Stand-Up Scene Set to Sizzle on the Strand

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Thursday, May. 06, 2010 Connect with Us: Stand-Up Scene Set To Sizzle On The Strand

New Comedy Club Underscores The Industry's Local Growth

By Paul Grimshaw - For Weekly Surge

IMG_7684.JPG "You caught me on the can," said comedian Todd Yohn, reluctantly answering the phone in his hotel room in Tulsa, Okla. The nationally touring comic returns to the Grand Strand this week, but not to play Comedy Cabana or House of Blues. Instead, Yohn will headline Stand Up Carolina, a brand-spankin' new comedy club in Murrells Inlet, during its grand opening extravaganza tonight through Saturday.

Perhaps only stand-up comics are uninhibited enough to tell complete strangers of their bowel habits, and it's why we love them. Stand Up Carolina, in the home of the old Tequila Mockingbird bar, opens its doors to the public at 7 tonight. It's the latest fulltime stand-up comedy club to The exterior of Comedy Cabana in the Restaurant Row make a go of it on the Grand Strand, but it's not the only section of Myrtle Beach. Photo by Scott Smallin, place to offer live comedy, and area comedy club Weekly Surge staff. owners, part-time comedy producers and local comics looking to make a name for themselves are united in IMG_7602.JPG their quest to make us laugh, and hope to make a buck while doing so.

According to Viacom, Comedy Central's parent company, more than 140-million viewers tune in to the nation's only full-time comedy cable channel each month to watch its programming. During its highly rated roasts, Improv instruction: Can you teach funny? the best of American stand-up is featured in disrespectful, raunchy and very funny lampoons of celebrity guests. The comics featured are this generation's Joan Rivers, Richard Pryors, and George Carlins, with names such as Lisa Lampanelli, Katt Williams, and Jimmy Kimmel. NBC's "Last Comic Standing" has also been a proven ratings winner with an "American Idol"- style competition that has launched careers, such as Josh Blue and Ralphie May, who visit the Myrtle Beach area on occasion. Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar Can the Grand Strand's comics stand up to these pros? A growing number of our homegrown comedy club owners - the three fulltime clubs and two part-time seasonal comedy producers - think our local and regional comics are pretty damn funny, and are betting that you'll feel the same. By the time June rolls around you'll have no fewer than five clubs in which to find the hilarity. If that proves to be too many, none of them will be laughing.

The longest-running comedy club in the area, Comedy Cabana, has seen other clubs come and go during its 14-year run. The original comedy club, Coconuts, along with Comedy on the Beach, didn't stand the test of time, but comedy is again growing here and Comedy Cabana has now been joined by improv upstart, Carolina Improv Company at Uptown theater, and Stand Up Carolina. Jeff Martin and business partner Larry Frakes' new 170-seat comedy club, Stand Up Carolina, sits within their former lounge, Tequila Mockingbird. Stand Up Carolina will feature national headliner Yohn, a comic who also performs at Comedy Cabana, along with local comic "Suicide Jimmy" Mathieu, and emcee Mad Max of local morning radio show fame, tonight through Saturday. And Martin promises six-nights a week of full-on laughs at his new club, but that's just the start...

In addition to the three theater/clubs mentioned, the long-running Comedy Zone will begin its ninth season in June at the House of Blues, and T Jay Turner is hosting his Carolina Bad Boy Comedy at area bars, including Shucker's Raw Bar at Broadway at the Beach and Nashville Dreams on the southern tip of Myrtle Beach proper. Additionally, two of the area's main variety theaters employ fulltime stand-ups. Grant Turner's Rickey Mokel character, featured at Alabama Theatre for 10 years, is nearly a comedic institution. A-list comics such as Jim Gaffigan, Larry the Cable

Guy, Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Rickey Smiley, and others have found their way to places such as The Palace Theatre, Alabama Theatre and the Myrtle Beach Convention Center, filling seats with visitors and locals looking for an alternative to the usual nighttime fare. Enter Keyword(s): With all the established comedy, and the fresh new faces working their way up through amateur nights, there's no

lack of funny business here on the Strand. But why build a new club now when the economy has folks reeling? And Enter a City: can a new comedy club compete in market already filled with comedy and myriad entertainment options?

