Rensberry: Okay, cool. So what I'm going to have you do is introduce yourself and your job title.
Sanders: Wonderful. I am Sarah Sanders. I'm the Director of Plaza Venues and Events in Snowmass Base Village.
Gillespie: Hi, Julie Gillespie, Marketing and Operations in Snowmass Base Village for The Collective.
Rensberry: Okay, cool. All right, I think we're ready to get started.
Rensberry: Snowmass Comedy Weekend is like a whole series of events. There's a lot going on. Can you give us just a basic rundown of some of the events, some of the local
Sanders: aimed events? Yeah, absolutely. So Snowmass Comedy Weekend is my brainchild. We did a test of it in February and had three nights of comedy and it went so well that the town of Snowmass asked us to do it again this summer.
Sanders: And so with their support and partnership, we are able to expand the footprint and we're able to even do some events on the mall up at Snowmass Village instead of just Base Village. So we have on Friday night or Bringing in our local showcase happy hour at the ranger station and then The collective is kind of the hub of our comedy series and then we have cooking with comedians at the limelight with Executive chef Keith Theodore from the little Nell and Alex Edelman who's the headliner of the whole weekend We have a Silent disco.
Sanders: I'm like, I forgot something. We have a silent disco on Friday after the comedy show on Friday night. Cooking with comedians. Saturday night is our big headliner event at the snow mass conference and event center in base village with Alex Edelman. Then after that we're back at the mall at the tavern with the Josh Adam Meyers and doing the goddamn comedy jam, which is like rock and roll in comedy combined, which will be like the late night kind of rowdier event.
Sanders: And then we're back at the collective Sunday with Julie and I for babes that brunch and then we will close out the weekend with Josh Adam Meyers as a headliner. Comedy show at the collective that evening
Rensberry: comedy for a lot of people can mean a lot of different things. What are some of the people that you're highlighting for this weekend?
Rensberry: What's their specialty? Because that can be
Sanders: such a wide range. Totally. So the really fun thing about this lineup is that all of the comedians that are headliners for this weekend have been at the collective. Years prior to this. So we've have previous relationships with them and they've believed in what our vision for the collective and, and my specific vision in growing into a festival and snow mass.
Sanders: They were with us when like, Not as many people were coming and we were socially distancing and doing 20 people in a show and we didn't have the nice audio and lights and production that we have now. And so it's really fun to bring all of these comedians back because we've gotten a lot of requests around these ones.
Sanders: So we have Reem Adan, who came out last winter with us. We have Josh Adam Meyers He's like, he's kind of like the bad boy of comedy. I would say Reem is like our Iraqi princess and she really speaks to culture and women. And she does all these different characters and it's just amazing. And her background is completely different from Josh's.
Sanders: And then Alex Edelman, he has just come off of like, 500 straight shows on Broadway that were sold out. And he just closed out his just for us show that just dropped on HBO this spring. And he just won a Tony award like two weeks ago. So his career has just like completely blown up in the last few years from when we got him during COVID and so to bring him back and offer him a bigger stage and more opportunity to get him in front of more people.
Sanders: people in our community is just, like, really exciting. So all of them are amazing collaborators and they're all down [00:04:00] to do, like, any of these off the cuff kind of festival things that we that are kind of more non traditional comedy, if that makes sense.
Rensberry: Yeah, absolutely. You mentioned this is a very long term process for you and a long term vision.
Rensberry: When putting together something that's a comedy festival, what was your inspiration What is something that you're really gunning for?
Sanders: Do you want to talk about when we go to Moontower? And when we go to other festivals? You can go ahead. Okay. So we are very fortunate where in the off seasons we get to travel with our programmer, Jenna Buehler, who is with Theatre Projects, who we consult with.
Sanders: And we go to who is doing it well in the comedy scene. And we are constantly trying to find people that fit our audience in Snowmass and in our community and bring them up here. And so we've been fortunate the last couple of years to go to Moon Tower in Austin, Texas. And it has grown into like a two week festival.
Sanders: And so we'll [00:05:00] go for like four days and we, we try to go to the smaller off the cuff shows because one, that's like what our budget allows. And also these are Typically people that are up and coming and about to blow up, which is been kind of on the nose for just about everybody that we've brought into our series the last four years.
Sanders: But our goals are my, my goals are really to make it inclusive, to make it accessible, to make it obviously fun. We're here to laugh. Like, I think our community has been through a lot together in the last decade. And my biggest vision is to get all of the people that are, that make our community like go and work and give them a ticket price that's affordable or free and, and laugh and like leave lighter and more connected.
