Vail Comedy Show Gifts Free Tickets to Locals

$0. That's what hundreds of working locals will pay for tickets to the Vail Comedy Show, courtesy of the show's gift to the community. This week, the show brings big names to Eagle County, with Carmen Lynch from "The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon" and Eddie Ifft from Comedy Central co-headlining a pair of shows. For context, Lynch and Ifft are no strangers to the comedy circuit, with credits including nearly every late-night television show.

Lynch, who flies in from New York City, has a penchant for the Vail area, saying "Vail is so much fun. It's beautiful and you feel rich just walking around. The best part is you don't even have to ski." Her counterpart, Ifft, who joins from Los Angeles, quips about his experience in Vail, "I look like a chairlift operator who somehow wandered onstage and grabbed a microphone. It's the only place where after the show people don't ask for selfies, they ask if I can wax their skis."

The shows, hosted by Mark Masters, will take place at Lookout Bar in Avon on April 1 and at Christiania Lodge at Vail on April 2. Masters notes, "This is really a special show, to have not one but two nationally touring headliners I have worked with before is a very exciting way to wind down what some would call a ski season." On paper, it sounds like a unique experience, but in practice, it's the culmination of a ski season that saw Vail Comedy Show gift hundreds of tickets to working locals.

Lynch and Ifft have a history of working together, including a Scandinavian tour that ended with a near-death experience in Denmark. Ifft jokes, "I love working with Carmen. We're bonded for life." Lynch adds, "I love working with Eddie. We once did a Scandinavian tour — great shows, great crowds — and at one point we had to run from a guy chasing us with a broken bottle."

The Vail Comedy Show is not just a one-off event; it's part of a larger effort to bring comedy to the community. Memorial Day Weekend's Vail Comedy Festival will take over Vail Village from May 22-24, featuring dozens of comedians, magic, and cinema. Passes will provide access to the second year of FILM@Vail Comedy Festival, a film festival within a comedy festival. The festival will include feature film presentations, such as "On A String" and "Before We Get Started," as well as a slate of shorts played on a fourteen-foot-wide movie screen.

Let's do the math: hundreds of tickets given away to working locals, a pair of shows featuring big-name comedians, and a larger festival on the horizon. It adds up to a significant investment in the community. For locals, it means access to high-quality entertainment without the hefty price tag. As Ifft notes, it's a unique experience, and for folks around here, it's a chance to enjoy some laughter without breaking the bank. The practical bottom line: this comedy show, and the larger festival, will cost locals nothing, except perhaps for the cost of a drink or two at the venue.