We had the good fortune of connecting with Haylie Montgomery and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Haylie, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
Back Hand Comedy Festival all started with our team, at HandUp-StandUp.com.

We produce monthly Comedy Shows all around Atlanta. We partner with venues, we partner with nonprofits, and we bring them together to have some fun! We call ourselves “Middle Women”, because we love bringing people together.

We partner with 5 nonprofits, in Atlanta, and around the world:

A21: https://www.a21.org
Lost n Found: https://www.lnfy.org
Rally Foundation: https://rallyfoundation.org
Atlanta Mission: https://www.Atlantamission.org
GEM or Gather, Equip, and Mobilize: These amazing people work with families and individuals in hospitals. They do unique projects to help during the recovery process, cleaning house, doing yard work, and taking care of kids. They also put on community events to celebrate life!

This is our Second Annual Independent Comedy Festival called:

“Back Hand Comedy Festival”

Taking place: October 6th-9th, 2022, in downtown, Woodstock GA.

For the festival we’re partnering with 5 venues in the downtown area:

RootStock: https://rootstocknow.com
Woodstock Art Theater: https://woodstockarts.org
MadLife: http://madlifestageandstudios.com
and two outdoor venues all within walking distance.

We’re bringing all of our partners out, and it’s going to be a stellar 4 day weekend, full of Comedy!

We’ve got over 40 comics from around the country traveling in for it. The 5 venues that we are going to be producing shows out of are all within walking distance, and surrounded by delicious restaurants, top shops, and great hotels. We’re not giving anything away here! Check out our website for more details! Look out on our socials, to see who is going to be rocking up with us this year, and be surprised by some of our secret special guests!

Our team’s grandest hope, in putting this festival on, is that everyone would benefit from what we’re doing. Everyone.

Anyone, at the venues that will be hosting us, to the producers producing with us, to the comics traveling to us, to the attendees turning up with us, to the volunteers standing with us, to the nonprofits partnered with us, to the sponsors supporting us, to the entire community of downtown Woodstock making a place for us. Our hope is that everyone would want to be a part this year, and look forward to having us back every year after!

We hope that it would be a four day trip, that everyone felt was well worth their time. Our wish is that everyone would feel refreshed and recharged when they return home. We need to laugh, these days more than ever.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
Back Hand Comedy Festival is an extension of our monthly Hand Up Stand Up Shows and Booked Mic. We started Hand Up February 2020. A wonderful time to start a production company that curates comedy shows, in unique indie spaces.

We worked really hard to build partnerships that empower all involved, from promoting great new restaurants, venues, and local businesses, to providing awareness and financial support for local nonprofits. As for the Comedy Scene in Atlanta, our hope was to provide more job opportunities, and to pay more than what was typical at that time.

It was right after our first show at Wonderkid in their “Rainbow Room ” (a fantastic restaurant, on the East Side of ATL) that Covid hit. Our partners were brand new businesses at that time, and we had committed to all our nonprofit partners, to give them 80% of the door sales, when we hosted a show specifically for them.

It was a hard hit, for the world, and for us trying to start a sustainable business. Our nonprofit partners were at full capacity, and expressed to us their very real struggles. Our venues were having to limit the number of people, and expressed their honest struggles too. For a time we had to put it all on hold. We debated just stopping all together, but we really felt we were in a position to do something. However, we needed to be smart about it, and follow CDC guidelines. Thankfully some of our partners have amazing outdoor spaces, which really allowed us to socially distance ourselves. We took temperatures at the door, the venues took food/liquor sales, and we were able to give above 80% to our Nonprofit partners almost every time. We were still paying comics more than what was typical, but out of our own pockets. Our team went into some debt trying to keep true to our commitments.

In 2021 we put focus on having a sustainable business, we grew our team, we expanded a bit taking on new venues, and working with new nonprofits. We started doing corporate shows as well. We’ve worked with Microsoft, Home Depot, Apartment Communities, and currently we’re working with REI. We also hosted our very first festival called: “Westival”. Which took place at two of our venues on the West Side of Downtown Atlanta. It was a fantastic day of being outdoors. We had our first ever Headliner fly in for it, Jeff Scheen, a hilarious comic from NYC. We held a market for local Atlanta Artists and Vendors. We asked musicians like Abe Parker, Zach Paradis, and Becca Liegey to turn up to do music. We partnered with Bar Crawl ATL, DJ Steve, we had amazing food, and choice beer! We were still able to give 80%, to our 5 nonprofit partners, and pay out all of our comics.

It’s not been easy, but our team is committed to longevity in doing something that will benefit others. Sometimes if you can, you must.

We want to be a part of the elevation of humanity.

Any places to eat or things to do that you can share with our readers? If they have a friend visiting town, what are some spots they could take them to?
If you’re a friend, coming to visit October 6-9th, 2022 in Downtown Woodstock, Ga… And you’re looking to have the best time ever, you’re coming to Back Hand Comedy Festival! We are going to have 12 comedy shows over the 4 days, with the best comics from around the country. We’re having after parties at different Bars and Restaurants every night, and you are not going to want to miss!

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
Our Teams with Back Hand Comedy Festival genuinely believe we compete with no one. We’re better together. We’re stronger, more creative, and able to really run freely with our collective goals, and our individual passions. When we work together we don’t burn out! We’re always really thankful to find like-minded people, and we are deeply loyal to those people like Karen Morgan. I had the incredible honor of featuring for Karen last year at a show she did in Atlanta Ga. She’s a phenomenal comic, producer, and a dear friend to us. She headlines all over the world, and she has helped produce many different festivals herself. Nantucket Comedy Festival being one, and Porch Comedy presents: The Front Porch Tour. She is not only hilarious, she’s beyond generous, with her time, energy, and knowledge.

We could not have done this without her, she’s indispensable in whatever room she is in, and she makes room for so many others. It speaks volumes of her character, and we’re beyond excited to have her on the line up to kick off: The 2022 Back Hand Comedy Festival

Website: Backhandcomedyfestival.com

Instagram: @backhandcomedyfestival @handupstandup @hayliecomedy @Shelbytesio @Montanadoran @the_momjeans

Linkedin: HandUp-StandUp.com

Twitter: @hayliecomedy

Facebook: Haylie Montgomery

Other: HandUp-StandUp.com

Image Credits
Haylie Montgomery

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