TALENT MOAT presents outer echelon live music & comedy events around the SF/Bay Area and books US tour dates for select bands.

Talent Moat is run by Tony Bedard, current talent buyer of Oakland’s Stork Club, formerly of SF’s Hemlock Tavern (2002-2018). Named after a reference from The Larry Sanders Show, Talent Moat was initially a comedy label that came out of Club Chuckles, Tony’s long-running monthly comedy-in-a-rock club series. After the Hemlock got torn down in 2018 to make way for condos, Tony rebooted/relaunched Talent Moat as a live events entity focusing on his interests and expertise developed from three decades at the collision-strewn intersection of the local/national undergrounds of music and comedy.

During his award-winning 16-year tenure at the Hemlock, Tony booked 4,500+ shows with 15,000 emerging local/national/international bands and comedians across a spectrum of genres, subgenres, scenes, and microscenes. He’s also worked a talent buyer for the Great American Music Hall and Slim’s, a guest curator of local bands for the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival, and a co-producer of events in conjunction with the Noise Pop, SF Sketchfest, and Litquake festivals.

“To anyone obsessed with live music, Tony Bedard is a San Francisco treasure.” - KQED Arts

A lifelong musician who once performed at Disney World’s Tomorrowland Terrace as a teen, Tony has gone on to play drums and guitar in decidedly less wholesome bands such as Icky Boyfriends, Hank IV (the Siltbreeze band, no relation to the Hank Williams clan), The Leather Uppers, Resineators, The Roofies, Bride of Ozzy, Mr. & Mrs. & Mr. Evil, Buck Biloxi, feedtime, and Wounded Lion. Tony wrote the theme song for Tom Scharpling’s The Best Show on WMFU and toured with Theme Weavers LLC as the house band for Scharpling & Wurster Live!

Bands booked include: A-Frames, Animal Collective, Jay Reatard, Fucked Up, Okkervil River, Kurt Vile and the Violators, Joanna Newsom, Six Organs of Admittance, Beach House, Ariel Pink, Smog, Cat Power, Moris Teper and PJ Harvey, Damo Suzuki, Gillian Welch, Wolf Eyes, Quintron and Miss Pussycat, Carla Bozulich, Deerhoof, Ty Segall, Sun City Girls, Jack Rose, Country Teasers, Tyvek, TV Ghost, Puffy Areolas, Chrome, Bassholes, King Khan and BBQ Show, Deaf Wish, Total Control, UV Race, Billy Childish, Japanther, Human Eye, Timmy’s Organism, Intelligence, This Bike is a Pipe Bomb, Andre Williams, Shannon and the Clams, Hunx and His Punx, Gravy Train!, Nobunny, XBXRX, Total Shutdown, Nels Cline, Growing, Monotonix, Kid 606, Afrirampo, Sunburned Hand of the Man, Big Business, Helms Alee, Monoshock, Liquorball, Devendra Banhart, Vetiver, Meg Baird, Entrance, Daniel Higgs, Jad Fair, Legendary Stardust Cowboy, Neil Hagerty, Fuck, Strange Boys, Wounded Lion, XBXRX, Laundry Room Squelchers, Mayyors, Davilla 666, Jolie Holland, Architecture in Helsinki, Follakzoid, Rakta, White Magic, Titus Andronicus, Real Estate, Parquet Courts, Downtown Boys, Protomartyr, Earthless, Yacht, Kimya Dawson, Dean Wareham, Comets on Fire, Glass Candy, Thrones, Ruins, Kid Congo, Guitar Wolf, Tony Molina, Bodega, Dylan Carlson, Roy Loney, The Urinals, Honey Radar, Weyes Blood, US Girls, Los Dug Dug’s, The Make-Up, and thousands more.

Comedians booked include: Arj Barker, Todd Barry, W. Kamau Bell, Kaseem Bentley, Kate Berlant, Kurt Braunohler, Rob Cantrell, Blaine Capatch, Emily Catalano, Dragon Boy Suede/Howard Kremer, Drennon Davis, Donny Divanian, Dynasty Handbag, Jesse Elias, Epic Rap Battles of History, Will Franken, Chris Garcia, Caitlin Gill, Nato Green, Neil Hamburger, Hard n’ Phirm, David Liebe Hart, Tim Heidecker, Emily Heller, John Hoogasian, Mitra Jouhari, Moshe Kasher, Louis Katz, Sean Keane, Laura Kightlinger, Kyle Kinane, Alex Koll, Joe Mande, On Cinema, Tig Notaro, Pleaseeasaur, Jasper Redd, Schaffer the Darklord, Amy Schumer, Rory Scovel, Bucky Sinister, Sarah Squirm, Kenny “K-Strass” Strasser, Chris Thayer, Whitmer Thomas, Mary Van Note, Sheng Wang, Reggie Watts, Brent Weinbach, Wham City Comedy, Lizz Winstead, and Ali Wong.

"Club Chuckles: a pivotal force in giving comedians opportunities to reach new audiences - people who regularly go to rock shows but rarely step into established comedy venues such as the Punch Line or Cobb's." - SF Chronicle