2 Dope Queens, Bill Maher To Headline New York Comedy Festival

2 Dope Queens

The 14-year-old New York Comedy Festival announced its 2017 lineup today, and this year the inimitable 2 Dope Queens duo will headline at The Bell House, which is quite a treat. Other big names on the lineup include Nick Offerman, Kevin Smith, and Chris Hardwick, plus Bill Maher will perform at The Theater at Madison Square Garden if for some reason you want to see that.

The festival, which will take over a smattering of venues across the city from November 7th to 12th, feels a little political this year—former Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett will bring his "Lovett or Leave It" podcast to the festival, and then there's the aforementioned Maher show. More big names include truTV’s The Impractical Jokers Starring The Tenderloins at Madison Square Garden; Tom Segura and Iliza Shlesinger at Town Hall; and Vir Das at the BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center. More performers will be announced closer to the festival date.

Conan O'Brien will host CONAN at the Apollo Theater from November 6 to 9, as part of the festival's "TBS Comedy HUB;" in addition to Conan, Samantha Bee will film an episode of "Full Frontal with Samantha Bee" for NYCF attendees.

It's noteworthy that this year's lineup seems heavy on male comics, even with the addition of 2 Dope Queens' Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams. NYCF has been criticized for its gender imbalance in the past, though once upon a time there were no women in the lineup, so we're getting somewhere, I guess. We reached out to the festival to see if they could comment on the male vs. female ratio for this year and will update if we hear back.

Tickets for this year's shows go on sale on August 14th; you can purchase them online. Even better, 2 Dope Queens are offering a pre-sale code for their November 10th performance: