Over the past year, Lethbridge’s stand up comedy scene has taken off thanks to more rooms opening up comedy open mics.
The Owl Acoustic Lounge has one on the last Wednesday of every month and Inferno has a comedy open mic on Thursdays. Average Joes has been bringing in Yuk Yuks comedy almost every month and thanks to comedian Dag Austin moving to Lethbridge, a new “money room” has opened up at Inferno featuring bigger name comedians performing the monthly “Fire Under Your Ass” Comedy Show” Tuesday night.
“ I was always telling stories to amuse my friends. So one night they told me I was going up on stage,” said Randy Webb, who has been performing stand-up comedy for eight years now. He said hearing people laugh is an addictive feeling, so he started performing more stand-up comedy and eventually ended up being the host for Average Joes’ Yuk Yuks Comedy shows.
“ I think I’ve only written two jokes. The rest are stories that happened to me,” Webb said.
Jeff Gunderson, who has been performing stand-up comedy for three and a half years, said Lethbridge has a strong comedy scene, which has only got better with the addition of more venues for live comedy.
“We are starting to get more places to perform stand-up comedy. But it was difficult when there was no places to just do comedy. Now there are five or six places for it,” he said adding there are not only open mics at the Owl Acoustic Lounge, Jimmy’s Pub and Inferno, but Yuk Yuks often features local comedians to open for their headliners.
“We have people like Doug Mutai, who is from Lethbridge and started opening for Yuk Yuks and who has moved to Calgary. He is getting more popular,” Gunderson continued.
“It’s grown by leaps and bounds,” he continued.
“Before, you could perform at open mics. I remember one time going on stage last at the Lethbridge College open mic after a heavy metal band,” he said.
Dag Austin, an American comic who recently moved to Lethbridge from Florida for family reasons immediately saw a demand for stand up comedy. So he started Fire Under your Ass Comedy at Inferno. They were weekly, but have been moved to monthly comedy events.
“I started doing stand up comedy 10 years ago in Texas. I started performing at an open mic and it went really great so I kept doing it and kept getting laughs,” he said.
He is impressed with the local comedy scene.
“It’s a good scene. It’s great to see so many local guys getting up on stage,” he said.
Lethbridge improv troupe The Drama Nutz have been performing improv comedy for the past seven years— mostly private functions , corporate gigs and community events, but have been been appearing more on the public stage over the past couple of years.
“ We have a good comedy scene,” said Drama Nutz general manager David Gabert adding he is pleased to see more venues for live comedy.
“ It has taken off, he agreed.
Their uncensored improv events have been popular draws and will start again in November at Club Didi. They also host a monthly open mic at Jimmy’s Pub. And their members often perform solo shows. Jeff Newman has a popular mentallist act he took to the Edmonton Fringe this year and Brett Hutchison and Connor Christmas are regulars at most stand-up comedy open mics.
Several other Drama Nutz performed during Arts Days at the cabaret at CASA.
Drama Nutz begin their public season on Oct. 24 with the first edition of a monthly improvised soap opera on Oct 24 at Club Didi.The third edition is planned for December.
They also perform uncensored improv series at Club Didi on the first Friday of November and in January, though they are taking December off to focus on private performances. They can also bee seen hosting the comedy open mic on the last Saturday of every month at Jimmy’s Pub.
“ It’s a great place to just let go. You can perform ventriloquism acts, magic tricks or tell a joke — anything you might not do at an open mic” Gabert said.
