Top comedy writers and filmmakers to showcase table reads and screenings of original new works at YALL Comedy Fest
YALL Comedy Fest, sponsored by Comedy Central and NBCU Launch, announced four events dedicated to showcasing new comedy projects from its community of screenwriters and comedians.
YALL Comedy Fest’s Projects on the Rise highlights new original comedy scripts and short films from creators like Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams), Sasha Stewart (Comedy Central’s The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore), Shakina Nayfack (Hulu’s Difficult People), Joey Clift (Netflix’s Spirit Rangers), SJ Son (Netflix’s Kaleidoscope), Woody Fu (Max’s The Other Two), and others pitching original comedy scripts.
Tickets to Projects on the Rise are on sale now for $10 per show. Audiences can choose to buy individual tickets or festival passes for the full festival or just a day. Visit yallcomedyfest.com to make a purchase.
YALL Comedy Fest is the first and only comedy festival that celebrates the power of humor to change the world. Showcasing a diverse community of Yes, And…Laughter Lab creators, YALL Comedy Fest spotlights the best comedy writers and performers who take on social justice issues while making us laugh. From pitches to table reads to stand-up, sketches, and more, YALL Comedy Fest is the place to discover some of the most talented creators in the industry for three days of next-level comedy. Comedy can change the world… to see how, come grab a drink and see a show with us at YALL Comedy Fest 2025.
Check out the full schedule and loglines for YALL Comedy Fest’s Projects on the Rise below.
Table reads:
- No News by Spencer Meade (The Onion) – After taking a job at a conservative news network, an aspiring anchor is forced to rise through the ranks with the show’s eccentric staff and confront the position’s effects on his relationship with his husband; the Editor-In-Chief of the nation’s largest liberal newspaper.
- Bill on Earth by Casey Rand (People Who Deserve It) & Sasha Stewart (FX’s Dying For Sex) – In this live action workplace comedy, a kind-hearted alien whose planet was blown up in a freak accident must go undercover as a corporate spy at an oil company to convince humans to stop destroying Earth — and fast — before he loses his last chance to secure his species a new home.
- Lil Italy by Nikki Palumbo (The New Yorker) – Lil Italy is an Italian Arrested Development meets The Righteous Gemstones with somehow even less god and more pinky rings. The show lets us into the boys’ club of organized crime with a female-presenting protagonist, Lil (butch-slash-short for Lilliana.) Lil does her best to balance all of her families (chosen, biological, crime), all of her jobs (capo and car sales), all of her new issues (daddy, trust, legal), and all the weight of expectations.
NOTE: There will be no featured screening at the Wednesday, April 2 – 5:00pm show.
- Projects on the Rise will kick off with a featured screening of Fucking Japanese by SJ Son (Netflix’s The Brothers Sun) & Woody Fu (HBO’s The Other Two) – In this comedic short, a woman and her lover are hilariously interrupted mid-coitus by the ghosts of her ancestors.
- Generational by Tiara Francis (Comedy Central) – Generational is a half-hour comedy that follows Tatianna, a millennial navigating her love life, career, and family relationships in a quickly gentrifying Harlem with some supernatural guidance from her opinionated great-grandmother.
- Eula by Sylvie Wang (Upright Citizen’s Brigade) – After being laid off from her fourth job in two years due to Artificial Intelligence, Lee, a scrappy and resourceful but worn down twenty-something woman decides to make money by posing as an AI robot nanny for a rich family. This dark comedy follows Lee and her friends as they try to survive the only way you can in the modern day – both by scamming and building connections with others.
Projects on the Rise will kick off with a featured screening and talkback of Pow! by Joey Clift (Netflix’s Spirit Rangers) – In this 2D animated short, a Native American kid desperately searches for a place to charge his nearly out of juice video game console at a bustling intertribal powwow.
Table reads:
- Darling by Molly Gaebe (Upright Citizens Brigade) & Sally Rashid (New York Magazine) – Darling is a workplace comedy about a rookie nurse from a conservative Christian family and the rest of the staff at the only remaining abortion clinic in the fictional town of Darling.
- Project Humbug by Justin Carter (The Daily Show) – Fed up with getting excluded from the storybook Christmases depicted during the holidays, a street-smart kid hijacks Santa’s sleigh to deliver Christmas to the projects. Project Humbug is a new uproarious colorful take on Christmas movies that disrupts the vanilla narrative so every kid (and every adult who feels like a kid) can have a fresh inclusive classic to add to their naughty list.
- Cruising by Shakina Nayfack (Hulu’s Difficult People) & Michael E. Linden (Spring Awakening) – Cruising is a mockumentary workplace comedy that follows Trish Adams, the new Cruise Director of the mid-level liner Destiny of the Seas, as she rallies her rag-tag crew to save their beloved ship from being decommissioned.
Table reads will kick off with a featured screening and talkback of The Syed Family Xmas Eve Game Night by director Fawzia Mirza (The Queen of My Dreams) and starring Vito Ortiz (Max’s Our Flag Means Death) and Kausar Mohammed (Netflix’s Jurassic World: Camp Cretaceous) – In this short film, all cards are on the table when a queer Pakistani Muslim woman brings her Puerto Rican partner home for the first time on the family’s annual game night.
Table reads:
- Camp Exodus by Air Durnell (Upright Citizens Brigade) & Maddie Smith (Vulture) – Camp Exodus is a 30-minute hard comedy that starts when Leo Powers, a non-binary lesbian, finds out they’ve inherited their family’s gay conversion camp. They decide to re-open it with their partner, Jo, as a secret queer utopia for children who were originally sent to “pray the gay away.”
- Dream’s Not Dead by Leah Bognanni (Hillman Grad Mentorship Lab) – A murdered teenage ghost realizes that the only thing scarier than being trapped in a juvenile detention center for eternity is his chance to come back to life and get justice for his wrongful homicide.
- The Godmother by Shannon Hardy (ClexaCon) – A satirical take on Anna Genovese’s assent from mob wife to the hottest drag club maven in the Costello crime syndicate.
Yes, And… Laughter Lab is a competitive incubation lab, pitch program and showcase that uplifts the best comedy writers and performers creating new comedy about topics that matter, with a focus on BIPOC, immigrant, Muslim, LGBTQ, and women creators. Follow Yes, And… Laughter Lab on Instagram and Twitter/X at @YALLcomedy.
The Yes, And… Laughter Lab is generously supported by Doris Duke Foundation’s Building Bridges Program, MacArthur Foundation, Pop Culture Collaborative, Open Society Foundations, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
