A multiday comedy festival is returning soon to Union Square’s 117-year-old Paragon Sports, after a sold-out run last year.
The three-day event, in which the retailer’s sprawling Broadway space will be temporarily transformed into a comedy club, will take place this April 30 through May 2 after normal store hours.
It will feature 12 comedy shows spread over three nights at $75 per night. Tickets include free drinks, food from Shake Shack and access to the afterparty in Paragon’s basement. The lineup will not be announced in advance but last year’s event featured comedians including Chris Distefano and SNL cast member Marcello Hernández.
The Paragon Sports Comedy Festival happens April 30 through May 2.
The show is produced by Underground Overground Comedy, the creation of 26-year-old Manhattan natives and childhood friends David Levine and Ethan Mansoor, who were inspired to find creative places for standup in 2021, at a time when borough performance venues were closed due to COVID-19.
By the time they put on last year’s two-day festival, they’d put on sold-out shows at iconic NYC institutions including Katz’s Delicatessen, Astor Place Hairstylists and Economy Candy, accumulated a 20,000-person waitlist to buy tickets and gotten a reputation for offering evenings that were stand-out and unexpected in the existing NYC comedy scene.
“ You never really know what you're going to get at one of their shows in terms of the surprise elements of like, location and where are they squeezing a stage into a barber shop and where's the bar gonna be?” said Grant Weintrob, who attended last year’s Paragon festival. “It's always a fun little adventure.”
A scene from last year's comedy festival inside Paragon Sports.
“David and I kind of wanted the scale of it to be exactly the same as last year but the [Paragon] owner just is so into it and keeps pushing us to go bigger,” Levine said in a recent phone interview, noting that more than 32,000 people have signed up online to receive information about ticket sales.
Though the event is extremely disruptive to the venue, and requires a great deal of rearranging of merchandise, Paragon CEO Zach Blank said it’s worth it to host Underground Overground because the event functions as free advertising for Paragon and helps get new customers in the store. Also, he really loves comedy.
“It’s year two and we are absolutely excited to go even bigger,” said Blank, the fourth-generation owner of Paragon. “It really just is a truly New York City-unique experience.”
Tickets to the 2nd Annual Paragon Sports Comedy Festival are $75. More ticketing information will be released on Underground Overground Comedy's website on Monday, and tickets go on sale April 2. The event is April 30 through May 2, and you must be 21 or older to attend.
