{"id":37973,"date":"2026-08-11T05:08:48","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T00:08:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37973"},"modified":"2026-08-11T05:08:48","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T00:08:48","slug":"bill-bellamy-to-receive-icon-award-at-whats-funny-comedy-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=37973","title":{"rendered":"Bill Bellamy to Receive Icon Award at Whats Funny Comedy Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tComedian, actor, and entertainer <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/bill-bellamy\/\" id=\"auto-tag_bill-bellamy\" data-tag=\"bill-bellamy\">Bill Bellamy<\/a> will be presented with the Icon Award at the 2026 Whats Funny Comedy Festival, recognizing his decades of excellence and impact on stand-up comedy and entertainment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe Whats Funny Comedy Festival was co-founded by Knowledge Beckom and <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/lil-rel-howery\/\" id=\"auto-tag_lil-rel-howery\" data-tag=\"lil-rel-howery\">Lil Rel Howery<\/a> (\u201cGet Out,\u201d \u201cRel,\u201d \u201cVacation Friends 2\u201d) with the mission to spotlight Black and Brown comedians and make Chicago the \u201cnext great home of comedy discovery.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe festival\u2019s upcoming third edition will be held September 19-26 at venues throughout Chicago, including Comedy Bar, Laugh Factory, Bellagio 223, ETA Theater, and Wax Vinyl Bar. More than 50 comedians from 20 cities will perform in showcases, including Cousin Tiera, Correy Bell, Eva Evans, Rich Thomas, Shang and Chris \u2018CP\u2019 Powell, host of the latest <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/tv\/news\/comicview-reboot-bet-rooftop-series-1236783212\/\">reboot of BET\u2019s \u201cComic View.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tOn Sept. 21, Bellamy will receive the Icon Award during the inaugural Whats Funny Today Show Chicago Comedy Legends ceremony. Bellamy will be honored alongside 15 Chicago comedians whose careers helped shape the city\u2019s comedy legacy. The celebration will conclude with a live taping of the \u201cWhats Funny Today Show\u201d podcast featuring Bellamy and special guests.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tAnother one of the week\u2019s marquee events will be the live taping of Howery\u2019s next stand-up comedy special on Sept. 20; his previous special, \u201cRel Talk,\u201d was filmed during the inaugural Whats Funny Comedy Festival and released on Tubi last year. Howery will also lead a master class, sharing insights from his journey through stand-up, television and film. <\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cThe Whats Funny Comedy Festival was created to celebrate the incredible legacy of Black comedy while creating meaningful opportunities for today\u2019s comedians to learn, perform, and build lasting careers,\u201d Beckom, the festival\u2019s co-founder and executive director, said in a statement. \u201cEvery year we strive to elevate the experience for audiences and performers alike, and 2026 will be our biggest and most impactful festival yet.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tFor the full schedule, tickets and additional information, visit the Whats Funny Comedy Festival <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whatsfunnycomedyfestival.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\">website<\/a>. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Comedian, actor, and entertainer Bill Bellamy will be presented with the Icon Award at the 2026 Whats Funny Comedy Festival, recognizing his decades of excellence and impact on stand-up comedy and entertainment. The Whats Funny Comedy Festival was co-founded by Knowledge Beckom and Lil Rel Howery (\u201cGet Out,\u201d \u201cRel,\u201d \u201cVacation Friends 2\u201d) with the mission&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":37974,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/Bill-Bellamy-Lil-Rel-Howery.jpg?crop=0px%2C34px%2C2160px%2C1215px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37973","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37973","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=37973"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37973\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/37974"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=37973"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=37973"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=37973"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}