JT Habersaat reflects on the Austin comedy scene, the impact of COVID-19, and the motivations behind launching a comedy festival.

[89:31-89:41]

He discusses the visual transition related to COVID-19 mandates.

That means you had empty stages for once 'cause everyone was trying to be responsible and not spread COVID despite what our idiot governor and a lot of the powers that be here mandated.

[89:05-90:00]

He discusses the scene during COVID, mentioning the old Austin comics stopped performing and the speaker's decision to launch a counterculture comedy fest in Austin.

But here nor there, the point is, what happened was the scene was Part of the reason I launched the festival was 'cause I felt like a counterculture comedy fest could do well in Austin. Um, and I, it was an energy that I wanted to contribute to the scene and bring here and keep, keep that, that spirit going. And then during COVID, most of the, quote unquote, old Austin Comics did what I think is the right thing and stopped performing. That means you had empty stages for once 'cause everyone was trying to be responsible and not spread COVID despite what our idiot governor and a lot of the powers that be here mandated. They said, "Ah, you can stay open. You don't have to wear masks." You, you know, that, that's, that's some liberal coastal nonsense, right? And so because I think most of the comics in the old Austin scene had a sense of conscience, not all of them, but I think most of the major players, we just stopped performing. I know I did.

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