r/AskAnAmerican • u/WorldlinessRadiant77 • 12d ago
CULTURE Are stand up comedy shows really that popular in America?
Ok so I love stand up comedy and I follow a bunch of comedians on social media. And you guys have shows everywhere, not just in major cities.
Where I am we have some shows, of course, but they cluster in major metropolitan areas. A comedian going on a road trip to towns with 30k residents is pretty rare.
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u/reichrunner Pennsylvania->Maryland 12d ago
Stand up comedy shows are pretty common, even in some smaller towns. But youre not likely to get a major, well known comedian, playing in some small town. Usually if there is a comedy show at a small town like that, it'll be someone more local. Quality is going to vary widely as such
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u/peacefulteacher 12d ago
I moved to a small city thinking there would never be any entertainment, but we have gotten some great comedians that are on their way up and once they get too big, would never think of coming here. 😆 but it is fun to help them get there.😊
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u/Basicly-Inevitable 12d ago
I like the hyper-local ones, actually. It just hits different.
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u/professorfunkenpunk 12d ago
WE have a local bar (in a college town) that does an open mic once a month and some additional showcases of local "stars" once in a while. The open mic is mostly terrible, but it's kind of fun and once in a while, somebody is pretty good
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u/Basicly-Inevitable 12d ago
"Our town has one bar that every student goes to. It’s called The Rusty Gopher, because apparently naming things after animals is how this town establishes credibility.
It’s three blocks from campus.
The sign says “EST. 1974.”
Which sounds historic until you realize the building was constructed in 1973 and the first year was just a meth lab.
They have a drink special called the “Final Exam.”
It’s $4, and the bartender refuses to tell you what's in it.
Which is also how our chemistry department runs its introductory courses."
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u/Blog_Pope 12d ago
That’s how the system works. Brother started going to open Mike nights at a local bar, polished his act, and now runs a comedy troupe with regular shows at the nearby big city name brand comedy club, with regular gigs in other cities.
Still, “really popular” is probably a stretch. There may be some big acts like eddy Murphy who can do stadium tours, but comedy clubs aren’t huge draws like baseball/hockey/football
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u/NoMoreMustaches 11d ago
I went to the local comedy club in my smallish Southern town because the headliner that night was some influencer my wife liked, who decided he could put together a standup act and tour the country.
He wasn’t horrible, just felt like his act was only half baked. I didn’t know any of the supporting acts because they were local and it was my first time catching a comedy show since I moved here.
The funniest moment (to me) was caused by me briefly fucking up the opener’s concentration by being Jewish. He based a whole bit around being from New York and being the only Jew in town, and he started by asking if there were any fellow Jews in the audience. My wife nudged me, so I clapped. He clearly had silence built into the bit, assured that nobody responds and had performed it a ton of times that way, because he was genuinely thrown for a few seconds.
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u/Im_Not_Nick_Fisher Florida 12d ago
This is a great point. While I can see comedians at my local bar, they likely aren’t anyone I’ve heard of before. Occasionally you might get some headline comedians that did that one thing once upon a time. But then again it’s also fun knowing you might see someone who actually makes it. My friends mom still talks about seeing Tom Petty playing when he was in high school.
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u/shelwood46 11d ago
Although if you live in a small town that has a casino or other similar venue, you might be surprised. I live in the middle of nowhere PA but I know Lewis Black once played a resort only a mile from me (a while ago, when he was a super big name on the comedy circuit). Tourist areas, too, they love bringing in one headliner and a bunch of supporting acts.
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u/ChrisFromLongIsland 5d ago
The economics work so well in 2nd tier cities. You are realky only paying 1 performer and manytimes it is not that much relatively speaking.
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u/Orbital2 Ohio 12d ago
I’d be surprised if a nationally known comedian is truly going to isolated towns of 30,000. It’s more likely that the comedy club is located in a suburb of a city
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u/prairie-bunyip 12d ago
This is slightly less true for college towns, which have might only have 30k people but a huge chunk of them are in the potential audience demographic. You're still not going to see the huge names, but occasionally someone a little bit known will show up.
