The best comedy show this week won’t take place in a cellar, but rather among celestial bodies. On Thursday, September 28, Broad City’s Abbi Jacobson and five other comedians will be found aboard a Virgin Atlantic flight for a unique comedy festival. The reason? Virgin Atlantic is celebrating the milestone of becoming the first European line to offer Wi-Fi across the entirety of its fleet. So of course, the appropriate reaction is a comedy festival that takes place 35,000 feet above the planet.
Branded as the #LiveFromVirgin Comedy Festival, this event marks the first high-flying laugh extravaganza and it will be comprised of unique comedy “sets” from Jacobson and fellow comedians. Performers will be posting tweets and Instagram Stories to their accounts using #LiveFromVirgin, all from the cabin of a Virgin Atlantic plane (because even comedians can’t ignore the fasten seatbelt signs). Participating comedians will be flying from London to one of six U.S. destinations — New York City, Seattle, San Francisco, Las Vegas, Boston, and Los Angeles.
“I’m really excited about this project and the creative control that Virgin Atlantic is giving me, not only over the lineup I’m building but the form my performance takes. I’m definitely looking to use the opportunity to experiment, take some risks, and see what happens inflight,” Jacobson said in a statement.
Virgin notes that its fully connected fleet will allow passengers on up to 39 flights every day between the U.S. and the U.K., as well as on connecting flights on Delta to more than 200 North American destinations, get online. While it won’t come free, passengers will have access to email, web browsing, and social media beginning at $3.83. Web access is being delivered by way of a partnership with Panasonic and Gogo, which allows for satellite Wi-Fi delivery across the Atlantic Ocean.
“Starting this month, customers flying around the world with Virgin Atlantic can work and play throughout their flight on our fully W-iFi enabled fleet,” Mark Anderson, executive vice president, Customer at Virgin Atlantic, said in a statement. “Innovation has always been in our DNA, and we’ve worked closely with Wi-Fi providers to develop the fastest, most reliable connection across the Atlantic.”
