Kelly Ryan at Milwaukee Comedy Festival

Milwaukee Comedy Festival is proud to present the hilarious Kelly Ryan (Portlands Funniest, NIGHTCOOP) at the Official Kick Off event at Lakefront Brewery Sunday, October 1, 2023. Doors open at 5:30pm, show is at 6:30pm. Tickets are $20 and Lakefront Brewery will feature craft beer and their full menu!

Kelly Ryan started stand up at the age of 17 in NYC. While getting her B.S. in Communication Studies from Texas Christian University, she performed improv for four years and taught the art form for three. At TCU, she got to open for SNL’s Vanessa Bayer and Aidy Bryant, as well as NBC’s Retta and BJ Novak.

Since moving to LA in 2016, Kelly can now be seen performing on any given night. Her “home club” is the iconic Hollywood Improv and she is in development at The Comedy Store. During the pandemic, Kelly moved to Portland where she continued standup when possible. In August of 2021 she was named the winner of the Portland’s Funniest Person competition at Helium Comedy Club. This year, she can be seen headlining and featuring for acts like Anthony Jeselnik, Bert Kreischer, Whitney Cummings and more.

She co-hosts NIGHTCOOP, a podcast, with her twin sister, Ali.

About the Milwaukee Comedy Festival

The Milwaukee Comedy Festival is Wisconsin’s largest multi-day comedy event, celebrating 18 years of presenting the best local, regional, and national comedic talent. The festival has featured top-notch stand-up, improv, and sketch comedy from across the country. Founded in 2006 as the Sketch and Improv Comedy Festival to support and grow the comedy scene in the city, the Milwaukee Comedy Festival quickly grew into Wisconsin’s premier annual comedy event attracting thousands of comedy fans every year.  MCF aspires to cultivate an active comedy community where performers can hone their craft, create new and exciting comedy, and foster an inviting environment for both audiences and fellow performers.

Over the years more than 20,000 people have laughed with the Milwaukee Comedy Festival. Audiences have traveled from all parts of Wisconsin to attend the fest, and as far away as Los Angeles to Boston for the city’s biggest comedy event of the year.  Since 2006, the festival has featured thousands of performers from across the country including New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, Philadelphia, Denver and Austin as well as Canada including Toronto, Alberta and Vancouver. Our alumni have appeared in movies and television including Comedy Central, Netflix, HBO, Saturday Night Live, MAD TV, BET, Conan, Late Nite and many more.

Kelly Ryan in Milwaukee

Official Kick Off Event

Lakefront Brewery

October 1, 2023.

Doors 5:30pm, Show 6:30pm

Tickets $20