FINAL DAY AT AKUMAL COMEDY FESTIVAL WITH JIMMY SHUBERT AND ALYSIA WOOD

The final event of the Akumal Comedy Festival took place at La Cancha, which is the basketball court in the middle of town. The local restaurants and chef services like Daveed set up tables and sold food during the event.
The local school children from the  Otoch Paal School sang a song. The festival proceeds benefit the school.
Headliners  Gus Lynch, Jimmy Shubert and Alysia Wood all performed a knock out final performance.

Dirty Curls Band performing at La Cancha
Dirty Curls music video

Otoch Paal School Children singing

Jimmy Shubert
Jimmy Shubert video

Note: the link above is to some of the very funny material delivered by Jimmy Shubert.
One particularly hilarious bit was about a chicken omelet.
The challenge with this assignment was capturing the performers gestures
while at times becoming completely distracted by the jokes.

Alysia Wood
Alysia Wood video

Note: I was particularly happy with this drawing b/c I was finally able to capture her gesture
during her bit about smoking, which was, BTW  absolutely hilarious.

SCENES OF AKUMAL, YAL KU LAGOON

On Sunday at the restaurant La Sirena at 5pm, all of the artwork will be on display and the illustrations of scenes of Akumal will be for sale. Below is a sampling of work by Aggie Kenny.

10 PM SHOW, LA BUENA VIDA

The final show of the night was at La Buena Vida and was hosted by Alysia Wood.
The acts included Gus Lynch and Jimmy Shubert. The room was packed during the performances. Even though we try to stay focused on drawing found it difficult at times,
getting caught up in the hilarious jokes.

Jimmy Shubert at La Buena Vida.
Jimmy Shubert video

Alysia Wood hosting La Buena Vida show
Alysia Wood video

GRATEFUL DEAD STAGE 8PM SHOW WITH GLENN WOOL

At 8pm the festival moved to the Grateful Dead Stage, built by it's namesake. Glenn Wood was the main act for that event. The stage is quite distinctive and looks influenced by the local ruins.

Glenn Wool, performing on the Grateful Dead Stage
Glenn Wool video

LA BUENA VIDA 6PM SHOW, FRIDAY

Craig Norton of Comedy Under the Sea in Playa del Carmen, hosted the 6pm show at La Buena Vida.

The line up included comedians from the local areas, to some from New York, North Dakota and Minnesota. The comedians also had to share the stage with a small bat, that would from time to time fly back and forth in front of them

Craig Norton hosting at La Buena Vida

Jeff Pfoser, comedian, father of 4, from Minneapolis

John Schultz of Fargo North Dakota

NYC based comedian Reid Faylor with bat

Reid Faylor from NYC, with bat

LOL HA SNACK BAR, GRATEFUL DEAD STAGE AND BUENA VIDA

Last night the festival opened to much laughter, first at the Lol Ha Snack Bar comedians gave a sampling of their material, including the very funny John Conroy. Also Courtney McClean of Dirty Curls sang a song for the audience. 

Gus Lynch hosted the show at the Grateful Dead Stage. Jimmy Shubert performed and the audience loved it. Given he is such a big name in comedy, they were in for a treat. Glenn Wool ended the evening at La Buena Vida, and performed for a packed crowd. A very successful first day of the festival.

Note below there are links to the comedians performances under their pictures.

Lol Ha Snack Bar, with Producer Dan Schlissel ( red shirt)

John Conroy at the Lol Ha Snack Bar

John Conroy video

Gus Lynch hosting the show at the Grateful Dead Stage

Gus Lynch video

Headliner Jimmy Shubert at the Grateful Dead Stage
Jimmy Shubert comedy video

Glenn Wool, host  at La Buena Vida
Glenn Wool video

OTOCH PAAL SCHOOL

Yesterday we visited the local Montessori School, Otoch Paal. We saw the wonderful calm learning environment. The children were happy and engaged with their friends and school activities.

The school also can boast it's own mini farm, with a goat, a goose and several chickens.


The proceeds of the festival are to benefit the school, which is raising funds for a much needed classroom. The foundation is built so now they are working hard to raise funds to complete the building, which will house several classrooms for kindergarten and 1st grade.

MORE KICK OFF PARTY AT PLAYA DEL CARMEN

On Wednesday the kick off party acts at Ls Sirena were many including Alycia Wood and The Dirty Curls band.

Alysia Wood at La Sirena

 Quinn Cannady from the radio show Comedy 24/7 has been covering the show and is attending all the performances; you can hear her laughing at the jokes, which is great. Clearly, she is loving this festival.

Quinn Cannady from Comedy 24/7, a Dallas based radio station

Dirty Curls Band at La Sirena

ADAM QUESNELL AT KICK OFF OF AKUMAL COMEDY FESTIVAL

Adam Quesnell at comedian from Fargo, North Dakota performed at the kick off event in Puerto Aventuras. He informed the audience coming from Fargo, this is only the second time he has ever worn shorts. The audience loved his jokes. We loved his distinctive beard.

Adam Quesnell before show

Adam Quesnell performing at Tiramisu
Adam Quesnell video

KICK OFF SHOWS AT PUERTO AVENTURAS AND PLAYA DEL CARMEN

Last night the Akumal Comedy festival offered a preview of shows in towns just north of Akumal.

Andrew Short performed in a show on the water at restaurant Tiramisu, in Puerto Aventuras. He had the crowd captivated and applauding at his jokes.

Andrew Short at Tiramisu
Andrew Short video

Then the fun moved to Playa Del Carmen where Darlene Westgor entertained the audience at La Sirena to howls of laughter.

Darlene Westgor at La Sirena
Darlene Westgor Video

GUS LYNCH - HEADLINER AT TIRAMISU, PUERTO AVENTURAS

Gus Lynch with Dan Schlissel founders/producers of the Akumal Comedy Festival 

Last night was the kick off party in Puerto Aventuras. Gus Lynch was the headliner and made some pretty hysterical jokes and being married for 15 years and with young kids.

The best was that his wife of 15 years was seated behind him, and  not sure he could see that she was cracking up at his jokes, even though she was the subject of some of his comedy.
That, after 15 years, was pretty cool

Gus Lynch and wife Mandy before show

CANNONS ON THE BEACH AT AKUMAL

Cannons on the beach at Akumal Bay

The locally famous ship wreck is the Matanceros. The most notable recovered artifacts from the wreck are its cannons, several of which point out to sea at the entrance to Akumal Bay.

The Frigate was sailing near the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan on February 22, 1741 

when it crashed into the coral reefs just offshore.

CHEF DAVEED

Today we met Chef Daveed. He runs a service that prepares food for visitors in the area.
We initially thought it was like a food delivery service, just a drop off but indeed, Chef Daveed comes to your unit and prepares the food. Quite a wonderful way to have your food "delivered"

Chef Daveed arrived bright and early with a sunshine smile. While sharing local anecdotes of local color he made a most delicious feast of Mexican eggs and salsa, black beans.
What a wonderful start to the day.
Think we might get used to this service, pretty easily:)
AK

VIEW FROM CASA ROMERO, AKUMAL MEXICO

Our first post in Akumal. This is the lagoon outside out unit. It is the  Yal Ku Lagoon. Quite a remarkable backyard
Lots of snorkeling, and swimming in this azure blue water.  Very quiet except for the chirping birds.

Snorkelers in Yal Ku Lagoon

A PS to this post, only comment I have received from the states,from my husband, concerned about those poisonous looking red fish in the water. Uh, supposed to look like snorkelers, so now have added a caption to avoid that confusion. EW