THE L.A. INVASION For many comedy die-hards, the best thing about the festival is, oddly enough, the chance to find out what’s going on in Los Angeles. There will be a huge influx of talent from that fertile scene. Fans of Maria Bamford and Dane Cook can check out their recent acts, but audiences can also see the New York premiere of Roast Battle, a popular, much-buzzed-about weekly event at the Comedy Store that mixes the insult humor of roasts with freestyle rap contests. Jeff Ross, a roast stalwart who serves as a mentor for participants between rounds, calls it " ‘Fight Club’ for comedians.” It plays at the Gramercy Theater on Saturday.

Image Kyle Kinane Credit Cassie Wright/Getty Images

There are also two comics at the festival who make me most jealous of Los Angeles audiences: Kyle Kinane (who plays Union Hall on Wednesday) and Cameron Esposito (who performs with James Adomian, Jim Gaffigan and Reggie Watts at the Bell House on Friday). They are spectacular comics hitting their prime who do not have television platforms and only occasionally make it to New York.

Mr. Kinane has the raspy, laid-back presence and sneaky wisdom of the best barroom storyteller. Ms. Esposito has a more stylish persona, but a similar gift for plugging punch lines into personal stories. Ms. Esposito, a lesbian, does a marvelous bit about meeting a star of “The L Word,” which led to a discussion of the show’s significance “If you are a lady who dates ladies, ‘The L Word’ is a little bit like the Bible,” she said. “You don’t have to agree with its teachings, but you have to know about them.”

IS THERE LIFE AFTER TALK SHOWS? You watch them in your home regularly, grow charmed and annoyed by familiar traits, and then suddenly, one day, they disappear. When a talk show is canceled, it can feel like an abrupt breakup. But just as some couples do reunite, there are second acts in comedy, which is why it will be interesting to reconnect with Pete Holmes and Sara Schaefer, who both perform Thursday not long after losing their shows.

Image Sara Schaefer Credit Peter Kramer/NBC via Getty Images

When I first saw Ms. Schaefer, she was telling bluntly funny vagina jokes to sparse crowds downtown, then candid and involving tales on her podcast. She cleaned up her act for a weekly MTV talk show, “Nikki and Sara Live,” with Nikki Glaser (who performs on Comedy Central’s show “@midnight” on Monday), which didn’t involve personal comedy as much but offered her side-eyed take on pop culture, a sharp voice not too cool to show off giddy enthusiasms.

Mr. Holmes, a sunny goofball with a wide silly streak, also gained traction from a podcast that led to two seasons of a late-night talk show on TBS that was ambitious and largely true to his stand-up persona. It was a fully realized and promising show that just didn’t find an audience.

Both Ms. Schaefer and Mr. Holmes developed a small following — too small, perhaps, for television. How losing a show affects their careers is an open question, but it should be interesting to see what they do next. Maybe these appearances will provide a hint.