OUR HISTORY​
"AN AMERICAN ART FORM”
Since 1987 the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition & Festival has helped define and refine the homegrown art form which has become America’s most popular brand of stand up comedy. ​One of only a few major launching pads for many of the nation’s biggest stars, the BABCCF remains on the cutting edge of urban comedy, perpetually in search of comedy’s next breakout star.
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The Bay Area Black Comedy Competition was created in San Francisco, California in 1986 by local theatre and spoken word artist Tony Phruishun Spires, to give Black comedians and other comedians of color greater opportunities to hone their craft, entertain enthusiastic audiences and showcase their unique talents in front of industry professionals eager to “discover” the industry’s next big thing.
During the 80’s, rarely any African American stand ups other than the “mainstream” variety, graced the stages of famed San Francisco comedy clubs along side their more conventional contemporaries. Thus, shots at the proverbial “big time,” eluded those undiscovered comics who came out of the edgier, usually more “urban-based” Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and Eddie Murphy tradition.
From it’s humble beginnings as a radical idea in 1986 to its coming to fruition in 1987 at San Francisco’s Western Addition Cultural Center’s Buriel Clay Theater, Oakland’s Alice Arts Center and SFSU’s McKenna Theater, the Bay Area Black Comedy Competition & Festival (BABCCF) has emerged as the largest, longest running live showcase of urban stand up comedians on the planet. The BABCCF is legendary among comedians and renown widely in comedy aficionado circles as a major innovator of contemporary Black Comedy.
To it’s credit, the BABCCF has helped launch the careers of many of today's brightest comedy stars, such as: Academy Award winner Jamie Foxx, Chris Tucker, Katt Williams, DC Curry, Nick Cannon, D.L. Hughley, Gina Yashere, Mike Epps, Sheryl Underwood, Lavell Crawford, Miss Laura Hayes, Craig Robinson, Mark Curry, Luenell, Arnez J, Tony Roberts, Rodney Perry, Michael Blackson, Nate Jackson, Matt Rife and many others.
THE COMPETITION
•The BABCCF is the precursor to groundbreaking TV shows like HBO’s Def Comedy Jam and BET’s Comic View and the inspiration for many of today’s popular TV talent competition shows.
•Comedians are selected from across the US and other nations including: Bermuda, Canada, Germany, Japan, Nigeria and The UK.
•Only the top 50, “the best of the best,” are selected to go toe-to-toe for prize money, touring gigs and career-launching opportunities on live stages, on television and in film.