2024 Impact 50 Honoree: Judi Marmel

FOUNDING PARTNER
Levity Live

YEARS IN THE BUSINESS: 36
FIRST JOB IN THE BIZ: Door Girl at Colorado Springs’ The Comedy Corner

It’s hard to be accused of exaggeration when the seemingly hyperbolic is just a stone-cold fact and comedy’s vertiginous rise as a powerful sector within the live ecosystem is irrefutable.

The ability of more comics to carve out space and find fans has been aided — without a doubt — by social media’s ubiquity. More funny voices can find more funnybones much easier than ever before. Comedy can now make a case for having nearly as many subgenres as the famously fragmented metal.

Take a look at the very enviable roster under management by Levity Live’s co-founder and president (and inaugural Women of Live Hall of Famer) Judi Marmel. There’s Jeff Dunham, the arena-filling ventriloquist. There’s bare-chested beer-swilling bearded belly laugher Bert Kreischer. There’s millennial meteor Taylor Tomlinson, who waxes poignantly — and hilariously — about the perils and foibles of twentysomething (and now thirtysomething) life in the 2020s. There’s the arch and subtle observations of dry drawler Dusty Slay. There’s more variety and more audience and more moneymakers than ever, but as ever: well, you still gotta be funny. For Marmel, who got her start as a door girl at a club in Colorado Springs, it’s not just fun to be funny, these days, it’s crucial. “As our world and our government becomes more and more fractured, comedy and free speech will continue to be of the utmost importance,” she says.

And she’s finding more ways for her roster to fulfill that critical role. Tomlinson scored a late-night CBS hosting spot with “After Midnight.” Kreischer’s taking the “Fully Loaded” roadshow concept into cruises and even 5K runs. 

“We are in a world of building events for the fans loaded with comedy, music, food and entertainment of all kinds,” she says. 

And it all builds on itself and with great success comes challenges to meet: “We have had more clients in the Pollstar top earners list than ever before, year over year,” she says. “The biggest challenge we faced in the last year is to keep our team happy and healthy as the comedy business continues to grow and exceed our expectations every day.”