Matt Kemple is a live-events producer, public speaker and creative consultant with a background in event production & management, marketing, comedy, and the performing arts.
He has spent 20 years growing the local comedy scene, creating an environment where live comedy can flourish, and putting Milwaukee on the map with other notable comedy towns. Matt has produced an estimated 2000 events and shows in his career, currently presenting more than two-hundred unique live comedy events annually at venues across the Greater Milwaukee area.
Matt is the Founder and Executive Producer of Milwaukee Comedy, LLC, the regions largest independent comedy production company which presents monthly live comedy shows at venues around the city, as well as Founder and Co-Producer of the annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival. Matt is also Co-Owner of The Laughing Tap comedy club, Milwaukee’s premiere live comedy venue, presenting weekly national stand up comedy headliners
The Laughing Tap
In January 2020 along with his two business partners Kaitlin and Greg, Matt opened The Laughing Tap comedy club in Milwaukee’s Walker’s Point neighborhood. The club quickly gained a reputation for high quality comedy acts and sold out shows. Featuring national headliners along with regional and local comics, The Laughing Tap presents the best in quality live stand up comedy every week – over a hundred live comedy shows every year!
Milwaukee Comedy Festival
Matt is the Founder and Producer of the annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival, Wisconsin’s largest multi-day comedy event, and one of the longest running comedy festivals in the United States. Over the course of 20 years, thousands of comedians of all kinds have performed in hundreds of shows and special events. The Fest has featured top-notch national stand-up comedy, improv, and sketch comedy with alumni from Comedy Central, Saturday Night Live, Netflix, Hulu, HBO, Conan, Late Nite, Mad TV, Adult Swim, and many more.
Milwaukee Comedy LLC
Founded as the official production company for the annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival, Milwaukee Comedy presents monthly comedy events at different venues around the Greater Milwaukee area and other cities in Wisconsin. Since it’s creation 20 years ago, Matt has produced more than 650 shows under Milwaukee Comedy, and currently presents more than 100 every year.
Other Experience and Notable Projects
Matt Kemple has overseen every aspect of live event production including presenting thousands of live comedy shows, hundreds of theatre productions, and dozens more special events, fundraisers, sketches, workshops, and odd endeavors spanning over 20 years in venues of all sizes including The Pabst Theater, The Marcus Center for the Performing Arts, Historic Turner Hall Ballroom, Summerfest grounds, Per Marquette Park and others in Downtown, Milwaukee, WI.
In addition to producing comedy, Matt also has an extensive theatre background as an actor, voice over talent, improvisor, director, and producer. He has aided in creating a dozen different theatre and arts companies with emphasis on new and emerging artists, Co-Founded three different city-wide festivals, and also constructed several different performance and art spaces.
The Underground Collaborative, a unique arts venue and rental space in the heart of Downtown, Milwaukee, was founded in 2012 by Matt. ‘The UC’ provided spaces for theatre and arts groups to rent for rehearsals, meetings and performances and offered performers a place to produce shows and present art in a welcoming and affordable environment. In May 2020, The UC closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In its 8 year history, The Underground Collaborative presented over 1000 live shows, served 10,000 actors, artists, directors, comedians and creatives, and more than 50,000 patrons of the arts.
Matt was a founding Co-Producer of the annual Milwaukee Fringe Festival for three years. The Fringe is a performing and visual arts festival that presents various dance, music, theatre, and performance art performances each summer at venues in and around Milwaukee.
When he is not producing live events around Milwaukee, Matt enjoys spending time with his wife Dawn, and their adopted dogs Daisy and Boo Boo.
“Matt Kemple, one of the hardest working people in Milwaukee’s comedy and theater scene…”
Wisconsin Gazette, Aug. 11, 2017
Matt Kemple is a busy man. When he’s not producing theatrical events and comedy showcases at the Underground Collaborative (which he founded and manages), he’s booking nationally known comedians like Godfrey, Nick Thune, Neil Hamburger, and Andy Kindler at venues around town as part of his Milwaukee Comedy endeavor.
Milwaukee Record (March 9, 2016)