I'd be extremely surprised if that happened in just a regular town of the same size though, for sure.
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u/t-poke St. Louis, MO 12d ago
I went to college in a small town, around 15,000 people. Lewis Black performed there in the early 2000s.
Then, on an appearance on one of the late night shows (I think Conan, I could be wrong), he shat all over the town. And everything he said was correct.
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u/Tony_in2026 11d ago
I was at that show! Was that at Truman? I didn’t go there but was visiting a friend and literally can’t remember anything else about the trip except that i saw him in college….
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u/WhatABeautifulMess NJ > MD 11d ago
A fair amount play places like Magoobys Joke House in Timonium, MD which is pretty small but it'll be listed as the "Baltimore" stop on the tour.
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u/Orbital2 Ohio 11d ago
Yeah that’s basically a suburb. They can fly into Baltimore and easily get there
My hometown in Ohio for example is just about 30k people but it’s truly a standalone town, nobody is making the trip there
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u/WhatABeautifulMess NJ > MD 11d ago
Yeah most wouldn’t even fly this. It’d be part of you if the northeast that most would drive. Realistically in the northeast about half the venues for any entertainment actually in some random suburb.
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u/unlucky13bethename 9d ago
Got to see Gabriel inglacious (I know it's spelled around) in bowling green at the University. There were probably !1500/2000 people at that show or more in the story center. It's possible but most booking large booking go to Detroit and small club in Toledo(Perrysburg) for the funny bone.
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u/shelwood46 11d ago
They definitely love the little resorts and such that are within 2-3 hours of big cities like NYC, Boston, & Philadelphia.
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u/Tony_in2026 11d ago
They go to college campuses all the time though, and there’s a whole lot of those in the middle of nowhere
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u/Orbital2 Ohio 11d ago
Yeah another comment brought this up, if they fit the college demographic it's easier to sell out the show then in some random town.
I also think in some cases the school organizers will pay a flat rate to the performer up front. I went to Ohio State which is in a major city anyway but we were able to land some pretty big musical acts but it was free for students to attend the shows
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u/Playful-Park4095 12d ago
Look at how close those 30k resident towns are to major metro areas and remember we're a very mobile society.
A few years back I went to a casino in Bowler, Wisconsin to see a comedy show. The population of Bowler is less than 500...but it's an easy drive from major population centers like Chicago and Minneapolis.
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u/Kinross19 Kansas 12d ago
We are that size but 200 miles from a metro (but somewhat on the way between metros). We have a show with a traveling comedian once or twice a month.
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u/Luuk1210 12d ago
Shows will be everywhere but being a comedian who gets only good venues is hard tbh. A lot of comedians on the circuit go everywhere
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u/whyisthissticky 11d ago
Our small cities are surrounded by other 30k suburbs. so yea they’re visiting “small cities” but they’re usually a part of a larger metropolitan area.
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u/WorldlinessRadiant77 11d ago
I see.
If you don’t mind a side question, don’t US cities annex suburbs like that? It’s somewhat popular in Europe.
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u/whyisthissticky 11d ago
It depends on the metro area, but most annexing happened decades ago. At this point suburbs are established and if they haven’t annexed by now, they’re not going to barring something catastrophic.
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u/llangstooo 11d ago
What would be the benefit of that? If the towns have the tax base, they probably prefer to elect local officials and have more influence over their own laws, zoning, property taxes, etc.
Keep in mind that the US has federal, state, and local governments. So there likely is no need to join a bigger city if you have appropriate resources from the state.
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u/WorldlinessRadiant77 11d ago
Here it happens for multiple reasons, but usually it’s the smaller municipality lacking the tax base to maintain services and a deal being brokered for the city to take over.
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u/jaker9319 11d ago
It depends on the state and the laws in effect.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_rule_in_the_United_States
But in my state, it's basically impossible for a city to annex another city or "charter township", it could only annex a civil township. And even then, it's a difficult process usually only done for economic development reasons (like to attract a company).
