Joke WRLD will host its first comedy festival in St. Petersburg on Friday and Saturday. More than 80 standup comedians from across the country are coming. The two-day event takes place at Coastal Creative and three other spots you can walk to in the downtown area.
Nine podcasts will be filmed live. Shows happen at Coastal Creative at 2201 1st Ave, S., Steep Station at 2235 1st Ave. S., the Off-Central theater at 2260 1st Ave.S. and Spitfire Comedy House at 1920 1st Ave. S.
Jake Frombach started the YouTube channel five years ago in Cleveland, Ohio. The Austin-based platform has grown to more than 750,000 subscribers and shows comedy highlights, exclusive interviews, and news segments.
Frombach, 28, played Division 3 football at the University of Mount Union in Ohio while doing standup at open mic events and competitions. He graduated in 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic when jobs in corporate and comedy industries were scarce. Frombach worked as an Instacart shopper and listened to podcasts daily, which led him to start a platform focused on comedy news.
“I was making connections like ‘if you’re a fan of this guy, then you’re probably a fan of this other person’,” he said, according to the St. Pete Catalyst. “There’s really no connecting community when it comes to comedy. So, I started off just wanting to build a community of like-minded comedy fans.”
The channel now has over 2,000 videos. Matthew Broussard was the first comedian interviewed on the platform.
Frombach started planning the festival in April to celebrate the channel’s fifth anniversary. The lineup includes performers who have appeared on Kill Tony, Dad Meat, Stand Up on the Spot, and Roast Battle.
“It not only gives the people who come to the festival a chance to laugh and experience live comedy and find new comedians that they like, but it also gives the comedians on our lineup an opportunity to hang out with one another, network with one another, and perform in front of a new crowd and gain new fans,” he said.
Frombach spent several years in Tampa growing the channel. He went to the Tampa Bay area-based Sunshine Comedy Fest in 2024, where venues were located more than an hour apart. For this event, the entrepreneur wanted all activities within walking distance.