Here’s a sentence you didn’t hear a lot before the pandemic: It’s almost time for outdoor comedy season.
Before March of 2020, standup comedy fans around Portland would get most of their laughs at shows staged indoors, at clubs or bars. But like all kinds of activities and performances, comedy shows moved outdoors, too.
The Cabin Fever outdoor comedy series at Thompson’s Point began in 2020 as a way to keep comedians working while clubs were closed and is now entering its third season. The first show of the new season is slated for Wednesday, April 6, with Dayton, Ohio-based comic Mark Gregory – the nephew of the late comedian and activist Dick Gregory – as the headliner.
The show also features more than half a dozen other comics from Maine and around the country, including Marcus Cardona, who runs the series in collaboration with Portland’s Empire Comedy Club. Cardona is a Maine native who was living and working as a comedian in Brooklyn, New York, when the pandemic hit, then moved back to Buxton.
Maine comedian Marcus Cardona runs the Cabin Fever outdoor comedy series in Portland. The new season opens April 6. Photo by Ben Kramer
Cardona figures he’ll go back to New York to work eventually, but for now, he’s staying in Maine and plans to run about one Cabin Fever show a month at Thompson’s Point into October. The shows started with just a 50-person capacity, but that has steadily increased. It was at 120 people last fall and will be 150 for the April 6 show, Cardona said.
People can bring their own chairs or blankets to sit on, or for $20 – on top of the $20 ticket price – people can get a picnic table, a fire pit or a high-top table with stools. There’s also a full bar and light concessions.
This will be Gregory’s first Maine appearance, Cardona said. The two met at a Brooklyn comedy club that Cardona managed and where Gregory performed. Gregory has played venues around the country for more than a decade and did some shows opening for his uncle, who died in 2017. He played New York’s legendary Apollo Theatre just before the COVID-19 outbreak.
“He’s one of the best comedians out there. He’s got his own style, very high energy,” said Cardona.
Comedian Mark Gregory, nephew of comedian and activist Dick Gregory, will perform at the Cabin Fever outdoor comedy show in Portland April 6. Photo courtesy of Mark Gregory
Some of the other performers on the bill include Mona Forgione, Ian Macdonald, Leah Douglass, Caleb Sherman and DJ Lucky Penny. There’s another Cabin Fever show scheduled for April 20.
While finding himself back in Maine these past two years, Cardona has kept busy. Not only does he run the Cabin Fever series, but he’s currently working with the Free Street Restaurant and Cocktail Bar in Portland to do comedy shows there under the name Maine House of Comedy. Cardona said he expects shows to start there in May.
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