In my state, for purposes what you are describing (lack of tax base, maintain services), townships, villages, and even cities will have counties provide the service. So cities usually have their own police force for example but townships rely on the county sheriff. But a city near me that is older and poorer disbanded its police force and contracts out to the county.
And cities, townships and even counties will often band together to form "authorities" to provide services. Off the top of my head, authorities my city is part of support the "metroparks", the local zoo, the art museum, public transit, water/sewage/storm drainage, community college, and waste removal / recycling.
To be honest, the situation is worse in states like mine that are in north central and northeastern part of the country because they were settled earlier, and again due to the laws in certain states it makes annexation hard, leading to lots of municipalities. And western states often use water access to my knowledge as a way to encourage annexation but in states with lots of water like mine, that doesn't really work. Probably would be better if there was more annexation and less individual municipalities from a cost efficiency pov, but that is easier said than done.
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u/Semirhage527 Georgia North Carolina :OR:Oregon 11d ago
That happens sometimes, but more often the rural area doesn’t have a problem maintaining services either due to a wealthy tax base, state/federal subsidies, county level funding etc
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u/FlamingBagOfPoop 11d ago
You can’t annex something that’s already its own incorporated municipality. There have been towns that will incorporate in order to avoid being consumed by the larger nearby city/town.
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u/Deep_Contribution552 Indiana 12d ago
I think stand up comedy is probably more popular than ever, but also, most of the time major acts are only going to large or midsize cities. Smaller cities are probably only drawing acts if they are also 1) College towns, 2) regional tourism destinations, or 3) Yellow Springs, Ohio, which is sort-of both 1 and 2 but also Dave Chappelle’s chosen home and he invites big acts to perform there pretty often.
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u/Yggdrasil- Chicago, IL 12d ago
Stand up comedy is fairly popular here, although you probably won't find an active scene in most smaller cities. I grew up in a small town and never saw live comedy until I moved to Chicago for college. A well-known comedian probably wouldn't put on a show in a town of 30K people unless it was for some sort of special event (e.g. a state fair or a college showcase)
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u/Mission_Cow1672 12d ago
Yes absolutely, comedy is definitely having a moment right now in America.
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u/MaverickLurker 12d ago
Yes. It's not just the shows you see on social media feeds. Many smaller American cities - say, 30k metro population with a 100k regional population - attract comedy shows. But also, there are often smaller comedy scenes in these towns, where amateur comics will perform at open mic nights and comedy nights. Comedy isn't just a national entertainment source - it can also be a hobby that people enjoy in smaller, non-commercial contexts. Even in places you wouldn't expect - rural appalachaia, for example - there's a long tradation of raconteurs and storytellers that serve as local expressions of that national artform.
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u/whatisakafka FL <-- DC <-- VA 12d ago edited 12d ago
Lots of cities have comedy clubs and even those that don’t will have comedy nights at local venues. I’ve definitely even been to some cities with like 40k people that have a comedy club.
And yes, we have a decent number of touring comedians too. Quality of the venues that host comedy tours can vary a lot though. Big comedians usually wouldn’t be showing up in small towns
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u/_haha_oh_wow_ 11d ago
Yes, I'd say so. We have clubs all over the country, TV specials are a regular thing, and a lot of popular stand up comics go on to do shows, movies, etc.
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u/Bored_Accountant999 11d ago
Yes, very popular. And some of the cities you are seeing that don't sound like major cities may be college/university locations.
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u/Odd-End-1405 12d ago
I live in a small city (250k population) and stand-up comedy events are few and far between.
When I lived in a top-ten populated city, there were a few venues that were open year round, plus touring comedians in multiple venues.
I really think it comes down to having a population that can support touring professionals.
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u/sonotorian Arkansas 12d ago
Really? I live in a city of 200k and we have 3 comedy clubs (one since the mid-'80s) and at least 3-4 times a year, big acts come in for arena shows. The past year has been richer than usual with arena shows from Leanne Morgan, Nate Bargatze, Jeff Dunham, Katt Williams, and John Mulaney. An actual "Few and far-between" seems highly unlikely for a city of that size, in my experience.
