Comedy Corner Underground closure sends UMN comics scrambling for new space

The loss of a long-standing comedy venue is no laughing matter to the University of Minnesota’s Comedy Club, which will soon be left without a home for its shows. 

Comedy Corner Underground, a snug and storied basement comedy venue, is set to close this month after 20 years of hosting open mic nights and comedy shows.

For students in the university’s comedy club, the closure is a loss of both a professional comedy stage and a connection to the wider comedy community.

“I mean that was kind of the whole point of the club — is that we had those shows,” said Hayden Lessiter, a member who said being able to do comedy in front of an audience is an important part of what the club offers.

Comedy Corner Underground has offered space for student comics for nearly 10 years, according to owner Bob Edwards. Shows have taken on many forms over the years, but most recently, student comics have performed on the third Thursday of the month during fall and spring semesters. 

“The goal has always been trying to find people who are really young who are super into stand-up and try to find a way to develop it,” Edwards said. “Let them have a space to figure out what their art is going to look like.”

Joshua Detloff, the club’s president, said sharing a stage with professional comedians makes the experience feel more official.

“It’s wonderful because on other nights there’s huge comedians performing, and then on our night we get to have our little thing,” Detloff said. “It’s really sad that it’s closing down. We’re going to miss the place.”

And no, Detloff can’t muster any jokes at this point about the club’s closing.

“There’s nothing funny about an important venue for local comedians and artistic talent closing down,” Detloff said, although he didn’t rule out the possibility that he might find a joke in it someday. Just not now.

Comedy Corner Underground announced it would be closing in a Facebook post on Aug. 7. The building was sold in July, and no new lease was offered to the Corner Bar, which hosts the venue in its basement. Michigan-based nonprofit Human Development Fund bought the building. 

Edwards is still exploring what the future holds for Comedy Corner Underground.

“I don’t know yet,” Edwards said. “I mean, technically, we’re not dead yet. I mean we are dead, we know the date we’re going to die.” 

The Comedy Corner Underground began in a cleared-out weight room in the basement of the Corner Bar in February 2005. Edwards left the military about six months later and discovered the venue when he came up from Omaha to do stand-up there.  In 2008, he moved to Minneapolis, met his wife, and began helping with operations. He eventually took over as its primary operator. 

The basement room, an intimate space for 65 people, has walls lined with hundreds of posters created by different artists promoting years of shows. The stage is equipped with professional sound equipment, lighting, and four cameras, which can record clips for comics to share to promote their work. 

Volunteers operate the sound and lights during the shows, as well as help with ticketing and assisting comics. Many also have day jobs, Edwards said. 

“We cover their parking, they get food, and all that kind of stuff,” Edwards said. “But in general, it is a room run by local comics for local comics.” 

Some student comics who performed stand-up at Comedy Corner Underground later went on to become professional comedians. Andy Erickson started her journey as a student comic and went on to compete on “Last Comic Standing” and act in “Scream Queens.” 

“Corner Bar was one of the first places I ever did comedy,” Erikson said, who said she was disappointed to hear the news of its closing. “It’s such a great place for people to perform. It’s just a big part of the comedy scene.” 

Comedy Corner will have its last show on Aug. 23. The venue will host Arman Shah with Cal Murata on Aug. 15 and 16 and the final two nights on Aug. 22 and 23 will have Jake Silberman with Zach Kagan and an open mic session starting at 10 p.m.. 

“The last show we will ever do here is going to be an open mic,” Edwards said. “It’s fitting because the first show we did was an open mic.” 

Edwards is also the founder of the 10,000 Laughs Comedy Festival, which began in 2011 with 64 tickets sold for the seven-day event at Comedy Corner Underground. This year’s festival, held at venues across Minneapolis, features Hannibal Buress and Leslie Jones. 

“This will be the first year 10,000 Laughs will run without the Comedy Corner,” Edwards said. “For me, as the owner and producer, it’s really sad, man.”

The university club’s president, Detloff, said the comedy club will have to search for a new venue to hold regular stand-up shows, but it will be hard to replace Comedy Corner Underground. 

“We’re looking for new venues, new places to perform,” Detloff said. “There are obviously other basement comedy venues, other ones that are attached to various businesses. There’s theaters. There’s stages.”

Detloff also said the club could explore using university venues and performance spaces such as the Weisman Art Museum and the Whole Music Club, where the club held events this past spring.

But the proximity and atmosphere of Comedy Corner Underground will be hard to beat, he said. And that’s no joke.

“It’s a lovely venue and it’s also one of the closer venues that was around,” Detloff said. “My gosh, I’m going to miss the place.”