Comedy club

For other uses, see Comedy Club.

Audience and performers at a comedy club improv night

A comedy club is a venue—typically a nightclub, bar, hotel, casino, or restaurant—where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, impressionists, magicians, ventriloquists, and other comedy acts. The term "comedy club" usually refers to venues that feature stand-up comedy, as distinguished from improvisational theatres, which host improv or sketch comedy, and variety clubs (which may also host musical acts).

Types

Comedy clubs are usually broken down by comedians into "A rooms", "B rooms", and "C rooms":

• A rooms usually cater to people with movie deals, people with television shows, and generally well known acts.
• B rooms are where the best aspects of both A rooms and C rooms meet. Young comics need B rooms as a stepping stone. These are rooms where someone doing a 10- to 15-minute set (hosting/MCing) can be asked, after they've been going up long enough, to do a 20-minute set (featuring) and so on. These clubs also typically allow dirtier material, since they can become established names for "dirty" comedy or shows that usually cover adult themes.
• C rooms act as "neighborhood" comedy clubs, for the most part. The headliners are not usually very well known or popular, and the audiences are random walk-ins.

List of notable clubs

• Bananas Comedy Club
• Carolines on Broadway
• Catch a Rising Star chain
• Cobb's Comedy Club
• Coconuts Comedy Club
• Comedy Cellar
• Comedy Club Russia
• The Comedy Store
• The Comedy Store (London)
• The Comic Strip Live
• Comedy Works in Denver, Colorado, U.S.
• Dangerfields
• The Empire in Belfast
• The Funny Bone
• The Glee Club chain
• Gotham Comedy Club
• Governors Comedy Club
• The Improv
• Jongleurs chain
• The Laff Stop
• The Laugh Factory
• Off the Wall Comedy Empire, Jerusalem, Israel
• The Punchline
• The Stand Comedy Club in Glasgow, Edinburgh and Newcastle upon Tyne
• The Stress Factory
• The TakeOut Comedy Club Hong Kong
• Yuk Yuk's

Improv

• ComedySportz
• iO Theater
• The Groundlings
• The Second City
• Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
• Dad's Garage Theatre Company