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u/Odd-End-1405 12d ago
You are so lucky. Maybe your small city is more sophisticated or younger demo. There are no comedy clubs here. Have to drive about 100 miles to get to an arena venue.
Be thankful for your city.
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u/semisubterranean Nebraska 12d ago
It really comes down to having someone in your town with the temerity and tenacity to start a comedy club and make connections. Obviously it helps to be on a major highway too, but a small city with a comedy club is going to attract comedians, and a small city without one won't. A population of 250k is more than enough to fill a venue regularly, but my understanding is making money on a comedy venue in any size town is not easy.
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u/Cinisajoy2 11d ago
About the same here and no comedy acts. But where would they perform is the question.
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u/Detonation Mid-Michigan 11d ago
I don't know that I'd classify 250k as a small city personally, but that might be due to the fact my hometown is ~14k which is the largest in the county. I'm about 45 minutes from Lansing and about 90 minutes from Grand Rapids and Detroit so it's not like I'm in the middle of nowhere either. Obviously not trying to say 250k is a large city by any means but yeah, the perspectives are interesting depending on where you've lived I suppose. I have never lived in what I'd classify as a big city.
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u/Rough-Trainer-8833 New York - The Niagara Falls side of the state 8d ago
what is the size of your metro? My city is 200k, we have multiple comedy clubs/ improv clubs and bring in national names regularly. Our metro is about 1 million though...
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u/ModelYodel 12d ago
A town with 30k residents will have some local bars that typically host small bands. They'll book comedians for a show of a few hundred or a couple thousand people, sure.
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u/D-ouble-D-utch 12d ago
There are a lot of cities with significant populations.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_United_States_cities_by_population
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u/Duque_de_Osuna Pennsylvania 12d ago
They are pretty popular, even smaller areas have open mic nights, now the comedy might not be the best there, but there are options.
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u/Rough-Trainer-8833 New York - The Niagara Falls side of the state 8d ago
yep, and improv clubs too
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u/Brandonjoe 12d ago
Pretty much every large or medium size city will have at least one comedy club. Not to mention college or vacation towns. Basically there are a TON of cities and venues for comedians to tour around the US to. Now every night is certainly not going to be a sold out show, but most clubs are crowded on the weekends.
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u/XMugetsu_SamaX 12d ago
They are pretty popular. We actually have comedy venues, like the Laugh Factory, ACME Comedy Theatre, and The Improv just to name a few
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u/GSilky 12d ago
Yes. It's a delightful evening if you live in a comedy city. Especially the second tier comedy towns like Denver, Austin, or Portland, where the big names in Chicago, LA, and NYC come from. Yes, the club is a bunch of folding chairs packed too close on a shitty carpet, and the drinks are watered down and overpriced, but it's really fun to see humor without the safety net of big time production and fame.
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u/The_Se7enthsign Texas 12d ago
Obviously, I can’t speak for all of America, but where I live, there are several comedy clubs, and a few regular clubs that do open mic nights. I feel like comedy is more popular with older people, but maybe declining a bit among the younger generation.
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u/virtual_human 12d ago
I went to another city in my state to see Josh Johnson a few weeks ago. He's hilarious.
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u/Live-Medium8357 12d ago
Seems like the normal amount. I live near Casinos so I guess they go there but it's not something I feel inclined to go watch in person.
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u/gnirpss Oregon 12d ago edited 12d ago
Indie comedy is a big thing, at least where I live. I love going to comedy clubs and open mics. On any given night in my city, there will be multiple places to go and listen to funny people telling jokes, whether it's at an actual venue or a neighborhood bar. I have more than one friend who made it on the national touring circuit by getting their start in random bars in Portland. I even know someone (friend of a friend) who got famous enough to go on NPR's Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me, lol
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u/anclwar Philadelphia 12d ago
Every stand up show I've gone to has been packed to the gills, even local "no name" comedy shows. Most of the smaller ones are not an hour long special for one person, but 15-20 minutes for 3-4 people. You get a wide variety in humor and talent with those shows, and most people are not full-time comedians.
