Producers of Laugh Your Asheville Off 2012
The Laugh Your Asheville Off Comedy Festival (LYAO) is the country’s leading non competitive format stand up comedy festival. The festival prides itself on showcasing some of the country’s best untapped talent as well as delivering some of the comedy world’s most accomplished stand up comedy performers annually.
Rapid River Magazine: Tell us a little bit about Laugh Your Asheville off and how it first came about?
Charlie Gerencer: Greg put together the first LYAO festival six years ago out of the desire to stop driving back and forth to Charlotte to see comedy. I teamed up with him shortly after the first event and we designed a model for what we thought an Asheville comedy festival could be and put it into effect.
RRM: What were you doing before LYAO and what do you do the rest of the year when not working on this festival?
CG: Greg was working in Asheville as a writer and chef and I came from the television development and live event business in Los Angeles. Greg wrote a NY times best selling cookbook and I was a key development executive that produced NBC’s Last Comic Standing. Greg currently is a working stand up comedian and runs the Altamont Theatre and I recently was named head of television and film development for Pygmy Wolf Productions in L.A.
RRM: What are some of your future plans for LYAO?
Greg Brown: Our goal is to continually grow this great event. Our original vision came together organically and because of the natural appeal and growth of how we produce we have garnered attention from the television and live event world. We constantly field attention from some of the biggest networks and event organizers in the country.
RRM: Are you still planning on opening a comedy club in Asheville again?
GB: It’s always on our radar. Comedy is a trending art, so if we decide to do something permanent and weekly we would have to stay true to our beliefs, and a traditional club is appearing a little outdated these days. Asheville has many tremendous alternative style comedy shows weekly and we feel that continuing to support and help them is more cutting edge and ultimately better for the scene, which we are so proud of.
RRM: What are some of the huge mistakes you have learned from doing LYAO for so many years now?
CG: Good question. This may sound ridiculous but with our combined passion and experience we tend to correct each other before huge mistakes are made. Interestingly enough Greg and I were born on the exact same day. We have this intuitive reaction to automatically cover each other. So when a situation has the potential to go the wrong way we balance each other and correct it before it has the opportunity to be a mistake. Not saying we’re perfect, just lucky to have each other to keep the focus of what we want to accomplish. 12 years of live event producing certainly helps that too.
RRM: What process do you use in choosing the comics who will perform here each year?
GB: In the beginning we sought out comics we liked and that were available. But now that we are a nationally recognized event and word got out that we are a fun event we open the submission process to every comic in the country that wants to submit. Performers submit from about January to June. We then organize a focus group and review every clip. We do a focus group because we feel that there should be an unbiased point of view on the selection process. After all, comedy is an extremely subjective art.
RRM: How much time have you spent crafting LYAO over the past 12 months since the end of the last festival?
CG: We begin in early December every year. The entire festival takes about 8 months to put together. We take our time and try to work every detail including working only with local sponsorship. It would be easy to sell out and slap corporate America on our festival but we are true to supporting local businesses and encouraging our fan base to appreciate everything Asheville has to offer.
If You Go: Laugh Your Asheville Off, August 14 to August 18. Tickets call 800-927-0939. Visit www.laughyourashevilleoff.com.