Rensberry: Yeah. Anything from you?
Gillespie: Well, I am very new to the collective as of October. And so I'm, you know, jumping into this festival piece that Sarah and our programmer Jenna have really built up. And Sarah and I used to work at the Wheeler Opera House together. So that's where we experienced like Aspen Laugh Festival that Jenna, the executive director at the time put together, or, you know, promoted a lot and built it up so much.
Gillespie: So we get a lot from that as well. And being really motivated to, like Sarah said, continue growing festivals like this and having it be accessible to people and laughing because I don't know, before COVID, it seemed like so easy, like, yes, comedy festivals or just festivals in general, this is what we should be doing.
Gillespie: And now it's like, you have to kind of build that back up and tell people it's okay. Like, yeah, You can come and laugh and come to eight shows if you want in a weekend. So that's what is really fun about being up in
Rensberry: Snowmass. Yeah. You guys talk a lot about being accessible for people, especially cost wise.
Rensberry: What does that look like? And where does that come from for you?
Sanders: Mm hmm. So all our tickets run from our shows are free to the most expensive show is 150 and that is the Cooking with Comedians show. And that price point is 150 because there's a lot of costs associated with that with the food and the drinks and the space.
Sanders: And so that's why that one is more expensive. But all of our other Ticket prices cap out at 45. Correct. 45. And then the shows at the Collective Hall are 25. And so we really for us, I, and I think for, for me and like what I see in our community and in our, in our friend group even is that a lot of what we do in this valley and especially up valley In Snowmass, in Aspen, is for the tourist and we all are working and serving the tourist and, and while that is like a big reason why a lot of us are here and have jobs, there's also this piece that like, some things aren't for the locals anymore.
Sanders: And for me, personally, I want to So much for things to be for the locals too, and I want it to be for everybody I don't want it to just be like well, this is so expensive. This is for the 1 percent that comes in on their private jets it's like no, this is for everybody and everybody is welcome and Part of our collective like core values are that we are inclusive.
Sanders: We are accessible We're building community and we're and connection and vibrancy. And so that really drives a lot of our decisions and how we set our price points. And it's not to make money. It's it's actually a great loss, but it is financially, but it is to build this vibrancy in, in Snowmass.
Sanders: And that's like really what's moving us forward. Yeah.
Rensberry: Yeah. That sounds completely fair. Discussing inclusivity. I know you have some cultural variety in your set this year. Is there any, Hopes in the future to bring in a large portion of our communities out here, especially the working communities are Latino and are Spanish speaking.
Rensberry: Is there any hopes in the future to bring in Spanish speaking or bilingual comedians? Because there's absolutely that asset of
Sanders: performers. Yeah, absolutely. That is, like, the next kind of piece we want to, like, grow and jump into. It's not as maybe front facing in Snowmass Base Village yet, but it's something that's, like, top of mind for us, and, and we definitely want to be representing every person on the stage, and so you can see in the future, yeah, a wide background of what we Bring to our programming and the collective and in comedy in general.
Rensberry: Fabulous. All right. One more question. What's the event that you personally, each of you is looking forward to the most?
Sanders: Oh my gosh, all of them. So Julie and I are both comedians as well. We're, we're like baby comedians.
Rensberry: Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. We hadn't discussed this. I didn't know this.
Sanders: It's not about us in this moment, but we can talk about it now.
Rensberry: Yeah. Okay. Okay. Start with that. And then we'll move into what events we're looking forward to. You're really excited for as comedians because that's a totally different lens to be looking at this from.
Sanders: Yeah, totally. So we're both baby comedians. We've been doing it for a few years and and I'm very fortunate that Julian we only we get to work together, but she's also one of my best friends.
Sanders: And so part of having the roles that we have is that we get to be creative and and have opportunities for for us to get some stage time and and. Creative things. And so one of the things that we're creating together is this babes that brunch concept. And we've been talking, we talk all the time about like, Oh, like, just our normal day to day conversations are so silly, a lot of times.
Sanders: And so I'm really looking forward to that one, because that'll be like our, that'll be Sunday, we'll have gone through all the big stuff, we'll get to have a couple of drinks and, and kind of have like, a more playful Event. Yes.
Gillespie: It will be a slumber party. It will be slumber party vibes with day drinking is what we discussed.