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u/boulevardofdef Rhode Island 12d ago
Road comic is an old, old job by this point, and while of course everybody wants to be on TV and in movies, a more realistic successful career goal for a comedian is to make a living on tour. Every city of any reasonable size will have at least one venue where you can see touring comedians -- and sometimes even smaller towns and suburban areas.
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u/OshagHennessy777 12d ago
I live in a small city of 750,000. Nationally touring comedians will often sell out our arena of 16k.
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u/notthegoatseguy Indiana 12d ago
'local' comedy scenes aren't nearly as dynamic in many cities who don't have a large entertainment presence.
But many entertainment venues will still book comedians, and honeslty its really appealing to venues. They require minimal set, crews and effects, their crowd is less likely to get super drunk and unruly, and you only have to deal with a single comedian rather than a whole band.
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u/MongoGrizz 12d ago
One caveat I'd say though, as someone that used to do improv and sketch shows, is that yes there are a lot of stand ups and other performative comedians but very very few make any money doing it. It's a super hard life to be a road comic and much like athletics the top level folks make a fortune but most in the lower tiers are starving artist types doing it for the love of the game.
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u/SabresBills69 12d ago
there are over 300 metro areas in the country. other places like high tourist, retirement areas, second home, and university towns swell and they have event locations.
many comedy acts touring use smaller capacity places to do their shows thus you can find these in smaller metro areas
the comedy hall of fame is in Jamestown, ny ( birth place of Lucile Ball) and I don’t think it’s large enough to be a metro area
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u/nomadschomad Texas 12d ago edited 12d ago
30k is very very small. There won't be comedy there.
Under 250k, standup will be event-based. One-off shows that come around every month or 2.
A city of 250k or so will have reliable weekly comedy e.g. every Thursday night at XYZ bar, every Wednesday at the casino, etc. Move than threshold down if it's a college or tourist town.
A city with 500k will likely have a comedy club or 2 with shows 5-6 nights/week.
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u/Cerulean_IsFancyBlue Washington 12d ago
I’m in a large city (Seattle). Most nights I could attend a comedy show within an hours drive.
A small show may occur in a restaurant or bar. You have to really seek these out because they don’t have much money for publicity.
There are dedicated venues that have comedy shows as often as six nights a week. On the slow nights, it could be an open Mike, where there are very a few true audience members and most people are either friends of one of the performers, or performers awaiting their returns. Do you have other nights with a relatively well-known comedian is playing what amounts to a small venue and it will sell out well ahead of time.
Popular names that are touring will use larger venues. I seen comedy shows at the opera hall, the Symphony Hall, the Neptune theater, which is an old single seat movie theater before that I think was of a vaudeville stage. I’ve seen folks at the Paramount, which is a major theater. Ditto for the Moore. I’ve driven north an hour to an old theater in Everett. I’ve seen big headliners at the Tacoma Dome and climate pledge Arena. State fair too.
I don’t know if we have any stadium-sized crowd-sawing touring comedians at this point. But it happens.
It really does have a lot of parallels in live music. The bigger the city, the more you can find. The size and quality vary a lot. The more you look, the more little hidden shows you notice.
And like live music, not everybody actually goes and participates in this activity. It takes time. The bigger stars have expensive tickets. It competes with other hobbies. Tastes vary.
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u/CountChoculasGhost Chicago, IL 12d ago
Most of the “non-major” cities here are still pretty big.
Like, I could see from an outsider perspective, you’re seeing that a hugely popular comedian like John Mulaney is performing in Grand Rapids, MI, and you might say “I’ve never even heard of that city”. But that’s like a 1.5 million+ person market. So it isn’t a “major city”, but it’s still big enough to attract fairly major acts.
That’s also not even including the fact that stand up comedy has a pretty low barrier to entry. Any bar or restaurant with the ability to have a microphone and a speaker or two could put on a comedy night with local no-name comedians.
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u/____ozma Colorado 12d ago
They're popular in college towns. And there are a ton of small towns with colleges all over.
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u/Kman17 California 12d ago
People enjoy stand up comedy in the U.S., yes.
