Stand-Up Venues are Coming Back, Here’s What it Looks Like
For a few months now, Center Stage, a comedic staple of the Atlanta stand-up scene, has been holding socially distanced, mandate compliant shows in their theatre. While the theatre can now consistently hold performances for local acts, it doesn’t look quite the same as it did before. For one, the theatre can usually hold 1,050 people in the audience, and now maxes out at 200. Also, masks are obviously required at the venue unless you have a drink, and drinks are delivered drinks directly to your seats.
Though this immense gap in crowd size compared to what regular acts at the club are used to seems like it would undeniably hinder the experience, all of the comics seemed to be happy with just being able to perform. Since the acts are restricted to be basically only locals, as to avoid a potential spread due to extended travel by touring comics, the featured comedians are almost all locals who do comedy part time. Of these is former tech executive Paul Ollinger, who said that his set went “much better than expected”, and that is felt like a “good, big crowd”. It should be noted that Center Stage’s first crowd in their return to the venue got a special surprise on reopening night, with comedian all-star Chris Tucker making an appearance, as he is an Atlanta Native.
Though the reception to these shows has been overwhelmingly positive from the crowd and act’s perspectives, there are still a number of questions in regards to the sustainability of shows like this. For one, there is an obvious drop-off in revenue, and big city venue rent is not cheap. This means one of two things, either comedy clubs will have to be content with breaking even until they can fully reopen, or acts will have to essentially offer their sets for close to nothing for the time being, to allow for the clubs to net some extra money. Either way, shows like this are not sustainable for the long term for either the acts or venue owners / staff. With at least a few more months of limited capacity mandates seeming inevitable, the future of these shows is uncertain. Nevertheless, it’s great to see venues doing what they can to keep people laughing.
