Will Devito - Comedy Production

25-year-old filmmaker Will Devito has spent the last 18 months helping small businesses across New York City connect with new audiences by temporarily transforming them into pop-up comedy clubs.

In doing so, his organization “Underground Overground Comedy” (UO) has raised $60,000 for businesses throughout the city.

While Devito and his partners have thrown comedy shows at some of “the most unlikely places around town,” their dream has been to throw a show in the city’s oldest deli—the legendary pastrami destination Katz’s Delicatessen.

As DeVito explains, transforming a deli into a comedy club is no simple task. “Our team has just under one hour to transform the deli into a theater for 250 audience members,” Devito says. “As a partner of the show and the director of this project, I aim to document the night with a genre-bending documentary and comedy special that will help broaden the scale of Underground Overground.”

DeVito hopes the film will stand as “proof of concept” for a larger, multi-part series and expand UO’s capacity to partner with more businesses.

Will’s grant from Hunter’s Fund will be used to purchase equipment and pay staff to produce the Katz’s Deli special.