Pete Davidson and Colin Jost’s $280,100 Staten Island Ferry will host a one-night comedy show in Lower Manhattan on September 17.
The decommissioned John F. Kennedy will become the Snapple Island Ferry for a free 60-minute stand-up event docked at Pier 17. Davidson and Jost will host, while the lineup of rising comedians has not yet been announced.
Davidson, Jost and their partners bought the 277-foot ferry at a New York City auction in January 2022. Live entertainment was part of the plan almost immediately, with early proposals involving comedy, music, art and other events.
“Turning the ferry into a floating comedy club with Snapple makes more sense than anything else we considered, and it still doesn’t make much sense,” Davidson said in the official announcement.
Free Tickets Will Drop Each Day From September 3 Through September 8
The ferry will be stationed at Pier 17, 89 South Street, for the September 17 show. Doors open at 7 p.m. ET, with stand-up beginning at 8:30 p.m.
Admission is free, with ticket pairs released in limited batches each day at 3 p.m. ET from September 3 through September 8. Each person can claim one pair.
The performers have not yet been named. Time Out New York reports that Snapple will reveal the lineup through its social accounts before the show.
Guests will also receive complimentary Snapple drinks and snacks. Snapple plans to share clips and other material from the event on Instagram and TikTok afterward.
The Stand Group Is Producing the One-Night Show
The Stand Group is producing the event and is also a partner in the ferry. The company operates The Stand Restaurant & Comedy Club in New York and has been involved with the vessel since its owners began discussing plans for live entertainment.
Snapple describes the September event as a one-day-only activation rather than the opening of a permanent floating comedy club. Davidson and Jost are hosting the night, while the stand-up lineup will be announced separately.
Comedy-club owner Paul Italia was involved in the original purchase and said in 2022 that the owners hoped to preserve the ferry and turn it into a space for comedy, music, art and other live events.
Tommy Hilfiger Already Used the Ferry for New York Fashion Week
The comedy show will not be the ferry’s first major event. Tommy Hilfiger took over the vessel on September 8, 2024, for the runway presentation of his Spring 2025 collection during New York Fashion Week.
The ferry was brought to the South Street Seaport and transformed for the show. Guests included Jisoo, Brooke Shields, Suni Lee and Gabby Thomas, while Ghostface Killah, Method Man and Raekwon performed during the finale. Questlove handled music for the event.
Colin Jost attended and told PEOPLE that seeing the commuter ferry transformed for Fashion Week was “very surreal.” He had ridden the John F. Kennedy while growing up on Staten Island, years before becoming one of its owners.
Jost Called the Ferry His ‘Dumbest’ Purchase
Jost has been open about how little planning went into the purchase. During the September 2024 Tommy Hilfiger event, he called it “absolutely the dumbest and least thought-through purchase” he had ever made.
He defended the price by pointing to the vessel’s roughly 65,000 square feet of space and comparing it with what that much room would cost elsewhere in New York.
The ferry later became material on Saturday Night Live. Davidson returned to “Weekend Update” in November 2025 and sat beside Jost to discuss the money tied up in their boat.
Davidson’s explanation for taking another lucrative comedy job was brief: “We’re losing millions on this ferry.”