Festival Supreme prepares for a hilarious Halloween


With Halloween around the corner there are countless music festivals popping up around Los Angeles. Nevertheless, it is safe to say that there will be none quite like the Festival Supreme rolling into The Shrine this weekend. The brainchild of Tenacious D’s Jack Black and Kyle Gass, the festival will blend live music, comedy and a generous portion of Halloween fun.

Spooky in spirit · Tenacious D is bringing a silly spirit to their Halloween comedy extravaganza. The show will feature stand-up acts, comedy sketches and musical performances. Costumes are highly encouraged, and the haunted carnival should be a festival highlight. - Photo courtesy of Tenacious D

Spooky in spirit · Tenacious D is bringing a silly spirit to their Halloween comedy extravaganza. The show will feature stand-up acts, comedy sketches and musical performances. Costumes are highly encouraged, and the haunted carnival should be a festival highlight. – Photo courtesy of Tenacious D

Extending from Tenacious D’s uniquely silly spirit, the festival is kicking into overdrive in its second year. Featuring acts like the Workaholics cast, Drunk History, Bo Burnham and many more, the festival came together after Black and Gass were inspired by a tsunami benefit they played back in 2005.

“We had so much fun doing that concert because we had a bunch of people that were way more talented and incredible than us,” Black said. “And we were like, ‘Wait a second, we should do more concerts [like this], but it should be all of our favorite artists and musicians and comedians in one thing.’” Then last year, as Black describes it, they “decided to just do it” and put on the festival at the Santa Monica Pier. This year, in its new venue at The Shrine Auditorium, the festival has room to stretch its legs and do more things. Black underlined the inclusion of a lot of television show casts in the lineup, a significant change from last year’s festival. The only act returning from last year’s show is Tenacious D itself— the rest of the lineup has been completely revamped. The festival came together in only a few months, as enthusiasm was high for the new venue and concept.

There will be four stages set up — the Phantom Stage, the Gargoyle Stage, the Frankenstein Stage and the Circus of Death — each providing a different kind of show. The Phantom Stage, described by Black as a “gorgeous old Phantom of the Opera-like stage where there’s a giant chandelier and 6,000 velvety red seats,” will serve as a venue for standup. The Gargoyle Stage will be of a smaller scale, but still focused on comedy, featuring acts like Workaholics, Cheech and Chong and the festival’s creators, Tenacious D. The third stage, Frankenstein, will be for larger acts, including the 11-member The State cast, which includes several actors, such as Thomas Lennon, Michael Showalter, Michael Ian Black and Joe Lo Truglio, who went on to find success on other television shows.

But it is the fourth stage, the Circus of Death, that Black seems the most excited about. Set up in the Shrine Exposition Hall, it will be a haunted house-like setup. This area will feature more performance-based comedy acts like Ron Lynch and Rob Zabrecky. There will also be amusement park rides and a carefully constructed creepy ambience.

A new feature of the festival this year is its embracing of the Halloween spirit. With the festival taking place only six days before the holiday, Black joked that they should rename it Festival Supreme-o-ween. Costumes are strongly encouraged, and Black spoke with a special tone of pride when discussing the Circus of Death.

“Our haunted carnival is gonna be better than any other haunted house in all of Los Angeles County. The rest of the haunted houses are for wussies,” he said. “There’s a lot of pretenders to the haunted house throne, but honestly they’re all just wastes of money. Ours is the real deal.” Black also joked that they should just rebrand the whole festival as a Halloween party that also happens to include comedy and music because that would sell more tickets.

The festival’s proximity to the USC campus, as well as a lineup that holds a lot of potential interest for a college-aged crowd, has led to an active effort to increase interest among the USC student body. “Yeah, we’d like the entire campus of USC to go, and we’d like to actually give you college credit and make it a class,” Gass said. “We’re gonna need everyone to come.”

Tenacious D  reached the social media sphere to try and mine this demographic with an Instagram costume contest, awarding free passes to the festival to the fan with the best costume of one of the acts in the Festival Supreme lineup.

The festival has a lighthearted spirit, embracing the inherent silliness of Halloween and showcasing the numerous comedic acts. This surely comes from the Tenacious D tag team at the center of it all. Tenacious D is gearing up for a tour through Asia later on this year, but their performance at the Festival Supreme will be their first since February. With that added importance driving him, Black is the energetic figure at the center of the upcoming event despite his humble attempts to divert attention to the other talented artists who will be performing. The festival is expertly building excitement in the final days leading up to Saturday, boding well for a spooky success.