It’s the first week of April, and Netflix vice president of stand-up and comedy formats Robbie Praw is severely under the weather. He’s just a month out from the launch of the second Netflix Is a Joke Comedy Festival, so there’s no time to be sick. “Every day there’s another disease in my house,” quips the father of two young children, with a third on the way.
But right now, he’s also focused on his other baby: the Netflix Is a Joke festival, which was originally inspired by Praw’s previous gig as the VP of programming at the famed Montreal Just for Laughs comedy festival. The ambitious idea was to create a similar, landmark event in Los Angeles, and he pulled off those dreams in 2022. Now, just two years later, he’s doing it again — and this time, it’s even larger in scale.
“It’s more ambitious, but in some ways it feels a little easier,” Praw says of this year’s fest, a partnership between Netflix and Live Nation that takes place May 1-12. “I come from the festival world but for almost everyone at Netflix, [the 2022 event] was their first time doing something like this. Now, this is their second run of throwing something of this scale. So it feels like we are now a well-oiled machine.”
Popular on Variety
The lineup was continuing to grow into April, as the boilerplate in Netflix Is a Joke press releases went from boasting more than “300 live stand-up shows, special events, table reads, sketch and more” to “over 500.”
“We’re doing this every two years,” Praw says, disclosing his ambition to solidify Netflix Is a Joke as an ongoing concern — coincidentally, just as Just for Laughs has been canceled and faces an uncertain future over its finances. “In some ways, it feels like more of an Olympiad of comedy than festival. And we just wanted to be as inclusive as possible. So we have over 500 shows. We had such interest in comedians wanting to do it.”
Praw says that means, at least to him, this isn’t just a “Netflix comedy” festival, even though the streamer is driving the event. “We felt that this was the preeminent celebration of comedy that we were celebrating here — and not to comedy that happens to be on Netflix,” he says. “There’s no exclusivity. Stand-up is bigger than ever. It’s great that on any given day, you can find great stand-up on Netflix, on YouTube, on TikTok. And Hulu, Amazon, HBO, of course. So, it’s everybody. A huge swath of people are able to be included.”
Highlights range from “Seth Rogen Smokes the Bowl,” a benefit for Hilarity for Charity featuring comedy and musical acts; a week-long residency at the Wiltern Theatre by Ali Wong; a Hollywood Bowl event featuring Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Nate Bargatze and Sebastian Maniscalco; a comedy roast of football legend Tom Brady; “I Think You Should Leave With Tim Robinson Live!”; to shows by virtually every other name in comedy, including Kevin Hart, Trevor Noah, Bill Burr and Wanda Sykes.
“Some of the more interesting stuff are things that are not straight-ahead stand-up comedy,” Praw notes, pointing to the Brady roast at the Forum on May 5, a Dodgers-themed comedy night and a script reading event featuring Chris Rock’s favorite movies, with A-list performers reading some of the parts. Then there’s a 5K run that comedians Bert Kreischer and Tom Segura are spearheading.
Netflix Is a Joke is even curating an event-inside-the-event, dubbed Outside Joke, held outside the Hollywood Palladium during the two weekends of the festival.
“We’re doing late-night stand-up shows with big surprise lineups,” he says. “And we’re doing a big roast competition. It’s just a great place to grab a beer. I think when this festival is said and done, that will be a big highlight for a lot of folks.”
Netflix was still determining which events would be taped for later streaming on the platform. But there are some that have already been announced as livestreams, including a May 4 event featuring Katt Williams, performing his Dark Matter tour at the YouTube Theater. And John Mulaney has sent a six-episode live special, “John Mulaney: Presents: Everybody’s in L.A.,” featuring the stand-up interacting with comedians in town for the festival throughout Los Angeles.
“There’s a bunch of things that we’re shooting live and specials that we’re shooting for future presentation on Netflix,” Praw says. “People like Ali Wong, Deon Cole. Some of those details will be coming out in the next few weeks. We’re trying to find innovative ways of giving Netflix audiences around the world a sense of what it feels like to be here right now.”
Speaking of L.A., Praw says he sees Netflix Is a Joke as a way to make a statement that, contrary to popular belief, Los Angeles is very much a comedy town.
“There was a lot of cynicism about doing this in Los Angeles,” Praw says of the first Netflix Is a Joke. “L.A. is certainly a place where you find some of the greatest comedians. But it is not known for necessarily being a place where artists feel like they could sell the greatest number of tickets. But one month out, we’ve passed the amount of tickets we sold for the entirety of the first festival. There’s a lot of interest in the artist community in doing this festival, and folks essentially got from the first incarnation that it could work. So, the booking process was a little easier as well.”
Praw says he’s also proud of the historic and landmark venues across L.A. that are a part of the festival. Besides the Hollywood Bowl, the Palladium and the Wiltern, venues include the Greek Theatre, Kia Forum, Dolby Theatre, Crytpo.com Arena, Orpheum Theatre, Laugh Factory, the Comedy Store, the Improv and Largo.
As for what he’s looking forward to seeing, even Praw is a bit overwhelmed. “I’m trying to map out the 12 days, and it is pretty mind-blowing,” he says. “I’m excited about all the stuff that Shane Gillis is doing. You have a guy who a year ago would be doing a smaller theater and we have him selling out the Greek, selling out the Forum and selling out Crypto along with Andrew Schultz. One of the things that gives me the goosebumps in L.A. is just being at the Bowl. We have a lot of special things there. And the Forum, I’m really excited to see Bert Kreischer out there and Tom Segura. And then, I would say I think one of the best touring hours right now is Ali Wong. Tim Robinson at the Greek. As you can tell from my answers, I love experiencing L.A. through these great venues and matching them with these incredible artists.” Now Praw just needs to stay healthy between now and then.