Get Up, Stand Up Select a State: – All United States – When entrepreneurs Martin and Frakes re-opened Tequila Mockingbird, a hip, small nightclub in Murrells Inlet in Select a Category: 2009, the renovations of the neighborhood watering hole and martini bar looked great, and the little club showed – All Job Categories – promise, hosting the occasional stellar night with a packed house. But after too many hits and misses, and too many slow nights, Martin decided to try something new, and with comedy close to his heart, the experiment made sense. Search "We started doing the comedy one-nighters," said Martin, an established comic in his own right, "and we sold out two

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shows in one night, like 90-100 tickets for each show. We did it four months in a row, and decided comedy was a better fit, than what we had been doing." Martin and Frakes also own Karma Ultimate Teen Nightlife, a teen dance - Search by Company club on Ocean Boulevard in Myrtle Beach, and were two of several partners in Tiki at the Afterdeck. Frakes is also the owner of One Stop Party Shop. Weekly Surge Top Jobs

When I stopped by the unopened Stand Up Carolina last week, Martin was multi-tasking, juggling multiple cell phones, deciphering scribbled notes, all with a sheen of sweat on his brow. A crew was busy with the final Now hiring for the following positions renovations of a club that's seen several renovations during the past several years. Only the interior marquee OCEANA RESORTS remains from the old Tequila Mockingbird, and the back room martini bar has been retrofitted as the new smoking US-SC-Myrtle Beach section lounge and ticket holder waiting area between shows on nights with a double bill. "We've manned-up the martini bar, so it's not so foo-foo anymore," laughed Martin, who clearly likes to laugh and be laughed at. "I have a Medical INLET CARDIOPULMONARY & ASSOC radio background and did comedy bits, but I always wanted to do stand-up." US-SC-Myrtle Beach

Martin's first time on stage was at Comedy Cabana seven years ago. He finished third place in the club's open mike The Myrtle Beach contest, and went back the next year and won. He hit the road playing clubs in Columbia, Atlanta, and regional MARRIOTT GRANDE DUNES US-SC-Myrtle Beach Comedy Zones, and was signed by Heffron Talent, who still books him. "I entered the Comedy Cabana contest in the fall of '09 and came in second, and I lost by one point," he said. "I might do a competition here, but I don't want this NOW HIRING club to be about prizes. I want it to be more about the comedy." CRACKER BARREL #194 US-SC-Myrtle Beach

Martin's new club will be patterned after most full-time comedy clubs, and he's not reinventing the wheel. Closed on COOK Immediate opening for experienced Sundays and Mondays, the club will open at 7 p.m. for registration each Tuesday for amateur night. Open to anyone OCEAN LAKES FAMILY CAMPGROUND and everyone (even those younger than 18 if you bring a parent), proletarian comics may try their hand at stand-up. US-SC-Myrtle Beach Wednesday through Saturday a nationally touring headliner will perform with an emcee and a feature, or opener. Coastal Carolina University graduate Ryan DeNisco, 22, did his first stand up show less than six months ago. He will host some of the amateur nights at Stand Up Carolina. All Top Jobs » Martin is one of DeNisco's biggest fans and the young comic is emblematic of the kind of nurturing energy that Martin wants Stand Up Carolina to embody. "I met Ryan at one of those Shucker's shows," remembers Martin. "I saw him Weekly Surge Classifieds all nervous, pacing around with his notes. I thought he was about 16. He went up and confidently dropped this really edgy stuff - and coming from him, it was just so funny." Martin doesn't plan on performing regularly at his club. "I don't want people to think I opened this place just to have somewhere to perform, but I'll hop up on amateur night To view Weekly Surge Classifieds click here . to work out new stuff." Martin works around the state and hopes to travel more as he builds his name in comedy, a name he credits to the Comedy Cabana. When asked if there was room for two full-time stand-up clubs on the beach, an improv comedy club, and part -time seasonal comedy nights in bars, Martin said there's room for all comers, and now with the masses about to descend upon us with the main tourist season kicking in, he felt Stand Up Carolina was ready to face the summer, and the competition.

