Enter the forces of Tovah Silbermann, NYC comedy producer and Making Ends Meet podcast co-host, Andrew Tavin, standup comic and Podcast Monsters co-host, and Brandon Scott Wolf, standup comic and datebrandonscottwolf.com creator. This dynamic trio has come together to bring New York City what we’ve always wanted but been too afraid to ask for: the biggest comedy festival in the smallest biscuit shop. The Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival will be held in the East Village’s Empire Biscuit August 2-4 and with comedians like Sasheer Zamata, Phoebe Robinson, and Aparna Nancherla scheduled to perform tickets/festival passes are going fast, so snag ‘em while you can!

Tell us about the festival, it’s such a unique idea. How was it born? 

Tovah Silbermann: The Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival is going to be nine shows across three nights in one biscuit shop, and we have amazing comedians that have all pretty much been featured on TV, like Comedy Central, Inside Amy Schumer, SNL and everything like that.

Andrew Tavin: Every show on television sent a comedian to the festival. (Laughter) So Brandon and I were on a bus heading to a festival in Ithaca, New York. It was a comedy festival we were both performing in, and we were having fun on what I think was a six hour ride.

Tovah: At that point, they were getting delirious and coming up with crazy ideas.

Brandon Scott Wolf: We thought it would be really funny to have a comedy festival in a place where comedy festivals don’t belong.

Andrew: Yeah, in just one location. Part of the thing is, there are a lot of great comedy festivals out there, but there are even more terrible ones.

And why Empire Biscuit as the venue?

Brandon: We wanted to make a legitimate, huge, full-fledged comedy festival in Empire Biscuit just because we could.

Andrew: Tovah and I went to high school with one of the owners of Empire Biscuit, so I was like, “Oh, we should ask him.”

Brandon: The whole time we were at the festival in Ithaca, we kept looking at all of the venues that particular festival had. And we were so excited but we couldn’t tell any of the comics we were with because it’d just be a really funny surprise to show our friends online and tell people in person at interviews, like this. But we knew the whole time that Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival would be the biggest festival, at least among our friends.

Andrew: When people say "biscuit" or "comedy festival", people are going to think Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival.

I know that’s all I’m thinking already and it hasn’t even happened yet. But why did you decide to make this into a festival rather than a one-time show?

Tovah: Because we want to be famous! Just kidding. (laughs) No, honestly, part of it is that we’re in New York City, where there are so many comedians and people do shows all the time in weird places.

Andrew: One of the shows Brandon and I did was in a barber shop.

Tovah: Yeah, exactly. So we thought the idea of a full festival with big names in this small biscuit shop just made it funnier because it was just getting more and more absurd.

Andrew: I think part of it is that, like I said before, there are a lot of “eh” comedy festivals out there. And on that bus, Brandon and I kept talking about how we could do a comedy festival in this one biscuit place and make it more legitimate and fun than some festivals that take place across multiple locations.

Tovah: And I think so far we’ve done that, as far as preparation. We just went into it thinking, “Oh, we’ll just book a bunch of shows,” and it turned into this big project and a real festival in the way that we’re treating it from the booking and the people we’re booking to the logistical details. I mean, we got sponsors, we’re having a doorman, we’re having festival passes, and we’re having biscuits included in your ticket. So it kind of even surpassed our own expectations.

It sounds like it’s really all coming together. Have there been any significant challenges or surprises along the way?

Tovah: Yeah, I mean, I think the biggest thing is time. It’s become all EBCF all the time, like I’ll be on my lunch break at work texting Brandon or Andrew about some detail we have to work out. It can definitely be stressful at times, but the thing is, I love producing comedy and I don’t really think of it as work, so it’s just super rewarding when things do turn out. We were all so excited when we first got the logo and the poster. It was the most incredible feeling to see our hard work happening. And Empire Biscuit has been great. They’ve been with us all the way.

