Space for Rent: Bar, Exposed Brick Walls, Microphone Included

Been a little too long. Won’t space these out so much.

The New York Daily News ran a perennial reporter-tries-comedy story today. I don’t know why editors accept such stories (or why a writer would even pitch one… ugh). I promise to try and spare you too many observations when I take some more improv class later this month. One of the reason I think we’re seeing stories like this one might be because we’re heading for another stand-up comedy boom.

Yeah, I said it.

Not withstanding the fact that comedy does better when times are bad anyway (or at least seems to), New York City has in the past few months seen the opening of three stand-up comedy clubs. Laugh Lounge, The Laugh Factory and, most recently, the return of the New York Improv. (I haven’t been to all these clubs yet, but I’ll try and do a comparison in a future entry.) This doesn’t count the relatively new PIT Improv theater and the HA Comedy Club, which is a little over a year old. (For a full run down of NYC Clubs, check this out. Damn!)

On top of that, the success of Last Comic Standing this summer (one of the few highlights in the newly-anointed year-round schedule espoused by the networks these days), stand-up comedy hasn’t been this visible since the 80s. I imagine the phenomenon of more comedy clubs is not (or will not be) a New York thing for long.

Of course new clubs will require well, acts. And though lots of people wanna be funny, The number of people pursuing stand-up, particularly in a nation filled with attention-seeking young people raised on the Real World, must be skyrocketing. (I have no evidence for this, no figures… just hunches, notions and a need for an entry today.) We got millions of Buck Stars out there, looking for the 15 and thinking stand-up is the way. And who can blame them? After all, Ant can do it, right? (Last cheap shot, promise)