Sharing The Laughs?

For 14 years in the heart of Restaurant Row, Comedy Cabana has hosted top comics, catching them on the way up, and on the way down. Additionally, the club became the training ground for many local acts. In fact, nearly every local comic now engaged in some form of competitive business, received their comedic notoriety working at the club -Martin, Mad Max, Suicide Jimmy, "T" Jay Turner, and others, all first found work at Comedy Cabana, and while local acts (and their following) are an important part of any clubs' business, Comedy Cabana has sharpened its focused on affordable national acts.

Finger-wagging, long-suffering comic, Lewis Black, performed twice at Comedy Cabana - as recently as five years ago. Today he commands top dollar, is featured in movies, on the "Daily Show," comedy specials, and sells out auditoriums. He's also embarked a book tour, and probably won't be back to a small club in our town for a while.

While Black's career still has forward momentum, former superstar watermelon smasher Gallagher, who has performed at the Alabama Theatre, and was at the Comedy Cabana just last year, may have lost some his impetus. Within recent memory Gallagher was at the top of the comic food chain, regularly on TV, and easily selling many thousands of seats in performing arts centers around the country, but he now routinely plays smaller clubs with less than 200 seats. Such is life in the world of stand-up comedy. Comics' careers mirror that of many other entertainers - peaks and valleys.

Will the Comedy Cabana, Stand Up Carolina, and Uptown theater be at odds with one another, attempting to book the same big named headliners, and reaching for the same comedy-loving ticket-buyer? Possibly, but Comedy Cabana co-owner Christine Emanuel hopes the venues are far enough apart in distance and diversity to make it work. "We all have something different to offer," she said. "They do the improv up there [at Uptown], Jeff's market is different down on the south end. The [growth] of comedy brings a lot of [industry] recognition." Travelphobia is a well known condition that strikes many Grand Stranders, who are often reluctant to travel at night more than a few miles from their homes. This could work in the favor of the two big stand-up clubs that are some 40-minutes apart in driving time, though not so far as the crow flies - just some 20-miles.

Comedy Cabana is well known and well respected among the comics that tour, and, according to Emanuel, her club is considered an "A" club, comparable to Zanies, or other big-market comedy clubs. She says that in the industry there are "A" and "B" clubs, and "5-Star" clubs, a designation, which is self-appointed. "Typically the "A" clubs are freestanding," said Emanuel. "They're not inside a hotel, or the back corner of a bar." Also "the talent," she says is of a high caliber, "usually they're somewhat known and have done Showtime or Comedy Central, HBO, Letterman, and are at that level." While many comics seek bookings, few are chosen.

"It's a long process to determine who we'll book here," said Emanuel. "We go through videos and press kits, we take recommendations, and try to fit comics with our market, which is very different from others. We've got spring breakers, seniors, bikers, locals - we try to catch up-and-coming comics, as well." Comedy Cabana is a labor of love for Emanuel and her husband, co-owner Jeff Emanuel. "I love when people walk out of here and say 'That was the best. My stomach hurts from laughing,'" said Christine Emanuel. "It's therapy, and it's good for you."

Whose Beach Is It, Anyway?

Stand-up comics, such as those at Comedy Cabana, sometimes get their training doing improvisational comedy, and up until November, improv was relatively hard to find on the Carolina's coast outside of Charleston or Wilmington, N.C., until Gina Trimarco moved to town.

A recent Myrtle Beach transplant, Trimarco, owner of the Carolina Improv Company (CIC) and Uptown theater, likes spontaneity, and knows improv (think "Whose Line is it Anyway?") can be at times, hysterical - even when performed by relative beginners in front of paying audiences.

The improv shows are a fast-moving combination of games, all based on audience suggestions that prove Trimarco's techniques; taking non-professionals (with the courage to try), and letting them create wet-your-pants funny situations. Some games work better than others from one night to the next, some players are better than others, and some nights are better than others, but that's sort of the beauty. You never know what to expect, and there's almost always hard laughs. Based on audience feedback cards, there is a real appreciation of the players' skills.

