The First Night of Floodwater: Featuring Zach Peterson and Ian Abramson at Big Grove

by Krystin Langer

Courtesy of Floodwater Comedy Festival

The Floodwater Comedy Fest weekend kicked off Thursday night at Big Grove Brewery with headliners, Zach Peterson and Ian Abramson, giving equally uproarious performances. The night’s host was comedian Spencer Loucks who introduced each of the four renowned guests to the stage. The headliners were preceded by stand up routines from Chris Schlichting and Emily Schaefer. 

Iowa City native, Schlichting started off his set with a bit about the four ninja turtles, enacting help from the eager audience to help him recollect their names. He then broke into a story describing a recent incident that he had encountered on a city bus.

Emily Schaeffer was next up to the stage, commanding the Big Grove crowd’s attention with her spunky personality. Schaeffer is a Chicago-based comedian who used self-deprecating midwestern humor to draw laughs from the crowd. Near the end of her bit, she pulled out a notebook and read lyrics from popular country and religious ballads, relying on the audience to guess whether the songs were about ‘God or a girl’.

Up next to the mic was the night’s first headliner and another Chicago comedian: Zach Peterson. 38-year-old Peterson has been described as both ‘an affable oddball and ‘if Bruce Springsteen's Nebraska album was a person.’ Also a fan of midwestern humor, Peterson’s debut album “Midwestern Jokes for the Americas” was released in 2018. His Thursday night standup routine was a unique mixture of awkwardness and blunt banter that reinforced popular Iowa stereotypes. Peterson’s relatable sense of humor seemed to resonate well with the audience who roared at his jokes about his intense love for gravy and his self perceived ‘uncle energy. During his set, Peterson quipped, “I have a weird relationship with coffee- it makes me bleed from the eyes and see through time.”

Award-winning comedian Ian Abramson delivered the final routine at Big Grove. Originally from Moreno Valley, California, Abramson was named the Best Up and Coming Comedian by LA Weekly, and after attending one of his comedy shows, it is evident why he was awarded this title. 

His energetic schtick involved quite a bit of exercise and downright absurdity. At one point during his routine, Abramson took the microphone outside and used it to interview an unassuming Big Grove employee. Judging by the ensuing laughter, the audience’s favorite part of his skit was when he tethered a shock collar around his neck and entrusted a crowd member to jolt him when they felt that his jokes had become lackluster.

The Big Grove kickoff set the tone for the rest of the successful weekend of Floodwater Comedy Festival.