SARATOGA - Though she might live on the West Coast, comedian Sara DeForest is crossing the country to return to her hometown of Saratoga for a night of hilarious performances. The Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour is coming to the famous Parting Glass Pub on June 26, making this DeForest’s first time ever performing her hometown.
“I’m thrilled about it,” DeForest said. “I started doing standup when I moved to San Francisco last year and have only done shows there, so none of my high school friends have had a chance to see me perform. A lot of my friends and family had no idea that I was interested in comedy, so I’m hoping they’ll be curious enough to check it out.”
Saratoga Springs High School alumna, DeForest was simultaneously a band geek and prom queen. She attended Tufts University and upon graduation worked in public relations in New York City, where she began to regularly visit comedy shows. Seeing Louis C.K. at the Beacon Theater was a vital moment in her career path. From there, she eagerly sought out all the stand-up albums she could find. However it was not until moving to California that DeForest finally took the stage. After attending classes at the San Francisco Comedy College, she became immersed in performing all around the city.
DeForest has performed in the Stanford Pride Comedy Show and the Best of San Francisco Comedy Show, as well as many clubs in San Francisco such as the Purple Onion and Doc’s Lab. She is the winner of the Comedy Machine stand-up competition.
Comedy’s Best Kept Secret Tour recently traveled from New York City to Anchorage, Alaska in a tour that covers 40 cities in just 36 months. Joining DeForest in the local June 26 performance will be Dan Frigolette, another native from the Capital Region. Born in Schenectady, he has appeared in Boardwalk Empire and The Wendy Williams Show. John Saponaro, runner-up in Make Me Laugh Albany, and Matt Richards, seen on Oxygen and BET, will also be performing.
For DeForest, she is just happy to be sharing her comedy with the place she calls home. She would even like to make performing in Saratoga a regular gig, setting up shows for whenever she comes to town.
“Right now, I’d call standup comedy a serious hobby for me. I’m doing it for fun and I love being a part of the comic community in San Francisco, but I have a full time job so this is something I do as a side project, and a creative outlet. I’d love to become a writer for a TV show,” DeForest said, “A big part of standup is the writing – even if you’re a great performer, if the jokes aren’t well-written then the audience isn’t going to laugh. The plan is to keep working hard at this, try to meet the right people in the industry and talk to them about what it takes to become a comedy writer, and see if I can make something happen.”
DeForest, alongside Frigolette, Saponaro, and Richards, can be seen on June 26 at the Parting Glass Pub, 40-42 Lake Ave, in Saratoga Springs. Tickets are $15 and available online at comedysbestkeptsecret.com, with a limited number of tickets available at the door.
*Correction: The tickets are $15, not $25 as stated in the original press release.*
