You're getting played.[/quote]
Firstly, possibly because the Melbourne Comedy Festival is on at the same time (Lawrence is gigging around the convention and so are others). Performers have to make a living after all... I don't see why they can't kill two birds with one stone? Mind, people clearly aren't attending just for comedians. I know a few people who are going just to catch up with friends!
In general, I've asked Tim Minchin and Stephen Fry about why skepticism, atheism and comedy, comedy, comedy:
Tim Minchin: It can be very funny watching people respond with absolute clarity and skepticism to strange ideas that are so passionately scatter-gunned—the delivery of them can be so wild and enormous and evangelical... But I get letters saying things like “bashing religion isn’t funny or interesting and it’s boring,” and I got one that tried to say “You think you’re cool bashing religion but it’s been done,” and that’s a really interesting thing to me too — because I agree. We shouldn’t be having this discussion anymore all these years later.
Stephen Fry: Comedy is always about the real world. Philosophers or religionists will make a pompous, abstract statement and a comedian will say, “Is that true on a Wednesday?” Comedians want a cut and dried example of the facts of the world. Because comedy is about observation—as is science—it’s about repeatable patterns, and it’s testing some statement that may be preposterous or may be true. Statements made of grandeur and abstract truth are always tested by comedians, so in that sense, comedy is a very good way to get the credulous onside, if you like. Because it says “Is that true? Is it really true? Let’s see!”
I popped in because a student I met at a local uni is trying to sell her ticket (they scheduled her big law exams on the Friday and Monday and she's devastated but can't toss the ticket in the bin if there's a chance that someone else might want to buy it) and checked in here to see if there was another 'tickets for sale / wanted' section! 
The topic of "why atheism and comedy" would make a great thread on it's own, IMHO. Wish I saw Eddie Izzard out himself as an atheist at the recent Reason Rally!