Gillespie: That
Sanders: sounds like such a party. Yeah, and we're bringing Reem, Reem Adan into that show with us. So it'll be a, it won't be like traditional comedy. It'll be comedy with conversation, with conversation with a crowd, some, some off the cuff games. I hope that her and I are like, not cross eyed by the time we get off the stage, but if we are, it's okay because it'll be Sunday. But I'm really looking forward to that. And, and honestly, I am like really trying to go to every single event and, and really be present in it because they're all so different. And it's just, I'm just like really proud of it. And I can't wait to see like our community enjoy, you know, our hard work the last six months on this.
Sanders: So. Yeah. What are, what are you most excited to see?
Gillespie: You know who I haven't seen actually in a while and she's coming back that we haven't sung her praises is Nancy Norton. And she is a Denver based comedian and is so incredibly hilarious. And so I'm actually looking forward to seeing Uncle Nancy.
Gillespie: That's what we like to call her. She's like our comedy uncle, our comedy Nance uncle. But she is so funny and she will be with us the entire weekend. And I'm just, I think I miss her. So that's what I'm excited to see.
Sanders: Shout out to uncle Nance. We love her. She's like our, our comedy shepherd and she she mentors us, which is really, really cool.
Sanders: And she was the first woman to ever win the Boston comedy competition and she won the Seattle comedy competition in like 2018. We've got some heavy hitters. Yeah, she has like some incredible accolades and we're really, really lucky that we have these relationships and that we get to spend time with some really talented, funny people for a long time.
Sanders: Three or four days. So yeah, it reminds us. We are definitely baby comedians. Yeah, we got some work to do. We're excited. Yeah
Rensberry: Yeah, something else that I noticed is that some of your locals that you showcase a fair chunk of them are also women There is this weird stigma in the entertainment industry that has been perpetuated for a long time.
Rensberry: It's based in sexism That women aren't funny. How would you like to explain to people that that might be incorrect? That's not true
Gillespie: We fully disagree with that because we are very funny And everyone can attest
Sanders: we are funny and women get shit done so I think like their comedy is a lot of times more complex and more clever I don't want to get into like a You Girls are better than boys, but our attention to detail is impeccable.
Sanders: So yeah, I, I, I think that women now are getting more opportunities than they ever have in comedy before, and they're getting their time. And I think that is really, really cool. And we want to be part of being progressive and highlighting all the people that came before us and, you know, had to fight really hard to get stage time.
Sanders: So,
Gillespie: yeah, we're very grateful for them.
Sanders: Yes.
Rensberry: Yeah. Speaking of offering people stage time, you guys [00:14:00] also often run like comedy open mic nights, things like that. Is that something also that's coming for this particular festival or is that something that people can look forward to in the future?
Sanders: Yes. So our next open mic is Ju July 26th and we also do, so that is like anybody can sign up for it.
Sanders: That you can have done. No stage time where you can be a seasoned pro, everybody gets five minutes, and that's just like great opportunity to workshop and practice things. Typically with open mics, it is usually like a room full of comics performing to comics, and so the vibe can be like, Sometimes tense, but it's like a great opportunity just to practice.
Sanders: And as you said earlier, getting in front of a microphone intimidates people. So we want to give people opportunities to be professional and, and hone their skills. And then we do at the beginning of every summer, we have a comedy competition and we bring in We had 16 competitors this, this last, a couple weeks ago, [00:15:00] and then the top performers from those, from that event will go on and open for our headliners throughout the whole comedy summer series.
Sanders: So we have some of the, the winners performing and opening for some of the shows this weekend or for comedy weekend and then featuring and then the ones that weren't, weren't quite the right fit because you have to match the comedian up with. The headliner that and then you have to get approvals and it's it's quite an extensive process actually, but we really tried to showcase our local comics as much as we can and get them opportunities that maybe they wouldn't have otherwise.
Sanders: So next open mic. July 26th, and then we'll have a local showcase August 16th, August 16th. I'm very sure.
Gillespie: Sounds
Sanders: right. Confirm it at the collective website, thecollectivesnowmass. com.
Gillespie: Thecollectivesnowmass. com.
Rensberry: Yes. Okay, great. Well, I think we're going to finish up here. I think we're at about time. Thank you both so much for [00:16:00] coming in.
Rensberry: And I'm so glad you were able to come into the studio and chit chat about this. Thanks for having us. Because I think it's going to be a lot of fun.
