The Lumberjack



Students Serving The Cal Poly Humboldt Campus and Community Since 1929

Tag: comedy club

  • Savage Henry Comedy Club faces potential closing

    Savage Henry Comedy Club faces potential closing

    The club’s GoFundme is near its deadline

    The Savage Henry, known for its magazine and comedy club, is being threatened with shutting down. Their current GoFundMe stands $9,000 short, as of publication, and the deadline is coming up.

    The club temporarily shut down from March to July due to COVID-19.

    Co-owner of Savage Henry Chris Durant first opened the club in November 2018. Ever since, the club and magazine have been a hit locally and statewide but due to pandemic restrictions, the club faces financial troubles.

    “We couldn’t pay any bills because we couldn’t sell anything,” Durant said. “We were dead in the water,” Durant said.

    Calista LaBolle, a stand-up comedian at the Savage Henry, has been performing at the club for a year and has been friends with Durant prior to stepping on stage. LaBolle emphasized the beauty of the comedy club and it’s importance in the community.

    “It’s a mecca for comedy in Humboldt. It is for many comedians,” LaBolle said. “In our region, it is very well known. A rest fit for a lot of the comedians, a place that they can come and be themselves. That will be difficult for a lot of us, if it has to close.”

    Eric Fitzgerald, a stand-up comedian at the Savage Henry, found the club from open mic acts. For Fitzgerald, the club is a place of creativity and expression, a supportive outlet for local comedians to get their art form public and have fun.

    “A place to get together and see good entertainment that’s hilarious and to get a good laugh,” Fitzgerald said. “Especially now with the pandemic I feel like comedy kind of essential to break up the monotony.”

    Although the club had shows in alternative forms during the pandemic, like drive-in and movie theatre-style comedy with protocol being followed within the building, it is not bringing in as much money as it was.

    “If the comedy club goes away, there’s other things that will go away too and then we are all stuck in our houses staring at our phones,” Fitzgerald said.

    Only certain drive-in and comedy streaming shows within the club are available making it hard to bring money in with the club shut down. Usually, the club packs the week full of different comedy sets.

    “We would have local comics, open mics on Wednesdays and Sundays, the comedians produce their own shows, on the weekends we usually have headliners from out of the area,” Durant said. “The only dedicated comedy club between the Bay area and Portland, OR.”

    The GoFundMe money would go towards rent and keeping the building. There’s still time to raise the money and with flexibility between landlords and the owners, Durant is hopeful.

    “We make jokes about it now,” Durant said. “I would turn to the camera and say, ‘Please donate so this guy doesn’t come running up to you in the store and try to tell you jokes, give him a safe place to do his craft’.”

    To donate, visit their GoFundMe at http://www.gofundme.com/f/save-savage-henry.

  • Stand-up Comedy Etiquette for Dummies

    Stand-up Comedy Etiquette for Dummies

    Keep your commentary to yourself and let me have a laugh, please

    Sitting in the audience of a comedy show, I expect laughter. After dealing with long shifts at work, assignment deadlines that are past due and staggering grades, that’s what I want.

    After living in Humboldt County for a little over a year, I was ecstatic to hear about Savage Henry Comedy Club from my former classmate and local comedian Peter Nelson. Never would I have imagined such a beautiful place to exist and to remind me that it’s okay to laugh at anything.

    It became my mission to attend more comedy shows and try out some material for more open mic nights at Savage Henry. In November I was blessed with attending my first late night comedy show featuring Kyle Kinane. The night started off perfect as the air filled with laughter. But the mood changed when some audience members felt the need to be included in the comedian’s routine.

    It’s not a rare occurrence for audience members to disrupt a comedy show.

    If I had a dime for every time a movie theater reminded me to silence my phone and exit the area with my non-existent crying child, I would have enough for another movie ticket.

    Unfortunately, comedy shows have always faced problems with talking audience members. Common sense seems to vacate the premises when it comes to comedy. Who thinks that just because they paid money to see an act, they’re entitled to becoming the most hated person in that venue?

    Thankfully, comedians are usually experienced with enduring this kind of behavior, with the exception of Seinfeld star Michael Richards.

    However, for Kinane it was a cake walk dealing with a dreadlocked couple and their redundant responses during his routine. My mood the entire night was a mixture of laughter, anger and finally relief as the obnoxious couple got up and left (but not without loudly announcing that they had a baby at home).

    Had I known this earlier, I would have called Child Protective Services to alleviate the audience of this comedy sabotage.

    Kinane was a trooper and finished strong. He received an applause not just for his resilience, but also for putting on a late show since his Friday and Saturday night shows sold out.

    It’s not a rare occurrence for audience members to disrupt a comedy show. I’ve been present when these atrocities are committed and I’m relieved when they’re dealt with. My favorite distractions are people texting during a comedy show and getting called out, especially since the responses are usually ridiculous.

    When I saw Al Madrigal live a couple summers ago, I sat next to a woman who couldn’t seem to put her phone down. When she was finally called out by one of the opening acts, she tried justifying her actions.

    “My friend is having a baby right now and she’s keeping me updated,” she said.

    Instead of showing sympathy, the opening act trashed her for the remainder of his set.

    If you can’t fathom the idea of someone else speaking, perhaps you need to reevaluate yourself and forego the comedy show.

    I will never understand why people feel they have the right to interrupt a comedy show. Standup comedy is my way of taking a breath of fresh air from a rough week. For it to get obstructed by someone that doesn’t respect the art of making people laugh is just blasphemy.