49th Annual SF Comedy Competition Semifinals

Director’s Message About the Show Upcoming Events

From the Director

Welcome to Montalvo!

I’m so glad that you are able to be with us tonight. Whether it’s your first time here, or your fiftieth—welcome! I am thrilled to welcome you to another season of Montalvo’s Carriage House Performing Arts Series.

As a multidisciplinary arts center, there’s even more to enjoy at Montalvo in addition to the world-class talent found in the Carriage House. We are a public park and arboretum open year-round for picnics, hiking, and leisurely strolls, as well as a vibrant cultural producer supporting an artist residency, vital arts education programming, and so much more.

Montalvo is a nonprofit organization—as such, we rely on the support of patrons like you in order to continue serving our Silicon Valley community. If you have not yet considered becoming a member, I’d like to personally invite you to engage in a deeper relationship with our dynamic institution. After all, there’s something for everyone at Montalvo!

Enjoy the show and thanks again for joining us tonight,

Angela Torre McConnell
Executive Director

About the Artist

49th San Francisco Comedy Competition Semi-Finals

The San Francisco Comedy Competition is one of the most prestigious comedy events in North America, launching the careers of people like Patton Oswalt, Robin Williams and Ellen DeGeneres. It’s an outrageously funny evening, where you will see the comedy stars of tomorrow competing for their chance at fame and fortune. Hundreds of comedians audition each year to compete. Only 32 are chosen.

The competition is an annual, multi-week, judged, stand-up comedy contest held in comedy clubs, bars, restaurants, casinos, and theaters in San Francisco and around the Bay Area. Each comedian performs for a unique group of judges for every show they do and receive scores in seven categories.

For the 2025 competition, Montalvo is honored to host two nights of the semifinal round. Top contestants from the preliminary weeks will each perform 8–12-minute sets that will have you rolling with laughter!

Your host: Dan Lewis

Dan Lewis is a stand-up comedian based in Brooklyn, NY, though he originally hails from Detroit, MI. Despite years on the West Coast, he still clings to his Midwestern sensibilities, which make him feel out of place at artisanal pickle tastings and rooftop ketamine parties.

Winner of the 2022 East Bay Comedy Competition, Dan is a regular at San Francisco Punch Line, Cobb’s Comedy Club, San Jose Improv, and Rooster T. Feathers Comedy Club. He can otherwise be found performing at local theaters, bars, bowling alleys, and the occasional Russian bathhouse.

Performers

Iris Benson – El Cerrito

Iris Benson is a comedian because no other profession will have her, and that includes drug dealing and prostitution.

Since her comedy debut in 2011, she’s garnered such praise as “Bleak and honest ”, “pleasantly dark”, “wonderfully weird”, and “pretty good for a woman” from no one worth mentioning.

Glenn Sumi of Toronto Now described her as “least likeable”, “angry” and “misanthropic” to which her best friend’s husband, Clint, retorted via Facebook, “He doesn’t like angry and misanthropic comics? – so he’s missing out on George Carlin, Bill Hicks, Dennis Leary, Lewis Black, Roseanne Barr……pretty much all my favorite comics.”

Iris has performed all over the United States, making appearances at Comedy Festivals such as The Laughing Devil Comedy Festival (NY, NY), Trial by Laughter Competition (Indianapolis, IN), The She-Devil Festival (NY, NY), The She-Dot Festival (Toronto, ON) and the Cape Fear Comedy Festival (Wilmington, NC).

Sergio Blanco – South San Francisco

San Francisco based comedian Sergio Blanco, a self-proclaimed idiot, was born and raised in the Bay Area. He has a knack for turning his intrusive thoughts into uproarious laughter. He’s a regular at the San Jose Improv and has performed at San Francisco Sketchfest, as well as other venues across the Bay Area.

Alisha Dhillon – San Jose

Alisha Dhillon is a Bay Area comedian known for her candid, fearless approach to sensitive topics. She’s the reigning San Francisco Roast Battle Champion, placed 2nd in Rooster’s 2025 Comedy Competition, and has been featured in Just For Laughs Vancouver, San Francisco Sketchfest, and the Oakland Comedy Festival. (https://www.alishadhillon.com.)

Shawn Felipe – Hawaii

Honolulu, Hawaii comedian, now based in San Francisco, actor, and personality, Shawn Felipe is known for his laconic and clever real-life stories as they expand internationally. His live stand-up comedy stretches around the globe from the USA to countries overseas such as Singapore, Canada, Japan, Korea, and the Middle East.

He is no stranger to colleges and universities nationwide, along with adding color to an array of corporate industries, the US Military, and Norwegian Cruises, and has been featured on comedian JOKOY’s 2017 tour.

