Dan Danzy moved started doing stand-up in Dallas when he was in high school. He worked his way all over the state over the next 15 years before deciding to move to Scranton with his wife in 2022. He took a little bit of time off, but decided to...

Julia Colasanti grew up playing volleyball in Michigan before going to college at St. Michael's in Vermont. Loud and confident on the court, she made a speech at a banquet that pushed her toward stand-up 10 years ago while she was still in high...

Lauren Festa is a very funny comedian on Long Island. She's been doing stand-up all over New York City for about 10 years, but has been pushing hard for the last six -- pretty much living out her dad's dream for her. She works in publishing and...

Jethro Trogo started doing stand-up in the Philippines in 2013 and moved to St. Paul, Minn., near the end of 2019 for his job as a software engineer. Quite the shift in culture and weather. He's been able to work himself into the comedy scene a...

Shawn Barnes did his first set while going to SUNY Oneonta back in the early 2010s and occasionally came back to stand-up. It wasn't until an established comedian moved upstairs that he decided to give it a real go. Now he's working all over Ne...

Matt Drufke has been doing stand-up in and around Chicago for about 20 years. He's one of a nine-person team behind the Still Not Friday show in Aurora, Ill., that just celebrated its 10th anniversary. He was able to book Kyle Kinane for that s...

Isaac Kozell started doing stand-up in Pittsburgh about 14 years ago. He was living in Wheeling, W. Va., but had to chase the stage elsewhere. He worked in marketing and fixed up houses on the side, something he'd learned as a kid. Once his nei...

Tommy Cook started doing stand-up outside of Detroit about 2 1/2 years ago. He grew up on a steady diet of musicals, thanks to his grandparents. He played in the marching and concert bands in high school and became the lead singer of Granola Ad...

Conor McCann only started doing stand-up in July of 2024. He entered the Rochester's Funniest Person contest two weeks after his first open mic and took second place. He came back this year and won the title. A former musician from the Cold Spr...

Alex Nicolas has been a fixture of the Jersey City, N.J., comedy scene since 2014. He started doing stand-up under the recommendation of a former boss combined with his mom telling him he wasn't funny. He spent a couple years working at the Str...

Chris Weir has been doing stand-up in Cincinnati since 2011. He started while he was at North Kentucky University, but really jumped into the scene after graduating. He's a huge Reds fan and hosts a podcast dedicated to them called The New Nast...

Frank Corbiserie had an incredibly strong showing this summer in his second year in the Buffalo comedy scene. He moved to Batavia, N.Y., from New Jersey in 2024 and became Buffalo's Funniest Person in July of 2025. A couple weeks later, he plac...

Trebor Finnegan has been doing stand-up in Buffalo since 2023. He was a funny, shy kid in Dallas before moving to Buffalo when he was 14. He's only 28 now, but he's established himself as one of the scene's top rising comics. He just took secon...

Josh Martier has been writing jokes since he was a teenager, but he didn't take the stage until he was 27. In just four years, he's climbed the steps to become the 2025 winner of the Philly's Phunniest Person contest in August. He moved to Broo...

Serena Thiel is has been letting life take her where she feels comfortable -- and it's working out for her. She started doing stand-up in Bozeman, Mont., in 2020 with her friend, Alex Kaufman. After a couple years off, she opted not to go to Me...

David Kopp started doing stand-up in British Columbia, Canada, when he was 30 years old. In the 18 years since, he's become one of the premier producers in the province, written a book, "Kill Dave," and runs the successful Kelowna Comedy Club i...

Jacob Parnell grew up in Seattle and played the drums and bass in punk bands. His band, Aria Decline, opened for Dashboard Confessional, Something Corporate and Switchfoot. He decided to study theology at Pepperdine University and is now a past...

AJ Foster is one of the best stand-ups to come out of upstate New York over the last two decades. He grew up in the Bronx, but started stand-up in 2010 while going to college in Utica. He was a big piece of the upstate scenes before moving to N...

Dave Sheehan has been doing stand-up yin New Haven, Conn., for more than two decades. He started with improv and made some friends and then dipped into stand-up. He's also been studying martial arts for the last 15 years and has a black belt. H...

Reese Samuels is the mama bear of the comedy scene in Boise, Idaho., and is really putting that psychology background to work. She started doing stand-up on Christmas in 2014 after a rough break-up in an uncomfortable situation. She's doing way...

Micahel Agunbiade started doing stand-up at the very old age of 24. It's been three years and he's already one of the most-traveled comedians in upstate New York. Based out of Liberty, he became part of the Albany scene and is moving to the Bro...

Cindy Arena has been doing stand-up in Rochester since the spring of 2018. She made her first big splash by winning the Rochester's Funniest Person contest that July. She's spent the last seven years trying to prove she was deserving of it. She...

Kaiser Leib won 3 percent of the vote for Montana's governor. Instead of running the state, he's settling for a comedy festival. He started doing stand-up in San Francisco in 2017 and moved back home during the pandemic. He's doing everything h...

Ryan Manzo started doing stand-up two years ago in Scranton, Pa. He tried it once in college, but it didn't stick. It only took two traumatic moments to convince him to give it another shot. He's part of a younger group of comedians to give a b...

Hunter Roberts is a stand-up comic, former wrestler and Disney enthusiast in Gate City, Va. He wrestled for a few years -- becoming a champion -- before making his second attempt at stand-up stick in 2012. Based out of Johnson City, Tenn., he t...