ImprovFestivals.orgFun & Dumb Improv Festival
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| Dates | July 9-12, 2026 |
| Edition | 5th Annual |
| Location | Brooklyn, NY, USA |
| Language | English |
| Organizer | Brooklyn Comedy Collective (BCC) |
| Leadership | Philip Markle (artistic director, co-founder); Maya Sharma (programming director); Julian Hernandez (managing director) |
| Website | brooklyncc.com/fad |
| Brooklyn Comedy Collective - BCC | |
| @comedybrooklyn |
Overview
Fun & Dumb is a four-day festival celebrating "the silly stupid good stuff" of improv comedy, hosted by the Brooklyn Comedy Collective in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn. The 2025 edition (4th Annual) featured 750+ performers across 200+ shows on three stages, plus workshops, drawing coverage from the New York Times, WNYC/NPR, and Time Out New York.
The festival mixes high-profile headliners with indie improv teams, spanning formats from improvised musicals to sketch and absurdist performance. Past headliners have included Chris Gethard, Padma Lakshmi, Baby Wants Candy, ASSSSCAT, Chloe Troast, Connor Ratliff & Griffin Newman, and writers from The Daily Show, Colbert, SNL, and Late Night.
Fun & Dumb started after the Del Close Marathon moved from New York to Los Angeles in 2019 and UCB closed its NYC theaters. According to artistic director Philip Markle, managing director Julian Hernandez originated the idea a few years later, asking, "there's no improv festivals, the UCB closed in New York: what if we did our own?" The first edition ran in 2022 as a three-day event; the 2023 edition doubled or tripled its audience and added a fourth day.
Set length is a deliberate departure from DCM, which ran roughly 10-minute slots (what one performer called "comedy speed-dating"). Fun & Dumb gives each troupe 30 to 45 minutes.
Submissions
Submissions for the 2026 festival are closed. The lineup has not yet been announced.
Sources
- Brooklyn Comedy Collective - Fun & Dumb
- Paste Magazine - Brooklyn Comedy Collective's Fun and Dumb Festival Wants You to Love NYC Improv (2023 feature)
- Time Out New York - Fun & Dumb Improv Festival
- The Fame Mag - Improv Got Weird at Brooklyn's Fun and Dumb Festival
- BroadwayWorld - 4th Annual Fun and Dumb Improv Festival
- BKReader - Brooklyn Goes Off Script With 750+ Improv Performers
- Comedy Cake - Fun & Dumb Improv Festival
- WNYC - The Fun & Dumb Improv Festival is back in Brooklyn