In the current troupe of players you'll find 20-somethings, 60-somethings, professionals, the unemployed, cops, and doctors - a wide variety of personalities and life experiences, all residents of the Grand Strand. The themes of the show, which often run wildly askew of their original intention, include "Whose Beach is it Anyway?" and during the winter holidays "The 12 Games of Christmas."

Trimarco received her improv and theater training while she still lived in her hometown, Chicago. She studied off and on at The Second City, the famed training ground for legendary comics Dan Aykroyd, John Belushi, Bill Murray, Chris Farley, Stephen Colbert, and a long list of distinguished alumni, spanning the last 50 years. When a job here with IMAX ended badly after a corporate ownership change, the initially disheartening event catapulted the newly unemployed Trimarco toward creating Carolina Improv Company, which offers improv, stand-up, and sketch comedy writing classes, corporate training sessions, and since November, improv comedy shows open to the public each Friday and Saturday night. After transforming a vacant retail space in the Myrtle Beach Mall (formerly Colonial Mall), Uptown became a meeting space, and bonafide improv comedy club, with a stage, lighting, sound system, 75 seats, beer and wine sales, and lots of laughs.

Trimarco expresses fierce loyalty and confidence in her improv troupe. "I think of our players as more talented than the average stand-up comedians. Our comedy is very cerebral. You have to be able to think quickly on your feet, based on an audience suggestion, roll with it, and make it funny, all within two minutes. Stand-up acts often write and rehearse their shtick, and use it over and over for a year or more. Our shows are never the same, which means our repeat business is [potentially] higher." Despite her remarks, Trimarco doesn't dislike stand-up comedy, and has just finished hosting and taking a stand-up class led by an imported instructor, and she plans to offer PG-rated stand-up at Uptown somewhere down the road.

With Uptown still relatively new, Trimarco has found shows in the winter months had better attendance, but is hoping for a brisk summer. "I can't wait to see what summer will bring," said Trimarco. Uptown's age demographic includes kids to senior citizens, and Trimarco works hard to keep her shows PG-rated, directing the flow and dismissing audience suggestions that are too risqué. CIC's mission and core value is to "provide comedy that is appropriate for all ages, so you'll feel comfortable bringing your four-year-old or your grandmother," she said. Trimarco also uses her improv teaching and performance skills to benefit corporate South Carolina in training sessions for clients including The Myrtle Beach Chamber of Commerce, among others.

Bad boys, bad boys...

While Comedy Cabana, Stand Up Carolina and Uptown offer fulltime comedic fare at fixed locations, how can a part- time comedy night promotion, without a permanent home carve out its niche?

"T" Jay Turner, comedian, host and producer of Carolina Bad Boy Comedy, wants you to know that his show is not an open mike amateur night. "I book top talent, and use the best of the locals for all of my shows," says Turner. "This is top-notch entertainment." Turner hosts his shows at 9 p.m. Mondays at Nashville Dreams, and at Shucker's Raw Bar (Broadway at the Beach) 9 p.m. each Tuesday.

Like so many other jokesters, Turner got his start at the Comedy Cabana. "I was the 2008 Open Mike champ," he said proudly. "I ended up doing 50 shows and a week of emceeing." His revolving venue shows are proving a popular alternative to the usual entertainment options, often generating large crowds. "Last night we had 'em stacked in there - standing room only at Shucker's," he said. He's quick to praise the local talent. "There are a few awesome comics down here. The talent is phenomenal. Suicide Jimmy is the funniest biker in America." The Bad Boys will take their show, featuring Mad Max, a shock-jock-style personality heard on Rock 107.1 and Shawn Small (comedian and Mad Max sidekick), to Jamin' Leather (Surfside Beach), 1 p.m. Wednesday through Saturday, during what's left of the area bike rally.

Many names in local comedy are not widely known, but don't write them all off as amateurs and hobbyists. These guys are hungry, willing to work, and know they have to be funny. With more places to perform, and theoretically more mike-time, expanded opportunities are a boon. With any luck they move up the ladder to the next level of relative obscurity: nationally touring comics... whose names are not widely known.

