be the go-to name for comedy in Portland. When
people see it’s us putting on the show, they’ll know it’s someone good
that they probably haven’t seen before.
How do you stay updated on what great new comics are performing
across the US?
Aspecialthing.com is a whole
alternative comedy community.
Is that what you call the type of comedy we’re talking about?
Alternative?
People who don’t like the word “alternative” like to say, “What’s
the alternative to comedy? Tragedy?” I hate people who say
that, because they know exactly what the term is supposed to
mean—it’s an alternate form, not the fucking opposite. No
one’s going to alternative comedy shows and hoping to sit
stone-faced. It’s funny stuff, it’s just not hacky, pandering,
lowest-common-denominator comedy.