Blue Whale Comedy Festival turns 10 this year. The impressive events you'll see on the lineup next weekend—national headliners, improv showcases, afterparties—come with a ton of hard work on the back end: booking acts, doing publicity, coordinating talent, working with venues. The comics might make it look easy up on stage, but comedy, as an industry, is anything but.
Evan Hughes would know. Since 2017 he’s been booking shows for comics in Tulsa with an ungodly work ethic and admirable professional zeal. To mark this Blue Whale milestone, we invited him to gather some of the local comics he works with often—all of whom will be onstage throughout Blue Whale weekend, along with many others in the loose “Comedy Night Hosted By Evan Hughes” network—and bring them in to have their pictures taken, high school yearbook style. (We asked them to write their own yearbook quote or superlative, too.)
The love in the room was effervescent as they riffed on each other’s yearbook jokes, boosted each other’s confidence before the camera clicked, and generally checked in like supportive human beings. When I remarked on this beautiful camaraderie to Hughes the next day, he said, “That was a great moment. We are all like family, but we don’t take enough time to really let it all sink in.” During shows, he said, it’s all business, with everyone a little antsy before their sets, and Hughes backstage doing what he calls a “live mixtape”: determining who in the lineup is going on next depending on the mood of the crowd, the vibe of the night, and a dozen other factors you only pick up on when you’ve been doing this as long as he has.
For this bunch of what Hughes calls “friends, coworkers, neighbors, misfits”—some newer to comedy, some with years of experience—the pursuit of hilarity means relentless hard work. Every week, Hughes has these comics and many others booked for sets all over town: secret shows via Don’t Tell Comedy, regular gigs at Whittier and The Colony and Heirloom Rustic Ales and Vanguard, showcases at places like the Oklahoma Aquarium, and collaborations with spots like Misfit Kitchen that reach out to them. “Blue Whale is just a weekend to highlight what goes on here all year,” Hughes said.