Comedy Central's Clusterfest is returning for the third year in a row at Civic Center June 21-23, and the lineup includes Patton Oswalt, Tig Notaro, Broad City co-creator Ilana Glazer, Queer Eye's Jonathan Van Ness, and the hosts of popular podcast My Favorite Murder.
The comedy-and-music festival, a collaboration between Comedy Central, local music promoters Another Planet, and Bonaroo organizers Superfly, had its first outing in San Francisco in 2017. Over three days, there's a lineup of high-profile standup comedians performing both in Civic Center Plaza and inside Bill Graham Civic Auditorium, as well as up-and-coming names doing smaller nightclub-like shows in separate spaces within Bill Graham, and one-off performances and panels with notable podcasters, local drag queens, and others.
Headliner John Mulaney has seen his star rise in the last year with multiple Netflix specials, a second season of Big Mouth, the animated show he stars in created by pal Nick Kroll (and others), and not one but two hosting gigs within 10 months on Saturday Night Live, including an especially hilarious one last weekend.
Mulaney appeared last year along with Kroll doing their old-guy routine from Kroll Show and the Broadway show Oh, Hello, but now he'll be doing a full set on the main stage, as will another headliner, Patton Oswalt.
It's unclear as yet who'll be on what stage, and it sounds like more big names are likely to be added in the coming weeks. But Ilana Glazer and Insecure's Issa Rae are also billed as headliners, along with Tig Notaro, SNL's Leslie Jones, Whitney Cummings, and Chelsea Peretti. And for music acts, The Roots will be a big draw.
From the podcast realm there will be comedian Jon Lovett's Lovett or Leave It, and co-hosts Georgia Hardstark and Karen Kilgariff of My Favorite Murder fame.
This year's drag highlight sounds like it will be a staged reading of Romy & Michele's High School Reunion, starring Trixie Mattel and Peaches Christ. Though you can expect more comedy queens from the Rupaul's Drag Race universe to likely get added.
Also TBA are this year's "activations" at the festival. Past examples include South Park-themed Instagram-friendly games, a replica of the Seinfeld apartment, "Trump's Golden Toilet" and greatest tweets exhibit from The Daily Show, and two years in a row there has been a working replica of Paddy's Pub from It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia with multiple Flip-a-delphia flip-cup competitions.
Says Chris Sampson, EVP of Programming for Superfly, "Clusterfest is about presenting the breadth of comedy and music in a way that easily lends itself to discovering something new and entertaining, and this year's stacked lineup does just that. We’re beyond excited to return this year with more top-tier and emerging talent and can’t wait to unveil even more leading up to the festival weekend.”
Three-day festival tickets go on sale Monday, March 11, starting at 10 a.m. for the general public, though returning Clusterfest attendees should have been notified today (Friday, March 8) that pre-sales have begun. Single-day general admission tickets go on sale March 15 starting at $89 — and there are also layaway plans available.
Photo: Annie Lesser/SFist