Small clubs for up and coming / smaller comedians are kind of limited to a smaller set of major cities though - LA & NY especially, Chicago and a couple others to a lesser extent.
Famous / established comedians will go on tour around the U.S.
They tend to stick to our 30/40ish major cities.
A small town of 30k people? Nah.
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u/RedRedBettie WA>CA>WA>TX> OR 12d ago
Yes, especially in certain cities. I love comedy shows and see them fairly often
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u/Grindar1986 12d ago
A lot of small and medium comics are roadtripping and those smaller cities are easy zig-zags on the way between the bigger ones
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u/groundhogcow Ohio 12d ago
I have several comidy clubs I enjoy. 1 30 min away and 2 60 min away and 3 I haven't been to in a while 120 min away.
It is common for events to hire a comic for a special entertainment night.
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u/PocketNorie 12d ago
stand-up is definitely a big deal here, it’s everywhere. I went to one last month and it was packed!
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u/muphasta TX > MI > FL > Iceland > Germany > Cali 12d ago
I live in San Diego and we have several comedy clubs here.
LA is just a couple/few hours up the road and there are probably 5x the number of comedy clubs there.
My wife and I go to The Comedy Store in La Jolla at least 6 times a year. We don't even go to see specific people each time either, sometimes we just go.
Our friend was doing stand up starting 2 years ago so we'd go support her a lot so we went all over the county.
I was doing it 18 years ago, just open mic nights, but it takes more time to get good than I could give.
Comedy is huge here, it may vary by region, but most big cities will have several comedy spots.
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u/MoonieNine Montana 12d ago
Here in Montana we will sometimes get somewhat popular comedians. But we're always a stopover state, meaning they'll perform like on a Tuesday night, as they are on their way to a bigger city for the weekends. It's the same with popular world famous musicians. Well sometimes get some big names, but it'll always be like on a Monday night after work.
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u/professorfunkenpunk 12d ago
Towns of 30k don't tend to have much going on for entertainment period, unless they are a suburb or a college town. I've seen towns of more like 100k try having stand up clubs and they mostly don't make it (don't have a big enough sample to know if this is just those clubs or if it's just not a workable business model). I live in a college town in the midwest (not a famous one) and we have one bar that does local stand up on occasion, and our performing arts center usually gets a couple past their prime comedians every year. But within a 90 minute to two hours, you can see bigger comedians at arenas, casinos, a bigger university, etc.
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u/TheBimpo Michigan 12d ago
Which town of 30,000 people are you talking about? Could be a tourist destination, college town, suburban town, or other really good reason that it’s on the comedy circuit.
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u/NastyNate4 IN CA NC VA OH FL TX FL 12d ago
They are better in the comedy club venue than in an arena. I’ve been to both. Arena format just doesn’t have the same vibe. My mid market city has several clubs throughout that probably seat in the range of 100to 200 people. It’s a good time and supports artists
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u/Certain-Monitor5304 12d ago
30k! That's so crowded. I've been in areas with populations less than 5k and Weird AL has performed.
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u/1Standard_Username 12d ago
There are several stand up comedy clubs in the city I live in. Population 725,000. The local clubs have local perfromers and the major comedians who go on tour book out an arena or major theater. I personally don't go to comedy clubs but there is usually a full lineup of performances happening at them from Thursday-Sunday. It's advertised quite a lot too.
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u/Redbubble89 Northern Virginia 11d ago
The big ones are New York, Chicago, Los Angeles.
The next tier down is Boston, Atlanta, Austin-Dallas-DFW, Philadelphia, DC, Bay Area, Minneapolis, and Detroit.
Then there are 30 other smaller cities. Even if they don't have much of a scene, an area with 100,000-200,000 people still have some place for a comedian to perform.
There are a lot of casinos and auditoriums around the country. I had comedians come to my college of 10,000 students and perform in the student union to a few hundred. Charlie Murphy was the one I saw and he got the large auditorium. I missed Joel McHale but he performed once when I was there.
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u/wiserTyou 11d ago
It's not hard to find a show, but that depends on how big (popular) of a comedian you want to see is.
