Colorado Queer Comedy Festival 2025 Recap + Best of Fest Interview

Ren (Organizer) Recap: A quick look back at Ren’s highlights, insights, and key takeaways from the event.

This year’s Colorado Queer Comedy Festival was our third year and absolutely our best yet. We had 4 shows, 400 attendees, and featured 18 queer performers from around the Front Range and the continent! 

Getting to produce this festival is a real labor of love, and doing it during such a tumultuous time in our country for LGBTQ+ folks has made the work feel even more impactful. Audiences are hungry for laughter during tough times, and our lineup was able to really rise to that challenge this year. It also was not lost on me how lucky we are to live in this state, with nonprofits that know how integral humor and free expression are to our resilience as a community. 

Additionally, this year we featured a lot of performers that had never been featured in a festival before. It was hard to believe some of them were so new at comedy, and it really warmed my heart to know that what we originally had set out to do with this fest–giving queer performers opportunities that are often not afforded to them in mainstream comedy circles–was very much accomplished this year. Folks relayed how transformative it was to get to try jokes out on big stages, in front of hundreds of people, in a different city, state, and even country. The joy me and my co-producer Cara got to experience in helping facilitate those experiences for such warm, wonderful, and talented people was a real highlight for us this year. 

I am so grateful to the comedians, bookers, show producers, event managers, and peers that gave me my first opportunities. I know they took a chance on me, believed in me anyway, and I know how meaningful it was for me to be given a chance to prove them right. I believe queer people often have to work twice as hard for half the amount of opportunities as straight, cis, usually white comedians. Getting to provide those opportunities for others, seeing folks take those chances and run with them, and watching different styles of humor and writing see the light of day (or a spotlight, at least) is a motivating factor for me as a producer and performer. 

This festival has been successful since day one, and it looks like it will continue that trend into year four! And I know that is not just because queer people are funny, it’s also because queer people are worth listening to, worth investing in, and worthy of telling their own stories how they want to tell them. 

Cara (Co-Producer) Quote: 

The festival this year was our best yet, we had comedians from a wider array of cities, got to do more shows than ever before and had a great turn out. Not a single miss this weekend. Audiences and performers were all indulging in the queer joy and absolute hilarity. Cant wait till next year!  

Performer Quotes:

• Roni Nicole: Performing at the Colorado Queer Comedy Festival felt like jumping into a tornado made of laughter, glitter, and heart. It was my first out-of-state booking, and it hit that perfect blend of terrifying and thrilling. The crowds were alive, the comics were fearless, and by the end, I’d gained not just stage time but a new chosen collective of weird, wonderful people who reminded me exactly why I do this. 🌈🎤

• Jack Sullivan: The energy was immaculate, the crowds were supportive, the showrooms packed, and the other comics insanely talented.

  
  

Min Lin (Best of Fest) Interview: 

What moment from this year's festival sticks out to you? / What did you most enjoy about performing at CQCF?

So many moments. I knew the social aspect was going to be a thing for me. So whenever a comedian rescued me from my own insecurities I felt warmed. Like when Eitan and Bren saw me solo and pulled me in to sit with them (three times!). Or when Alex and her pack included me in their hangout. And the after party. I dragged my feet and walked in full of anxiety and walked out buzzing with oxytocin and dopamine from all of you. 

If you are asking about the shows though, well, the Knotty show will always stay with me. The pivotal moment happened before I even got on stage. It happened when we met the rope performers during prep when I recognized such humanness between us. That recognition unlocked all the overthinking I had and I ended up just being myself. Everyone was amazing and it was just so funny to throw us all in there with our ADHD brains. This festival gave me so many of those “unlocking” moments. That will stay with me as I grow my comedy and my humanness. 

What first drew you to stand up comedy?

I grew up in Taiwan. I was constantly bored out of my mind and chronically in extreme dopamine deficiency. I wrote in my homework essay in fourth grade that I wanted to be a comedian. I think that was me trying to dream of something impossible to save me from the overwhelming boredom of being trapped in a small town in a very traditional culture. So when I felt more and more brave through therapy, diagnosis, treatment, I started doing stand-up at the age of 42. Because I knew the worst that could have happened would be if I never tried doing it. Comedy for me has always been about forcing a connection when I have no idea what is happening. It’s basically an autistic shortcut to friendship. 

Who or what inspires your writing? 

Hannah Gadsby inspired me before I even did my first open mic. The quote I wrote down at the time was this: “I put myself down in order to speak, in order to seek permission to speak. And I simply will not do that anymore. Not to myself or anybody who identifies with me.” I heard Hannah (yeah, we are on a first name basis) say that right after I did a parent teacher meeting where I definitely put myself down in order to advocate for my child that was struggling massively in their environment. I got about six laughs per minute in that parent teacher meeting. But when I saw that quote something blew up in my mind, and I was like, oh… I see… that’s what I have been using humor for. That was a defining moment for me to stop doing that. I write and perform without apologies. 

What's your favorite part about performing for queer audiences, or with other queer performers?

My favorite part is the openness. Sharing preshow jitters and the support we give to each other verbally and nonverbally. I love that we understand that this is such a long game. So once you meet someone awesome, you have an awesome familiar human that you will run into again and again! I love the potential longevity in human relationships. But I also love the in-the-moment joy we create together with audiences and each other. There is nothing quite like showmates… especially if the room makes you really work for it. 

Did you meet any other comics or performers this weekend that inspired you?

So many!!!!!! Comedy is such a personal thing that it makes sense people are drawn to different comics. I kept being so in awe of the other performers and I kept thinking wow Ren, Cara, and everyone on the production team really did an amazing job putting together the line-ups. And by association that made me feel okay about myself. Alina blew me away on our first show together. Also Sarina, I was low key obsessed with her charm as soon as I met her in the green room. And Nay oh I am very into everything they say on stage and off. Clearly I have a type… I watched every single show and every single performer and I am inspired by all of it. Shout out to Alex, Roni, Sarina, Moises, Eitan, Nay, Jonny, Jack, Alina, Sami, Libby, Bren, Cara, Ren, Chris, and Britt. Honestly this shit is hard. And everyone brought it!

What advice would you give to emerging queer comedians starting out?

Find your people, and be detached from other people’s drama as much as possible. Pay close attention to how writing and performing are shaping you. I love using comedy as a tool to grow a self after a lifetime of confusion and masking. I went to every single kind of mic the first year of my comedy because I wanted to work out things in front of as many types of audiences as I could access. To figure out if my stuff was affiliative or alienating to people in the audience. But mostly, be kind to yourself while you grow because this shit is hard. I am excited for anyone growing their self through comedy. I am proud of you already.

What’s next for you—any upcoming shows, tours, or projects we should know about?

I am going up to even higher altitude this week for the Mountain Fresh Comedy Festival in Gypsum, Frisco, and Georgetown, CO. Then I get to go home to Seattle to keep writing and performing. I will start touring in six years when my kids make my nest empty! So I’ve got time to build a killer headliner set (or two)! Retirement homes! Get ready for some hard crushing!