LaughFest adds to event lineup

LaughFest adds to event lineup

Jim Gaffigan will open LaughFest 2020. Courtesy Gilda's Club

The lineup for an annual festival celebrating laughter in Grand Rapids is coming into focus.

The 10th annual Gilda’s LaughFest, planned for March 5-15, 2020, will feature comedians and performers Jim Gaffigan, Maria Bamford, Adam Cayton-Holland, Russell Peters, JP Sears, Miranda Sings, Justin Willman and others. They will be performing at 40 different venues in Grand Rapids, Lowell and Wayland’s Gun Lake Casino.

Other artists will be performing during the Best of the Midwest All-Stars Showcase and the Clean Comedy All-Stars Showcase. The annual Signature Event will be held on March 14 at DeVos Place and the performers will be announced in December.

The Clean Comedy All-Stars Showcase will be the first showcase of the festival, scheduled March 5-7. Kermet Apio, Gina Brillon, Erin Jackson, John Novosad, Louis Ramey and Joe Zimmerman are the artists who will be featured in the Clean Comedy All-Stars Showcase.

Adam Cayton-Holland will perform “Happy Place” at The Listening Room at Studio Park in downtown Grand Rapids on March 6. He will perform his new-one-man show from his memoir, “Tragedy Plus Time.”

Comedian JP Sears will perform at the Pyramid Scheme on March 6-7. Along with being a comedian, he is a healing coach, author, speaker and world traveler.

Colleen Ballinger, who is an actor, comedian, trained vocalist, writer and executive producer, will perform at Fountain Street Church on March 6. She is best known for portraying her character, “Miranda Sings,” a personality that is the polar opposite of Ballinger. Miranda appears in the Netflix series “HATERS BACK OFF,” which Ballinger created and executive-produced.

Justin Willman also will perform at Fountain Street Church on March 7. The magician and comedian premiered six-episode magic series on Netflix entitled “Magic For Humans with Justin Willman.”

Comedian and actor Russell Peters will perform at DeVos Performance Hall on March 8. Peters also is a Peabody and Emmy award-winning producer.

Ralph Harris will perform at Gun Lake Casino on March 12 and at Larkin’s Other Place in Lowell on March 13. He has had acting roles in “Dreamgirls” and the ABC-TV sitcom “On Our Own.”

Maria Bamford will perform on March 13 at the Wealthy Theatre. She is the first female comedian to have two half-hour Comedy Central Presents specials.

On March 13-14, the Best of the Midwest All-Stars Showcase will feature six previous winners and fan-favorite Best of the Midwest competitors. These include Vince Carone (2019 winner), AJ Finney (2014 winner), Mike Paramore (2017 winner), Amber Preston (2011 winner), Mary Santora (2018 fan favorite) and Ali Sultan (2018 winner).

For more information, including ticket purchases, visit Glida's Laughfest.