It’s not funny. OK. It’s kinda funny. The 32nd Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition was all geared up to start next week at Pioneer Square’s Comedy Underground. And then a Seattle sports team actually got involved in some sort of post season game. The expected madhouse around Century Link Field next Wednesday means the competition will kickoff on Capitol Hill instead. Here are the details from organizer Peter Greyy:

The 32nd Annual Seattle International Comedy Competition, with 32 stand-up comedians from across the United States and Canada, is ready to begin its month long effort to crown a new stand-up comedy champion.  This month will see 23 shows in Western Washington–from Bellingham to Longview, from Auburn to Port Townsend–but the first show of the competition was to be held at the Comedy Underground in Seattle’s Pioneer Square.  That was…until the Seattle Sounders scheduled a playoff match for that same night.

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The new location for the opening night of the Seattle International Comedy Competition will be the Annex Theatre on 11th and E. Pike Street.  This will be the only show of this year’s event to be held on Capitol Hill (the competition did hold a show at the Broadway Performance Hall in 2009, at Chop Suey in 2007 and the Capitol Hill Arts Center in 2006.)  While changing venues with less than a week to go before the beginning of the competition isn’t an ideal situation, it does give us the opportunity to bring the competition into the heart of a vibrant local stand-up comedy scene at a venue known for putting on outstanding and interesting shows.

This is a Preliminary Week show–which means that there are 16 stand-up comedians, half of this year’s contestants, each performing five minute long showcase sets.  Those sixteen comedians are:  

Asif Ali (Los Angeles, CA)
Rhiannon Archer (Toronto, ON)
John Beuhler (Vancouver, BC)
Sam Demaris (Houston, TX)
Don Frost (Portland, OR)
Douglas Gale (Seattle, WA)
Ian Karmel (Portland, OR)
Patrick Keane (Los Angeles, CA)
Kristine Levine (Portland, OR)
Manny Martin (Seattle, WA)
Rylee Newton (Seattle, WA)
Mark Normand (New York, NY)
Rodney Sherwood (Seattle, WA)
David Tveite (Seattle, WA)
Jay Washington (Chicago, IL)
Jono Zalay (Boston, MA)

The show will be hosted by Billy Wayne Davis, who was, himself, a finalist in last year’s Seattle International Comedy Competition…placing second behind Portland’s Auggie Smith.

This is the first of six shows in this week, as all sixteen comedians will try to earn the best scores they can to end up in the top five for the week–as those top five comedians will move on to the Semi-Finals, where they will be joined by the top five from the second Preliminary Week, which will begin on November 8th at the Comedy Underground, Seattle.   The entire competition ends on November 27th.

The opening night show will take place at the Annex Theatre.  Showtime is 8pm on Wednesday November 2nd.  Tickets are $15.