A look at Lexington’s evolving relationship with stand-up comedy
Comedian Nikki Glaser performed at the Lexington Opera House in February 2023. Photo furnished
Stand-up comedy is having a moment.
These days, it seems comedians are everywhere in our collective sightline, whether it is 60-second clips of crowd work on TikTok, an endless deluge of specials from new and established comics on Netflix and other streaming services, or an onslaught of podcasts hosted by comedians. With a 2023 Pollstar study showing that stand-up comedy sales have nearly tripled over the past decade, the industry is permeating pop culture in a way it never really has before.
With a long-running comedy club that’s well-known and respected amongst touring acts and an increasing number of high-profile comedy shows being booked at larger venues around town, Lexington has both a rich history and vibrant present when it comes to funny business. With this in mind, we’re taking this moment to explore the city’s relationship with stand-up comedy, starting with a big picture look at how the industry has unfolded on a national scale over the past 50 years.
How We Got Here
It’s hard to imagine a time not so long ago when high quality, well-produced comedy specials were not just a click away. But at the dawn of stand-up comedy as we know it today, comics were primarily seen doing five-minute sets on late night talk shows; or those who could afford premium cable could catch the handful of hour-long stand-up specials released by HBO each year starting in the mid 1970s, from comics like George Carlin, Robin Williams or Robert Klein. Beyond that, the only way to really see stand-up comedy was to go to find a comedy club.
That all changed when the cable channel Comedy Central showed up and quickly established itself as the conduit through which many in the current generation of popular comics were first exposed to the craft. In the 1990s, the network started showing half-hour specials from young comics no one had ever heard of before like Dane Cook, Sarah Silverman and Mitch Hedberg — comedians who didn’t necessarily look familiar, but who looked a lot like the kids who were watching from home or their dorm rooms, ultimately inspiring a new generation to take to the stage.
Then in the late aughts, Netflix entered the streaming arena, utilizing stand-up specials early on as an inexpensive way to build content. Soon, the streaming service became an industry-disrupting force that was making thousands of hours of stand-up comedy available at the fingertips of millions of viewers. It didn’t take long for many young comics to ride the wave of the Netflix revolution to fame and fortune.
Open Mics
But how did those comedians really get their start?
The first thing any comedian will tell you is that stage time is the key to getting good at comedy. The stage is where most comics write material, it’s where they find their voice, and most importantly, it’s where they find out what’s funny…live, on-stage, without a net.
To this principle, young comics utilize open mics, often in alternative venues like bars, bookstores — I’ve even heard of one happening in a barber shop. In Lexington, you’ll find comedy open mics at neighborhood bars like Twisted Cork, Timmy Two Times and Cosmic Fry. Of course, Comedy Off-Broadway, the city’s long-running full-time comedy club, hosts an open mic as well.
Stand-up comedian and organizer Jon Bass hosts the local installment of the national pop-up comedy series Don’t Tell Comedy. Photo furnished
Jon Bass is a local comedian who frequents the open mics here in Lexington. Originally from Pulaski, Tennessee, Bass has been in the Bluegrass for 15 years now.
“For a market the size of Lexington it does have more open mic options than one might expect,” he said, “but not enough to get the stage time you need to move to the next level.”
Bass regularly travels to Louisville, Cincinnati, Nashville, and even Austin, Texas to get stage time at various clubs and open mic shows (and yes, he has a podcast).
Bass’ entry into performing came from an early stint in a punk rock band.
“Music was what I had always done, and it was what I thought I would want to do,” he explained. All that changed when he attended a comedy open mic as an audience member three years ago. Today, he’s a fixture in comedy scenes all over the region. When he’s not clocking stage time at open mics or emceeing professional gigs in clubs, Bass puts lots of energy into hosting Lexington’s iteration of the “Don’t Tell Comedy” series, a national brand of secret pop-up comedy shows taking place at select cities across the world. Bass regularly hosts pop-ups at various venues around town, with each show featuring a secret performer at a secret location, to be revealed to ticket holders the day of the show.
“Coming from punk rock and the ‘do it yourself’ mentality of that scene, I had to do something,” Bass said. “I honestly feel like you only get to take away what you put in. So, I want to help provide a stage here in Lexington that will help other comics grow into next-level performers.”