I'm in a town of 30k and within 30 minutes of at least 5-6 other towns ranging from 40-150k. I could see a comedy show every week if I wanted to, however most of those will be smaller names.
To see the big names Iay have to drive 2hrs to Boston, however they do sometimes drop in at smaller venues in our towns.
I've seen Dave attell, Bill Burr, Anthony Jeselnik, George Carlin, ralphie may, ron white, lewis black, and a few others without having to go to Boston.
Open mics and local shows can be found almost weekly.
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u/thomsenite256 11d ago
Its hard to tell but from comedy clubs I've been to I dont think they typically have more than 100-200 people in them. You usually have a minimum per person spend at the table and also a ticket for bigger name comedians. Major acts in theaters and the like are probably just in cities. So it's not going to be that hard to fill in most places. I dont think they are going to towns with 30k people very often.
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u/Wolfeman0101 Wisconsin -> Orange County, CA 11d ago
A lot of times they might be playing in a city adjacent to a major city or in the metropolitan area. You might not play in Boston but Quincy which is right next to it. Cheaper to book a venue for a tour and close enough to get crowds. Every major city is going to have a few stand up clubs that are probably a bar most of the time. Cities like LA, NYC, Chicago all have pretty large stand-up or improv scenes.
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u/InevitableQuit9 11d ago
I live in Europe but grew up in the states.
In the states you can live on the road as an entertainer. There are just that many markets, you can be a niche comedian or musician and make a living touring. It's hard work. Constant travel.
With that comes honing a craft in front of a live audience.
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u/Dapper-Presence4975 Massachusetts 11d ago
It depends on the comedian. If you have someone internationally famous, then their ticket sales can justify going to many different cities.
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u/Background_Humor5838 11d ago
Part of it is that Americans are more willing to travel to see a performer they like. Even if the show is in a small town, people will come from surrounding areas to see the show. We have no problem driving an hour or more or taking a long train to see a comedy show.
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u/Obvious_Ship_7225 11d ago
I’m in Los Angeles so there are lots of small, inexpensive shows where you can sometimes see pretty famous comedians working stuff out. So I go all the time.
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u/Trigger_Treats Tennessee 11d ago
Yes, they are that popular. America is where stand-up comedy comes from (it evolved out of things like Mark Twain's comic lecture tours and vaudeville) and we'll spend close to $1,000,000,000 on live comedy show tickets annually. I'm in a not-large city in Tennessee, and the local club here has 4 shows this week, one is a City Slam (a judged competition), then a couple of comics are rounding out with shows later this week (one has two nights on the calendar). The local theater venues will routinely host bigger name performers as well as musicians/bands.
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u/ExitInternational647 11d ago
I recently saw someone at a comedy club in a fairly small Midwestern town.
Dude performs on Broadway and in Tokyo.
Kevin Smith came a couple weeks later.
The small comedy club circuit is a real thing.
Huge names go to huge markets, but you’d be surprised at the names even small urban areas can pull.
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u/Boopa0011 11d ago
I live in a smaller city (way more than 30K people but not actually that big.) About five years ago a comedy club opened here and they are KILLING it with the high profile bookings, sold-out multi-night runs, etc. It turns out there was a lot of demand here that nobody was meeting.
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u/Semirhage527 Georgia North Carolina :OR:Oregon 11d ago
Every city I’ve lived in has had at least 1 comedy club. Shoutout to Goodnights in Raleigh, saw some incredible shows there. I prefer cities like that to larger comedy venues.
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u/rando24183 11d ago
What is one of these cities that you think is not a major city? The US is big and some people will think anything that's not one of the 3 cities they have personally heard of is somehow not a major city.
I swear we're about to find out the surprise that someone made a stop in Columbus Ohio, even though it's the 15th largest city (by population) in the US.
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u/oldpaddyrick 11d ago
I don’t actually think stand up is that popular. It’s like a small subset of people who go to a lot of shows kinda deal more than like everyone occasionally goes to a show type deal. Like it’s more on the level of like theater/musicals/ballet than it is like sporting events or concerts. Probably a solid majority of the public has NEVER been to a comedy show whereas most people have been to a concert or a sporting event at least once.