He earned him a nomination for best new artist at the Hawaii Music Awards, Best take-out comic in Hawaii. Shawn was also a top 10 comic at the world-renowned 36th Annual San Francisco International Comedy Competition. Shawn’s stand-up comedy has been featured on various international networks including WorldAsia TV, AZN TV, IA TV, TFC
Channel, Sprint Comedy, Time Network, and National Lampoons Comedy Radio. Shawn has also been a guest star on NBC’s cop TV show series “Hawaii” and has been on several national commercials, Food Network’s “The Great Food Truck Race!” for two seasons. He has filmed a Feature Film, “Dota 2 Underdogs Rising,” that is in post-production. Sean starred in his first comedy special on DryBar Comedy in 2022, “Man Baby”. (https://www.shawn-felipe.com)

Jon Gabrielli – Oakland

Jon Gabrielli is one of the top rising comedians in California. Cementing himself as a Norcal favorite, he performs regularly at major comedy clubs, theaters, colleges, breweries, wineries, casinos, and more all over the country. Winner of over a dozen comedy competitions, Jon opens for comedians like TJ Miller, Matt McCusker Troy Bond, Pablo Francisco, and many more. Jon was in a featured film at the Sundance Film Festival.

His comedy is interactive and creative, he takes audiences on journeys through his mischievous outlook on the events in his life.

Bryant Hicks – Bay Area

Bryant Hicks is one of the funniest comedians in the Bay Area and he is recognized as one of the Bay’s leading talents. Excelling as a showrunner and producer, he truly shines as a stand-up performer. Bryant regularly travels the United States and performs all over the world.

A regular with Don’t Tell Comedy. His impressive resume includes performing with Jerrod Carmichael, Ali Wong, and Dave Chappelle among other notable credits. Bryant’s stand-up is like a sudden burst of laughter, shining like sunshine through the Bay Area fog, brightening every second of the night with a laugh!

CJ Koepp – West Salem, WI

CJ Koepp is a Wisconsin-raised, Oakland-based comedian, writer, artist, and climate activist who specializes in “dark woke.” She has performed at SF Sketchfest and opened for Nick Kroll and Dave Attell.

In addition to stand-up comedy, she writes for Reductress, was awarded the 2024 Diversity in Comedy Writing Fellowship at Killing My Lobster San Francisco, and has been arrested twice (so far).

Connor Lonsdale – Oakland

Connor Lonsdale is a white male comedian, but he’s different from the other white male comedians because he has a stupid haircut.

His irreverent and conversational style of humor has captivated audiences of all demographics and intellectual capabilities. He is a regular at the San Francisco Punch Line, Cobb’s Comedy Club, and the San Jose Improv. He has performed in festivals all over California and currently runs his own show every Thursday at Portal in Oakland.

Emo Majock – Perth, Australia

With that smile, some might say that Emo was born to be a comedian. Long before the stages and circuits, a young Emmanuel Majok was the class clown, a happy kid who loved entertaining his friends. In the mid 90s though, African migrants were scarce, and Emo was one of the only black students in a very-white school.

Emo’s story began in Ethiopia, born to Sudanese parents who fled to Ethiopia to escape a war torn Sudan. At the age of three, Emo and his family were forced from the refugee camp they called home. As another war broke out around them, they joined thousands of other displaced refugees, walking for weeks in search of shelter and a better life. They eventually found a new camp in Northern Kenya, and it was here that they were offered sponsorship to move to Australia. Emo and his family of five arrived in Perth in 1996, with two more siblings born after they settled in the northern suburbs of Perth. Fast forward to 2018, and Emo is now a proud father to a little girl, and new baby boy with his fiancée.

Emo joined childhood friend and fellow comedian Joe White in a string of shows for the 2018 Perth Fringe Festival, under the title ‘White vs. Black’. The shows gathered rave reviews and a 4/5 rating from the Fringe judges. Since then, Emo has been on fire, winning the WA finals for the Raw Comedy Festival, and performing in the National Finals at the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, airing on SBS 16 September 2018.

Emo draws on his childhood for laughs, both as a refugee and a migrant kid in a white school, and his family life today as a father of two and fiancée is an ever-changing source of material. He loves the styles of comedy greats Steve Harvey, Bernie Mac, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. His innate skills as an entertainer, sharp jokes and strong work ethic means that the sky is the limit for this kid from the Horn Of Africa, who grew up in Perth’s northern burbs. So watch this space, grab a ticket, tell a friend. Come and see the man with the megawatt smile.
Trust us, it’s contagious. (https://www.emomajok.com)

Jalisa Robinson

Stand-up comedian Jalisa Robinson brings her sometimes-deadpan, sometimes-sparkling style to everything from race to the patriarchy to getting hit on at Whole Foods.

A native midwesterner, she now lives in California and was a San Francisco International Comedy Competition Semi-Finalist (2022). A favorite at The Punchline San Francisco, Cobbs, San Jose Improv, Rooster T. Feathers, and Don’t Tell Comedy, she regularly performs at clubs and festivals across California and the US.

Jalisa has opened for Hannibal Burress, W Kamau Bell, David Nihill, and Gina Brillion, and she appeared as a featured comedian in the Netflix Is a Joke Comedy Festival 2024.