Limestone Comedy Festival collaborated with the Cardinal Spirits distillery 7 p.m. Sunday to host the eighth season of their annual live comedy series, High Proof Laughs. The sold-out bar venue featured headliner Zach Wycuff, along with Allison Stapp, Kejal Macdonald, Wyatt McKinley and emcee Mat Alano-Martin.
The tickets for the event benefitted Exodus Refugee, an Indiana-based organization committed to aiding the resettlement of refugees and other displaced people fleeing persecution, injustice and war by welcoming them to Indiana.
Mat Alano-Martin, co-director of the Limestone Comedy Festival and emcee for the night, is responsible for choosing the lineups for High Proof Laughs.
“(We) try to have representation,” he said. “A lot of comedy shows, it's just a bunch of straight white dudes, and that can be funny, but there's just not a lot of different perspectives. With this show and every show that we book, we try to just have different life experiences, different perspectives.”
Alano-Martin kicked off the event with an introduction and a brief routine before calling to stage the opening comedian, Kejal Macdonald.
Macdonald runs her own marketing and branding agency, Zuzu Digital. She said she started venturing into stand-up comedy about six months ago. Having attended a workshop at The Comedy Attic, she reached the final round of the 16th Bloomington Comedy Festival in 2024.
“There's something very magical about the Bloomington comedy scene,” she said. “I have seen a lot of comedy in big cities, but this is the only thing that I've experienced from inside. It's just so positive and supportive and there's room for everyone and for a lot of different opinions and perspectives as long as they're not hateful.”
Wyatt McKinley, an LGBTQ+ feature comedian for the event, followed up with his routine. McKinley was also a finalist of the 16th Bloomington Comedy Festival in 2024.
“I did the Bloomington Comedy Festival with Kejal,” he said. “It's just great. I love the community. There's so many different backgrounds of people, sexualities, genders that you don't really find.”
Allison Stapp, another feature comedian for the event and winner of the 2023 Cincinnati Funniest Person of the Year contest, went up next on stage. She said she has been doing comedy for almost three years.
“It's a big creative challenge,” Stapp said. “I really enjoy the writing aspect of it, which is great. A lot of comedians can agree that just feeling the growth over time as a comedian is just one of the most satisfying feelings in the world and really keeps you going.”
The headliner, Zach Wycuff, capped off the show with an uproarious routine, talking about topics such as his Catholic upbringing and being single. Wycuff has been named the Funniest Person in Columbus and twice named the Funniest Person in Cincinnati.
“I've been doing this around 10 years,” Wycuff said. “I wanna brag on Mat and the Limestone because it truly is an incredible festival. People come from all over the country to apply to it. and it was a huge deal for me when I finally got accepted this past year.”
Wycuff recently released his debut special “Homeschooled Energy” with Dry Bar Comedy.
“It's interesting growing a comedy career living in the Midwest and not like a New York or an LA thing,” he said. “What I'm working on now is, can I make a career, while still living here? And getting to do stuff like a charity show for something that is super important, super timely, feels great.”
The comedians stayed in the venue for a while after the show to chat with the audience.
Cardinal Spirits plans to host High Proof Laughs again Feb. 23 and March 30, warming up the community for the twelfth annual Limestone Comedy Festival in Bloomington May 29-31.
