In a true Local Girl Makes Good story, Colorado Springs native Judi Brown Marmel is a founding partner at the Los Angeles-based, entertainment company Levity Live, one of the most successful comedy talent management companies in the country. From a young age, Marmel knew she wanted to be behind the scenes in entertainment, although her upbringing in Colorado didn’t offer much in the way of training. Now based in Los Angeles, she still loves all that the Rockies have to offer, and she and her husband Steve find solace and serenity at their lovely mountain home in the wilds of Crystola.
Comedy’s Power Agent Judi Marmel
Who is Judi Marmel?
Judi Marmel is a Colorado Springs–raised comedy agent and founding partner of Levity Live in Los Angeles, managing stars like Bert Kreischer, Jeff Dunham, Taylor Tomlinson, and Leanne Morgan.
What are her Colorado roots?
Marmel graduated from Palmer High School, worked at the original Comedy Corner in Colorado Springs, and often returns to her mountain home in Crystola with her husband, Steve.
Which comedians has she worked with?
She has guided the careers of Bert Kreischer, Leanne Morgan, Jeff Dunham, and Taylor Tomlinson, producing dozens of Netflix specials and TV projects.
Why is she influential in stand-up comedy?
Marmel has produced nearly 100 comedy specials, helped transition stand-up comics into TV and film, and expanded comedy into cruises, merchandise, and lifestyle branding.
Does she still live in Colorado?
While based in Los Angeles, Marmel maintains a residence in Crystola, Colorado, and still identifies Colorado Springs as her true home.
Traveling across the country and around the world, she is steering the careers of Taylor Tomlinson, Leann Morgan, Bert Kreischer and Jeff Dunham, just to name a few. In 2024, Marmel was honored in Pollstar’s Women of Live in the Hall of Fame and was included in Variety magazine’s “Power Women of Hollywood” 2024 list.
A graduate of Palmer High School and starting her career as a ticket taker at the Comedy Corner, now called Loonees Comedy Corner, Marmel’s love of comedy runs deep.
“Growing up in Colorado Springs I’ve always had a love of live entertainment, and one of my first jobs right out of high school was working for Jeff Valdez at the original Comedy Corner on Union Blvd.,” she says. “Rosanne (Barr) would be playing the clubs in Colorado and I wondered how she got from here to her own network sitcom.”
Starting to book talent at the Air Force Academy, Marmel met comedians from both coasts, and then began to book talent at Colorado’s ski resorts. With help from her husband, Steve, Marmel helped develop the Colorado Comedy Invitational.
“However, I soon realized if I was to become successful as a comedy manager and producer, I had to spend a lot more time in Los Angeles, but have always kept a residency in Colorado,” she says.
Although her clients continue to perform standup comedy both nationally and internationally, a goal of Marmel’s has been to move them into television and film.
“It’s interesting,” she reflects. “Post-COVID, the comedy business has never been better with bigger arenas and higher ticket prices, and Netflix has been a big part of it. They have decided to really invest in the talent who started on their platform as stand-up comics.”
Over the course of her career, Marmel has been executive producer on close to 100 comedy specials and now television series with some of the biggest comedians in the world, including Leanne Morgan’s new series Leanne and Bert Kreischer’s upcoming series Free Bert.
“We partnered with Netfilx and with Chuck Lorre (Two and a Half Men, The Big Bang Theory) on Leanne, about a 59-year-old grandmother who must navigate a new life after divorce, ” she says. “Having the opportunity to work with a talent like Lorre has been the highlight of my career.”
Kreischer has been a client of Marmel’s for almost twenty years, ever since he was headlining the Jameson Whiskey Comedy Tour in 2006 and 2007, with shows in Denver and Colorado Springs.
“I always felt that Bert was a lifestyle brand and there was a scripted series in him,” Marmel explains. “He has created a non-traditional family series that has just wrapped in Atlanta, which will be dropping on Netflix in early 2026. The show really pulls from his life of raising two daughters as a comedian father.”
Marmel’s vision was for Bert “to become the Jimmy Buffett of comedy, with destination events like the Fully Loaded Cruises, a robust merchandise line, and even a vodka brand, with more lifestyle branding to follow. This is to bring in audiences across platforms other than stand-up comedy. Having continued success with his wife and business partner, LeeAnn Kreischer, they now have a multi-million-dollar annual revenue stream.”
Despite her national success, or maybe because of it, Marmel always comes back to Colorado, where it all started.
“Wherever I travel to, people always ask me where I’m from, and I always say Colorado Springs,” says Marmel. “I’ve lived in Los Angeles for over thirty years but still don’t call it home and in my mind have never really moved away. One of the things that propelled me as a kid was going to the Iron Springs Chateau in Manitou to watch live melodrama, and I keep kidding Steve that I’m going to buy it!”
Marmel believes that the beautiful drive up Ute Pass from Manitou Springs to Crystola looks the same as it did fifty years ago — and it still takes her breath away. Sometimes on the road for thirty days at a time, Marmel cherishes the time she spends in Colorado with Steve, and their two puppies Lambeau and Dolly.