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This Weekend: LA Comedy Shorts Film Fest
Bobcat Goldthwait at last year's LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival. Photo courtesy LA Comedy Shorts Film Fest.
Downtown has been working awful hard lately on putting together some great independent comedy events. Most notably this year has to be the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival, a five-day event dedicated to short comedic films, from newcomers and big names alike. Patrick Warburton, Brian Cranston, Jane Lynch, the Funny or Die crew, and a bunch of others are showing short films this year, with even more scheduled at the panels and parties.
Even though the festival started with a fantastic red-carpet event on Thursday, today and Sunday still promises to bring in plenty of funny folks and enough quick content to keep you laughing in your seat. Starting now (11am) there’s a phenomenal discussion panel with Bob Odenkirk, Julie Bowen, Mark Hamill, and others. The films then roll on for the rest of the day in ‘blocks’ of similarly-curated content. Potential standouts include the 5pm You’re Killing Me, Larry block, and the Age Before Bootie block at 7:30pm, which also features a slew of atom.com exclusive content. Sunday promises more of the same, with an amazing panel set for 10am about creating your own content, with featured guests Thomas Lennon, R. Ben Garant, and Laura Kightlinger. Afterwards, there are blocks starting at noon, 2pm, and 4:15pm, with closing night red carpet events and awards starting at 7pm.
It’s great to see things like the LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival succeed. For most aspiring comedians of the past 10 years, sites like YouTube have become an unparalleled way to spread your image, expand your market, and hone your skills. And, with enough time and talent, there are fruits of labor to be seen. The LA Comedy Shorts Film Festival is a testament and celebration of this idea. What could be better?
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