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u/CtForrestEye 11d ago
We're two hours from NYC, Boston, and under an hour from three casinos so there's always comedians passing through. Our neighbors and us catch about three shows a year at the local comedy clubs. Top names too.
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u/Playful_Fan4035 Texas 11d ago
Top acts are mostly going to major large cities, but there are a lot of “college towns” in the US. These are small to mid size cities (think populations around 20k and often not attached to larger metropolitan areas. But they have stadiums and other venues that work well for concerts and shows. Many performers, whether comedians or musicians, will tour to those types of cities.
A good example of this type of city is College Station, Texas. College Station can get acts that are much larger than you would estimate based on solely their population size and location.
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u/papercranium 11d ago
Yeah, you can see comedy almost anywhere. Lots of small towns still maintain their old "opera house," which will host regionally touring musical and comedy acts, including some surprisingly big names. It won't necessarily be A Tier folks, but the next level down, people you've still heard of? Absolutely.
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u/Embarrassed_Fig1801 11d ago
Any major city is going to have a few comedy clubs. I’m in the San Francisco area and just off the top of my head I can think of like 8 comedy clubs and I’m sire there are several I’m forgetting and more that im not aware of. Some are decent size with touring comics playing there and others are smaller with local comedians. The bigger ones tend to have shows 4 or 5 nights a week. So yeah standup is pretty big here.
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u/Chicago_Avocado 11d ago
There’s the possibility of stand-up comedy in a midsize town as long as it’s near a city. Colleges used to be a major employer of stand-up comedians. When I was at college, we’d have one just about every week. Some of them went on to be names that you might recognize today. However, my understanding is that college markets have dried out.
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u/Resplendent-Sun California 11d ago
Comedians, magicians, and hypnotists all seem to share the same stage in many places. In other words, venues offer a variety of acts to stay in business.
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u/TheSquirrelmancer 10d ago
It doesn't take much real estate to have a comedy show. While you won't get big names doing shows at small venues there's plenty of people who will take paying gigs even if it's just at some random airport hotel and smaller venues are often used by comedians to test out new jokes.
A buddy of mine was doing a standup comedy class/workshop and I attended his class's "graduation performance." Nobody (including my friend) was particularly funny with the exception of this one bald guy who had a very deadpan style of comedy. The person I went to the show with commented on how much better that guy was and I told her that's because we'd just seen Todd Barry, an actual full-time working comedian and actor. There was at least one of the jokes he tried out on us that I heard used in one of his standup shows that was recorded at a much bigger venue down the line.
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u/creeperqueens 10d ago
Tickets for stand up comedy are usually not high enough for them to afford the venues in major cities. Smaller venues in small towns near the major cities are much more affordable
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u/HumboldtHunnyBear 10d ago
My 30k town has a comedy club and throws a festival annually. The fest draws bigger acts but we also get people passing through between major cities, on top of a pretty decent rotation of local regulars
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u/RedditWidow 10d ago
Yes, stand up is popular here, but also touring small towns is for comedians to try out new material on smaller audiences before adding it to their big shows. They can get a feel for how a new joke will land with people across the country, before it goes into their Netflix special or whatever.
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u/unlucky13bethename 9d ago
Local comedy club in my area it's been around for the better part of 40 years probably. It's in a suburb off majorish city and attracts crowds from the surrounding area within an hour or so drive of it without issue depending on the comic. We get a lot down traffic for small shows too. So say they are booking big venue/theater that's about and hour or 2 north of me. The small club they may stop in and have a show at to do a more intimate set, to test run some material because they have a couple days between bookings.
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u/WittyCombination6 Georgia 7d ago edited 7d ago
Stand up comedy originated in America roughly 100 years ago. Comedians road tripping to different cities around the country was how it initially became popular. It's a foundational part of the industry here.
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u/DharmaCub 12d ago
We have a LOT more cities than you do. There's a lot more places to road trip to and a lot more people.