After a weekend celebration of characters and heroes, downtown will turn its attention to comedy in the form of the “Pensacola Pre-Pride Comedy Festival,” or “P3,” on May 28-30.
“We have selected 25 of the best LGBTQ+ comedians in the U.S. and they will be sharing their talents with us in Pensacola,” said Andrew Ferrara, a local comic who organized the event.
Tickets are available through eventbrite.com.
Ferrara enlisted other local comedians, including Olivia Searcy and Delisia Nichols who host a weekly open mic at Big Top Brewery. The festival also has attracted sponsorship from Constant Coffee and Tea, Rated R Comedy, Emphatic Practice, Legal Leaf, Guaranteed Rate Insurance, Stamped LGBTQ Film Fest, YIKES! Comedy, and the Daily Squeeze.
“The whole comedy community is coming together to try and make something big happen,” said Ferrara.
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Ferrara would like the festival to serve those who can’t make it to the annual Memorial Day weekend parties at Pensacola Beach. He also envisions it as a stand-in for Emerald City, the defunct gay nightclub that drew the biggest mainland crowds in past years.
P3 will have six shows, spaced out two per day. Each one features a headline act starting with Jeff D who kicks off the festival at 5 p.m. Friday at Cabaret. Jenn Snyder follows at 7 p.m. at Odd Colony Brewing Co.
On Saturday, Melissa Nichols from Tampa Bay will perform “Girls Can’t Be Pastors,” her act based on growing up in a religious homeschooling community, at 7 p.m. at Cabaret. Later that night, Hilliary Begley will be at O’Riley’s Irish Pub at 9 p.m.
“I started doing comedy on March 1, 2013, basically on a dare,” Begley confided. “I talk a lot about family and my experience growing up in the church and South Carolina.”
Based in Asheville, North Carolina, Begley’s blunt confessional style bodes well with her Appalachian accent. She played Aunt Lucy, an angelic mentor to the titular character in “Dumplin,” the 2019 Netflix film starring Jennifer Aniston.
On Sunday at 3 p.m., Ian Aber headlines at Dolce & Gelato. The festival culminates with a “Queer of the Year” competition at 7 p.m. at Perfect Plain Brewing Co. A dozen comedians selected by a panel of local judges will compete for the title which comes with a $500 prize. The brewery’s event space, Garden and Grain, has staged comedy events before and can handle at least 200 guests.
“Sundays are such are a great crowd at Garden and Grain,” said Payton Baer, the brewery’s private event manager. “We would love for our usual crowd to stumble upon the show and check it out.”
The first P3 was in 2019 at Chizuko, the hip vegan performance venue in Belmont-DeVilliers. With some assistance from Gay Grassroots, Ferrara cobbled together 10 LGBTQ+ acts for his Pre-Pride Festival as a lead-in to June, National Pride Month.
“We packed their courtyard. It was awesome,” he said. “As soon as that was over, I started planning a bigger one.”
Ferrara took to social media, soliciting comics for the following year.
“I said, ‘Would you like to come to beautiful Pensacola, Florida, for Memorial Day weekend?’ We got at least 200 submissions.”
The response was whittled down to 40 acts but then COVID-19 hit and the festival was paused. As the pandemic has slowly ebbed, Ferrara reached out again and drew acts mostly from the South as comics from other regions weren’t ready to travel as far.
For Ferrara, the festival also was a chance to undo the stigma surrounding the alignment of LGBTQ+ events with Memorial Day.
“Throughout my life as a gay man living here, I heard many conversations where some people thought it as disrespectful,” he explained. “People couldn’t understand the correlation between the two. I wanted to bridge that gap.”
P3 is making that connection by donating its proceeds to the Tragedy Assistance Program for Survivors, or TAPS. Founded in 1994, the organization provides mental health services to grieving military families. Ferrara heard about them while working at a funeral home and witnessed the grief at services at Barrancas National Cemetery.
“This is my way of saying thank you to those who died fighting for our freedom to be who we are,” said Ferrara. “They are the reason why we are able to be out and proud and be free Americans.”
Pensacola Pre-Pride Comedy Festival
When: May 28-30
Five venues: Perfect Plain Brewery Co., 50 E. Garden St.; Dolce and Gelato, 2050 N. 12th Ave.; Cabaret, 101 S. Jefferson St.; Odd Colony Brewing Co., 260 N. Palafox St.; O’Riley’s Pub, 321 Palafox Place
Tickets: $40, weekend pass; $20 one day, Eventbrite.com