Like so many other comics who manage a fairly nice living (even though not household names), Yohn, who hails from Rural Hall, N.C. has found the balance between career and home, and has made it work for 26 years, citing a 23-year marriage, and three teenage daughters. He's played the Comedy Cabana many times, the Comedy Zone, here and in other markets, and looks forward to opening the newest comedy club on the Grand Strand, but his comedy was not always welcomed by those closest to him.

In the same way Jerry Seinfeld was always trying to prove the validity of his vocation to his own parents on "Seinfeld," Yohn, too, had to convince his family that comedy was a legit career. "My dad always said 'You'd be great at sales,' said Yohn, "and I would get that speech every Thanksgiving. Finally one Thanksgiving I came prepared. I whipped out my tax return and proved to him we were in the same tax bracket. [Dad] worked for Duke University. He's now retired, and is my biggest fan, and runs my Web site."

While Yohn tours about as much as he wants to, and is considered a nationally touring comic, others strive to reach the same career level, including local comic Suicide Jimmy.

Twenty years in Myrtle Beach hasn't softened Jimmy Mathieu's, a.k.a. "Suicide Jimmy's," Boston-bred demeanor one bit. Mathieu has been performing stand-up for nine years and is as in-your-face as a Denis Leary or Sam Kinison, minus the shouting. He got his unusual moniker from riding a Harley-Davidson motorcycle with a suicide (hand) shifter. "I'm pushing this new name "Sillycide," said Mathieu. "We're trying to soften it up for marketability," he laughed, not at all happy about becoming politically correct. Like nearly all local comics, Mathieu, too, got his start at Comedy Cabana, although he took a unique approach. "I started heckling the headliner so badly they asked me back for amateur night." Mathieu will be the featured, middle act during Stand Up Carolina's opening week. He headlined two sold out shows at Tequila Mockingbird in February, which in no small part encouraged Martin to take a shot at opening a fulltime comedy club.

Mathieu finds inspiration from personal affronts. "I try to take things that aggravate me and make them funny - double standards, cops, racism." Jokes on his MySpace page give a hint as to his style. 'I love cats. Dogs are too

fucking needy. The Bible says that 65 billion people came from two. Incest obviously played a huge role in human development. That would explain why the Bible is so popular in the South.' Mathieu is working on making this comedy thing a fulltime gig. "I used to work at the Dog House, but this is all I do right now."

Comics such as Suicide Jimmy, and even bigger acts like Yohn, look for work in fulltime clubs, and part-time clubs, such as those offered by the Comedy Zone.

Bill Whitaker has been teaching golf at the Hilton Golf Academy at Arcadian Shores for almost 19 years, but his part time gig with the Comedy Zone, is probably more fun. "We do have fun," said Whitaker. "This will be our ninth year at the House of Blues." While some of the 72 Comedy Zones nationwide are freestanding clubs, a Comedy Zone is really wherever they've booked space. The concept is owned by Charlotte-based, comedy booking juggernaut, Heffron Talent International. Heffron is the agency where Carrot Top, James Gregory, Yohn, Gary Valentine ("King of Queens"), Chris Titus, Larry The Cable Guy, Killer Beaze, Martin, and a hundred other comics find work. The Comedy Zone opens its doors at 7 p.m. each Tuesday, throughout the summer, beginning June 2. The shows, featuring some of the same acts seen at Comedy Cabana, Carolina Bad Boy Comedy, and Stand Up Carolina, will take place in the House of Blues' Indigo Room. "We do five or six celebrity shows in the music hall throughout the year, as well," said Whitaker.

Whether it's the tough economy, worry about international political unrest, or just plain boredom, comedy is booming here, and around the nation. Area club owners and comedy producers know that people will shell out hard-earned bucks for a laugh, but can the Grand Strand support all this comedy? Those in the business certainly think so, and only time will tell who might be the last comic standing.

"Comedy is a very real job, and you can find success on many different levels, without being famous. It is a job, make no mistake about it," said Yohn.

http://www.thesunnews.com/2010/05/06/1458801/stand -up -scene -set -to -sizzle -on.html 5/21/2010