Andrew: The cool thing also is that you do get a biscuit and a drink with the ticket. First of all, I just want to make clear, this is a premium biscuit sandwich. And it’s cool because, you know, there are people who love stand-up comedy and are really into it, but there are also people who haven’t really explored it as much and may have older ideas of what stand-up is as an art form. And both types of people can come in and be like, “Oh, those biscuits look delicious and what do you know, these people are funny!” so it’s attractive to lots of different people.

Tovah: It was really important to us that it wasn’t just the “Biscuit Comedy Festival,” we specifically wanted it to be the Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival because you’re really coming to an event, you’re getting dinner and a show, and it’s such a New York thing. It’s quirky and weird, and you’re getting show biz and still get a culinary experience in New York.

Do you think it’ll make people see stand-up in a different way?

Tovah: Absolutely! This is a really cozy biscuit shop. People are going to be sitting a few feet away from people they’ve only seen on Saturday Night Live or Daily Show, and they’re just going to be chilling and eating biscuits with them.

Brandon: New York City is on the cutting edge of standup comedy. And if you want to see the best standup comedy in the world, you come to New York City. There’s so many shows that you read about in this magazine or that blog, where it’s taking place in a laundromat, it’s taking place in a basketball... pavilion?

(Tovah laughs.)

Andrew: During a game.

Brandon: And there’s so much happening, you have to find some sort of unique, smart something that people can latch onto and say “This is an experience I can only get here.” And that’s what we’re doing. I think it’s a mixture of alt comedy, club comedy, and Southern biscuits.

Andrew: It’s where you want to go to see the stars of tomorrow.

Brandon: It’s hard work, but at the end of it, you look back and you say, “Oh, we did this.” We put our blood, sweat, tears, and lots of money into this festival, and we got this star-studded, amazing lineup on every single show. And honestly, it’s something that, if Comedy Central was there with cameras, I don’t think they’d have any problem putting it on television.

Can you talk a little bit about how you formed this incredible lineup?

Tovah: Well, I produce several different comedy shows around the city, including one Andrew co-hosts and every week we try to get one person who has a TV credit, so we’ve been able to meet a lot of these people personally in that way. But also, our goal for the festival was to have lineups of people who could all be headliners, rather than having one headliner per show. The talent of this festival is just amazing.

Andrew: I feel like what a lot of people don’t realize about doing standup in a city like New York is that you will probably get the chance to perform on the same shows as some of these great people. I know I’ve had the pleasure of performing with some of these people, and people are generally pretty game for cool ideas in front of game crowds.

Do you think that this attitude is indicative of the general New York standup community?

Brandon: I think the New York standup community takes care of itself. The people you’re on shows with are friends, your colleagues are friends, and so if you’re doing something that people like, they’ll want to be a part of it. Even when you’re talking to very busy people, 9 times out of 10, they’ll be up for something that seems fun or interesting.

See, and people say New Yorkers aren’t nice. So would you want this to be an annual festival?

Andrew: I think we would. If we can prove it’s a success this year and people come out to support it, there are a lot of cool ideas we have going forward. And even though the lineup was completely curated this year, you know, maybe in the future we might be looking to take submissions from comics if it becomes a thing.

And would you think about including other forms of comedy as well or keep it strictly standup?

Tovah: We thought about that for this year, but the issue is that the venue is very small, so standup is definitely the most conducive to that. But we have a musical comedy duo and characters.

Any final words?

Tovah: Support local comedy and your local Empire Biscuit shop! I love the Chicken & Ranch Biscuit, it’s the best thing I’ve ever tasted and it’s just as good as the lineup.

Brandon: You could see all of these comedians in clubs throughout the city and all over the United States, but this is the only time you can see them all in one biscuit shop.

Andrew: That’s true. Oh shoot! But what about the, uh, Downhome Biscuit Comedy Festival at Downhome Biscuit one block away?

Brandon: Oh no! Not Downhome Biscuit Comedy Festival, our rivals!

Andrew: Don’t go to them! They’re comedy’s unfunny, their biscuits unsavory! Come to the Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival!

Brandon: We’re a bunch of biscuit cases.

Keep the conversation going with #EBCF and follow Empire Biscuit Comedy Festival on Facebook and Twitter @BiscuitComedy for the latest updates.