Old B Square

Field of 24 now set for second round of Bloomington Comedy Festival

The civically-aware segment of the Comedy Attic’s audience on Wednesday night knew that the club’s emcee, Brad Wilhelm, is not a candidate for city office in Bloomington this year—even if Abby Troughton was on stage wearing a T-shirt promoting Wilhelm as mayor.
Cropped Ballot Week 4 IMG_8618

The mayor’s race in Bloomington is uncontested, so no election for mayor will be held in November.

However, elections in Bloomington’s Comedy Festival continued on Wednesday, as six of ten comedians were voted through to the second round. Joining Troughton for the next round, which starts July 17, will be Zach Rody, Will Concannon, Josh Sullivan, Christian Linman, and Evan Frenz.

Wednesday’s competition concluded the first phase of the competition, which started with 40 comics. In each of the first four weeks, 10 competitors appeared on the ballot, and the audience voted for six of them to continue.

That leaves 24 comedians still in the running to be declared The Funniest Person in Bloomington.

Over the next three Wednesdays those 24 will be winnowed down to an even dozen for the quarterfinal round. The competition concludes on Aug. 28.

Cropped Wilhelm art IMG_8604 — Before announcing each night’s winners, emcee Brad Wilhelm curates the artwork contributed by voters on the backs of ballots and displays it to the audience. (Dave Askins/Beacon)

Also still in the competition are these comedians:

Week 3: Shanda Sung, Glenda Deford, Grant Volkmar, Riley Dismore, Kay Daniel and Mark Bookwalter

Week 2: Emily Davis, Spencer Whipple, Brian Carroll, Greg Winston, Kaitlyn Blansett and Kristen Lucas

Week 1: Jonas Schrodt, Steve Volan, Neal Meyer, Jan Gudaitis, Dan Paswell and Bob Nugent

Here’s a gallery of Wednesday’s competitors:

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