Photo: official art from Joke WRLD Fest.
The first Joke WRLD Fest is happening now. Friday, August 14 and Saturday, August 15, 1 p.m. to midnight, downtown St. Petersburg. One badge. The whole weekend.
HQ is Coastal Creative, 2201 1st Ave S. Steep Station, Off-Central Theater, and Spitfire Comedy House are a short walk. The point of putting it in Grand Central was to keep the rooms next to each other. Jake Frombach covered Sunshine Comedy Fest here in 2024 and heard the same note: fun town, too much driving.
Who is on
The site is selling 80-plus comics and 58 shows. Featured names: Tommy Pope, Dylan Carlino, Joe DeRosa, Greg Fitzsimmons, Tim Butterly, Jeremiah Watkins, Casey Rocket, Sam Tripoli, Maddy Smith. The longer list also has Jessie Jetski Johnson, Uncle Lazer, Rachel Wolfson, Nick Rochefort, Mike Feeney, Brent Weinbach, and a lot of people you will discover because you walked into the wrong room at the right time.
Specialty shows in the mix: Roast Battle League, Stand Up On The Spot, The God Damn Comedy Jam, The Absolute Show, and more than ten live podcast tapings. Lineup is subject to change. Check the full schedule before you walk.
The YouTube channel built a weekend
Joke WRLD started as Frombach’s comedy-highlights channel. Cleveland first, then Tampa, now Austin, about 750,000 subscribers and 2,000 videos. The festival is the fifth-anniversary swing: a homecoming in the city where the channel actually grew, and a way off the timeline and into rooms.
A lot of the bill already has a Joke WRLD clip, a Kill Tony minute, a Dad Meat ep, a Roast Battle. The weekend is also for comics to work in front of people who do not already know them.
If you are going
Passes are on Punchup and through jokewrldfest.com. Single-day and weekend. One pass is the shows, not a ticket to one room.
Limited parking near 3rd Ave S and 22nd St S, about four minutes from Coastal Creative, first come. Rideshare or a bike is easier. Saturday morning there is a Comedian Home Run Derby at Campbell Park, separate from the main block, about a 20-minute walk from HQ, then back to the rooms.
PIE and TPA are both a short rideshare. There is a Courtyard downtown block Thursday through Sunday if you are staying over.
Official site: jokewrldfest.com
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