The producing artistic director talks about the origin of the Comfort and Comedy Festival, what’s coming to town and what he hopes year two looks like

When Miners Alley Producing Artistic Director Len Matheo heard downtown Golden merchants lamenting the slow winter months, he saw an opportunity. The result is the first annual Comfort and Comedy Festival, running Feb. 23-March 8 across multiple Golden venues with more than 20 performances ranging from nationally touring acts to Colorado favorites. We caught up with Matheo to talk about how it all came together — quickly.

What was the spark for a comedy festival?

Businesses were lamenting how bad the economy is for them during the winter months. Golden is not a winter destination. It gets really quiet, and the only thing going on between January and April is our theatre’s shows. We said, what a great way to support the community. We’re not getting money out of this, but we create impact, we get promotion and we support downtown. Especially if it becomes an annual event.

How did you pull it together logistically, given that you’re spread across multiple venues?

We’re theatre people, so we just went out and talked to people and made it up as we went along — which is not the way city governments work, by the way. Everything has to be planned ahead and put on different calendars. One of the biggest surprises was that every merchant in town was like, yeah, we want to help. The hotels are donating rooms for the artists, about 10 rooms total. It wasn’t a hard sell. I think we’ve earned enough clout with the city that people know we know what we’re doing. In the last 12 years we grew from a $350,000 organization to a $2 million organization. And it’s truly altruistic on our side — we are literally spending man hours we don’t have. We’re exhausted, but we’re doing it for the good of Golden and for bringing people together.

Where does the “comfort” part of the name come from?

You’re not the first person to ask that. The idea is being indoors and staying warm — it’s an indoor sport this time of year. Comfort is the idea of just being together, laughing and being warm and cozy indoors at a nice event.

The lineup is a pretty eclectic mix. How did it come together?

The big acts we brought in from out of town — Broadway’s Next Hit Musical, Buckets N’ Boards, The Chalks and magician Peter Juris — we actually saw those at a showcase in New York and said, these are acts people are just going to love. They’ll leave thinking, that was such a blast. The other stuff kind of fell together. I know Clocktower Cabaret, I know SCRIPTprov, who usually performs at our venue. And Josh Blue came together almost as a favor — he’s filming a special in Denver and the woman who runs Gnarly’s has connections. That show sold out in a week. A hundred and eight tickets, just gone.

What do the workshops add to the mix?

They’re all designed for beginners — for whoever shows up, honestly. How many people say to us, I’d love to take an improv class or an acting class? Well, now you can take one for an hour, no big deal. It’s designed to have fun. It’s designed for anybody.

If this year is a success, what does year two look like?

I’d love to get two nationally known comics and put them in a bigger venue like the Buffalo Rose, where we could sell 300 tickets. One of our models is the Aspen Comedy Festival, which is no more, but it was a big deal for a long time. The goal would be to bring in those national-caliber comedians. The idea this year is proof of concept — and then do this right next year.