Indie Mock: The Bentzen Ball Comedy Fest

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WHEN TIG NOTARO first performed in Washington, at last year's D.C. Comedy Festival, she had a great time. So when she found out the festival wouldn't return this year, she was disappointed.

"I just thought, 'Maybe I'll just go ahead and put the festival together,'" Notaro said. "It just seems like a great city and it seemed like a waste, especially with how excited people have been about politics and Obama. ... It just seemed so prime."

She reached out to the people behind D.C.-based scenester Web site Brightest Young Things, who she befriended during last year's trip, and they were excited. With a Rolodex of comedian friends, Notaro began mobilizing. Getting people was easy, and organizing — thanks to Notaro's background in music promotion and with the help of BYT — was very doable. Coming up with a name for the thing, though, was a different story.

"The guys at Brightest Young Things had an idea for a name of a festival, and they were excited about it and I hated it," she said. "I couldn't get behind the idea. It was Jokes. ... Even if you're trying to be ironic, it just misses the boat."

Their next best idea? Name it after Ole Bentzen, a Danish audiologist who laughed to death while watching the 1988 John Cleese film "A Fish Called Wanda."

"Everybody really cracks up when you find out. … It's ridiculous," she said.

"It's beautiful — what a great way to die," said Patton Oswalt, who headlines the first night of what's now known as the Bentzen Ball. With the likes of Oswalt and Sarah Silverman headlining, the ball is getting hyped as an alt-comedy festival.

"I think, for me, alt comedy always meant that the comedian has no expectations about the audience, and the audience has no expectations about the comedian," Oswalt said.

But Notaro doesn't seem to put much stake in the label. "People can call it alt, indie — anything they want," she said. "But to me, it's more a festival of comedians that I think are great. It's my sensibility. … I guess we don't have the most across-the-board lineup of mainstream, but I think you can certainly find everything in there."

Howard University alum Seaton Smith, who's had viral success with his "Pimpin' Referee" skit, is not used to performing with these kind of comedians, and he's excited.

"It's going to be cool, man," Smith said. "It's kind of like indie-rock meets comedy, even though there's no music that I know of. It still has the vibe. I'm hoping it has the women, too."

Smith is one of many D.C.-based comedians at the Bentzen Ball — each show has one to three locals opening — making the festival a formidable showcase.

That support is something Smith, who relies on a narrative type of comedy with a lot of D.C.-based humor, appreciates.

"She really made that a point to kind of bring the scene in there because our scene is not very known around the country," he said. "Every comic who comes here is surprised by how many great stages there are here on a day-to-day basis."

At its core, though, the Bentzen Ball is a festival built on friendship. Most of the comedians are performing because they're Notaro's friends. It's all a community. "You always want to [play] with your friends when you can," Oswalt said. "Comedians riff jokes off each other, even if it's not something you're going to do onstage, you're always joking around."

And if all goes well, Notaro hopes, the Bentzen Ball will become a fixture in D.C.

"This has accidentally become, I would say, one of the bigger festivals in the country," Notaro said. "It's just really funny that that happened."

It sure is.

» Through Sun., Oct. 25 see Bentzenball.com for venues, prices and schedule.

Photos courtesy Comedy Central, Bentzen Ball
Art by Ben Claassen III for Express