The Club
A town can have all of the open mics in the world, but if it doesn’t have a full-time comedy club, bringing new, professional comics through every week, it would be nearly impossible to have a viable comedy community. Comedy clubs give young comics stage time in front of paying audiences as openers for national touring comedians — opportunities that are invaluable to a growing performer.
Lexington’s only full-time comedy club is Comedy Off-Broadway located in Lexington Green. The club opened in 1987 at a location downtown on Broadway by a group of investors that included Jeff Gilstrap, who soon took complete ownership of the club. By 1994, Lexington was experiencing a rebirth and a growth spurt, and the thriving downtown gave Gilstrap the sense that the club’s parking frustrations were not going to get any better were the location to remain downtown.
Lexington’s independent comedy club, Comedy Off Broadway has hosted many acts over the years who have since gone on to perform at Rupp Arena and other larger venues. Photo furnished
So, they packed up and moved to the suburbs, the Lexington Green space the club still occupies. It’s an intimate room with plenty of parking, one that current owner Jordan Hawley doesn’t foresee abandoning anytime in the near future. After Gilstrap passed away unexpectedly in 2005, Hawley, who started at the club in 1996, continued to manage its day-to-day affairs, eventually purchasing the club from Gilstrap’s widow in 2009.
“I have been here 28 years, and I’m not even the longest running employee,” Hawley said. The club’s longstanding and loyal staff is what Hawley attributes much of the club’s nearly 40 years of success; the club’s emphasis on being a theater first, bar second, and its enforcement of the “no talking or disruptions” policy for the audience has also been cited as factors for its success.
To look back, many of the biggest names in comedy today performed at Comedy Off-Broadway on their way up. Arena-filling names like Nate Bargatze, Jo Koy and Bert Kreischer, as well as theater-headlining comics like Nikki Glaser, Taylor Tomlinson and Tony Hinchcliffe, all cut their teeth on that little stage in Lexington Green at one time.
When asked about the Netflix disruption of the industry, Hawley admitted that it was initially perceived as a threat by many in his line of work.
“Streaming became ubiquitous, and then specials were released one after another. A lot of owners got scared at people having the more inexpensive option of staying home and watching stand-up comedy,” Hawley said. “[But] personally, I think for my club, it’s been a net-positive. It has gotten people more engaged with stand-up and more interested in going out and discovering who the next Tom Segura is going to be.”
The Theater and Arena
If you’re not looking for the next big thing, but rather the current big thing, you should look no further than Oak View Group, a national company specializing in live entertainment that was hired two years ago to book and promote shows at Lexington Opera House and Rupp Arena. With a strong history booking nationally recognized talent, the organization has injected a new energy and level of acts coming through Lexington in recent months and years.
The Lexington Opera House has a surprisingly rich history in comedy. Opened in 1887, early Vaudeville acts like Al Jolsen, W.C. Fields and Will Rogers all performed there. Humorists, as they were known then, established the foundations of what would be known as stand-up comedy by the middle of the 20th century. That early legacy carries on with the comedians who headline there today — comedians like Heather McMahan and Leanne Morgan, who both filmed their respective streaming specials in the theater during the last year. The venue has also hosted stand-up shows from Mark Normand, Lewis Black and Pete Davidson in recent months, with performances from David Spade, David Cross and Mark Maron on the calendar for later this year.
However, in more and more cases, top performing comedians need the biggest room in town to accommodate their fanbase — Rupp Arena has recently featured marquee comics like Jim Gaffigan, Nate Bargatze, Gabriel Iglesias and Dave Chappelle.
Trevor Chesler, OVG’s director of booking for Rupp and the Opera House, insists that the success in booking big comedy shows is directly correlated to Comedy Off-Broadway’s history in town.
“Comedy Off-Broadway has been such an establishment in town for building comedy in the market — I don’t think we have the scene that supports shows as big as ours, without Comedy Off-Broadway,” Chesler said. “They have and continue to maintain a high standard of comedy here, and because of that standard, Lexington audiences won’t buy into second-rate acts. They keep us stepping our game up, as they should.”
Chesler thinks larger venues hold as valuable spaces in a comedy scene as any other venue.
“It really doesn’t matter the size of the room – you don’t get to an arena without playing a theater, you don’t get to a theater without graduating from the club, and you’ll never play a club without starting at open mics,” Chesler said. “The fact is, you cannot make a big room laugh, unless you learn how to make a small one laugh first.”