E-Mail This Article to a Friend Funny city The fifth annual Boston International Comedy & Movie Festival BY NINA MACLAUGHLIN

Boston is a comedy town," says Jim McCue, a comic and founder of the Boston International Comedy and Movie Festival. "I’m convinced there’s something in the water." Indeed, the city has spawned Dennis Leary and Jay Leno, and Conan O’Brien and Janeane Garofalo cut their comic teeth here too. But apart from the jokester juice lurking in the water pipes, McCue credits Boston audiences with raising the comedic bar. It’s a literate town, he explains, and a discriminating one. "It’s not easy to be funny here. If you can be funny here, you can be funny anywhere."

Five years ago, McCue wanted to showcase Boston’s comic talent and expose audiences and the entertainment industry to the breadth and depth of the stand-up scene, so he started the Boston International Comedy & Movie Festival with his pal Boston city councilor John Tobin. What started in five venues with $500 in prize money has since exploded. The festival, which this year runs from April 25 through May 1 in clubs all over town, now includes stand-up, sketch, improv, and funny films, as well as performances by Joan Rivers, Jackie Mason, and 150 comedians, 96 of whom will compete in the $10,000 Stand-Up Comedy Contest. As always, part of the proceeds will be donated to charity; this year’s recipient is the Boston Arts Academy, a Boston public pilot high school committed to academics and the visual and performing arts.

The festival opens this Sunday with a Walk for Hunger benefit show at Nick’s Comedy Stop (100 Warrenton Street in Boston; call 617-423-2900). Monday sees the start of the comedy contest, with preliminary rounds running through Thursday at 8 p.m. at Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault (124 Boylston Street in Boston; call 800-401-2221) and at 9 p.m. at the Charles Playhouse (74 Warrenton Street in Boston; call 617-931-ARTS).

On Tuesday, there’s an auction to benefit the Boston Arts Academy at the Comedy Connection (Faneuil Hall, 245 Quincy Market in Boston; call 617-248-9700). The members of Improv Asylum will wax hilarious on the funniest construction project of all time in Big Dig . . . The End of an Error Wednesday through Saturday at 8 p.m. (216 Hanover Street in the North End; call 617-263-6887). "Funny Short Films" screen Thursday at the Boston Park Plaza Hotel (64 Arlington Street in Boston; call 617-426-2000). For those whose funnybone is on the sullied side, there’s the XXX Dirty Show Thursday at 10 p.m. at Dick’s Beantown Comedy Vault. And Thursday through Saturday, QVC queen Joan Rivers will be Broke and Alone . . . In Boston at the Wilbur Theatre (246 Tremont Street in the Theater District; call 617-931-2000).

On Friday, the Boston Park Plaza hosts the comedy-contest semifinals at 8 and 10 p.m.; David Letterman auditions take place at 9 p.m. at Nick’s Comedy Stop; and the Boston Jams Show is at 9 p.m. at the Strand Theatre (543 Columbia Road in Dorchester; call 617-282-5230). On Saturday, you can catch Jackie Mason at the Orpheum (1 Hamilton Place in Boston; call 617-931-2000). Or head to the Berklee Performance Center at 8 p.m. for the grand finale of the comedy contest hosted by Hollywood Squares’ Tom Bergeron and headlined by Boston’s own Steve Sweeney (136 Massachusetts Avenue in Boston; call 617-747-2261).

The Boston International Comedy & Movie Festival runs April 25 through May 1 in various locations. For more information, visit www.bostoncomedyfestival.com