Mike Larsen 2nd Interview, Writer/Comic/Politician/Speech Writer - Show #273

Mike Larsen's career journey is a testament to his ability to navigate and excel across various writing genres, from stand-up comedy to television, and beyond. Starting at the age of 19, Larsen captivated audiences nationwide, eventually earning an Emmy nomination for his sharp writing on renowned shows like "Real Time with Bill Maher." His career took a unique turn as he transitioned into political speechwriting for Congresswoman Jackie Speier, demonstrating his adaptability and skill in different contexts. Throughout his diverse career, Larsen has underscored the importance of effective writing, mentorship, and the continuous creation of new material, particularly in the dynamic field of comedy.

(00:01:26) Evolution of Mike Larson's Versatile Comedy Career

(00:07:22) Crafting Diverse Content for Varied Mediums

(00:09:20) Guiding Emerging Comics for Comedy Evolution

(00:18:06) Crafting Versatile Writing Across Genres

(00:20:58) Crafting Surprise Endings through Stand-Up Comedy

(00:22:04) Success through Mentorship in Comedy Industry

Transcript

R. Scott Edwards: 0:04

This is another episode of Stand Up Comedy. Your host and emcee celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and emcee, Scott Edwards. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to the podcast. We have another amazing interview for you. I did get a chance to interview this young man previously. If you get a chance, go back and check it out because we got a little bit more in depth and how he got into comedy and all of his success. But this is an interesting case and I'm going to lay out the foundation of this conversation. But let's introduce him first. Ladies and gentlemen, the one and only stand up comic from the government, Mike Larson.

Mike Larsen: 0:57

Hey, Scott, good to be back with you.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:00

Oh man, it's so great to have you back on the show, but I had to reach out to you because you have gone through various. Well, let me explain to the audience and this will be the foundation of this conversation. So Mike Larson is a longtime stand up comic. Got his start in stand up comedy actually in government at age 19. Didn't you run for office in San Francisco?

Mike Larsen: 1:26

In San Bruno? Yeah, right at the city council.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:29

So a young kid interested in government at the age of 19 goes into stand up comedy. I don't know how that happens, but it did. But you had some success as a stand up comic. Were working my clubs and clubs all around the country. Then you kind of went into writing. You actually won an Emmy award for writing on Real Time with Bill Maher and you wrote for the.

Mike Larsen: 1:52

Well, on nomination. We didn't win because that was when Daily show was winning everything.

R. Scott Edwards: 1:57

Well, in my mind, being nominated is like winning.

Mike Larsen: 2:01

Oh, absolutely.

R. Scott Edwards: 2:02

Writing for Bill Maher and then you also wrote for the Ellen show and the Drew Carey Show. So you're a professional paid writer. Then you went back and you did a little bit more stand up comedy. Then you became a showrunner for the Disney Channel and did some work in television. Then you kind of did a little bit more standup comedy. Then you took this big left turn and became a government communications director for Congresswoman Jackie Speier. You were writing speeches for Democratic politicians and had this whole career in Washington D.C. going. And then what happened? You went back to stand up comedy and after that you, you started teaching at Ohio State and then again back into stand up comedy. Ladies and gentlemen, this guy's a little fickle when it comes to career lines, but I know all this because he just had a huge birthday bash where you had some great Comics, you all got together to celebrate your 65th birthday and had a big blowout on stage. Ladies and gentlemen, that is pretty exciting. Mike Larson, your roots always come back to stand up comedy. It's amazing.

Mike Larsen: 3:26

Well, and it's not so much a timeline as it's many things that all happen at once. You know, I never stopped doing comedy that you just. Your life sometimes gets too busy to do it. But to me, it's all the same. All of it was came down to the ability to write and write quickly and write in very short form, like jokes, which then led to speech. Writing led to other things. So, yeah, it's funny when other people come to my career and it's like, wow, it's so crazy. And you know, for me it's my. It's like, nah, it was just my life that was like taking advantage of what opportunity was there, you know?

R. Scott Edwards: 4:07

Well, I know, but that is actually such a truism that we think we have a path or a plan for our life and then things just happen. In my case as an entrepreneur, I call it, I had all these different chapters, all these different things. Right.

Mike Larsen: 4:24

You were a club owner and an insurance Salesman.

R. Scott Edwards: 4:27

Yeah. Just two of 20 companies. Yeah.

Mike Larsen: 4:30

And a restaurant. You owned a restaurant and you had a art store.

R. Scott Edwards: 4:34

Yeah, yeah. Did a lot of different things. So I'm as spastic as you when it comes to careers. But I think you make a good point that whether it's stand up comedy or writing speeches or doing writing for a television show like the Drew Carey show, it does come down to the writing and being able to be proficient and consistent in putting words on paper that not only work for you, the standup comedy, but you have the ability to write for others, which is not easy.

Mike Larsen: 5:08

Yeah. For whatever reason, my skill, my gift or whatever is not just that I'm funny, but I have a pretty good sense of what other people are going to find funny and how other people are funny. And so that has helped. You know, writing for television shows, you're always writing for other characters. You might write for a 6 year old girl and a 90 year old man in the same episode, you know, and so that, and obviously writing in speeches, you kind of have to, you know, get inside the head of the person you're writing for. But that's just something that always came, you know, naturally to me. And at some point I realized I was good at it. And I have been able to find people around the country who will pay.

R. Scott Edwards: 5:49

For it and thus make like, now.

Mike Larsen: 5:52

I'm in Ohio you know.

R. Scott Edwards: 5:54

Yeah, but what's interesting, and I want to dig just a little deeper, Mike, is that when you're writing for yourself, like stand up comedy bits and stuff like that, it's so easy because you know yourself, you know what message you're trying to get out. But I think I want my audience to understand the challenge of writing for other people. Whether it's a television character, a show host or a politician, you have to not only use your words, but you're kind of doing it through their vision, through their thinking process. Right. I mean, that's not easy. It makes you unique.

Mike Larsen: 6:34

Well, yeah, that's a skill of its own. But you know, in many ways writing for myself is the hardest. Writing, really. I just. Because I put so much on it and I. Oh, I would never say that. I don't think that writing for other people, you kind of offer up your best stuff and then they say yes or no and then you rewrite it, you know. So in many ways there's less pressure than when I'm writing stand up. It's like I'm the guy who's going to go up and bomb if this doesn't work or if it doesn't fit the rest of my act. And that's probably only because years into it now, I'm used to writing for other people, but I find writing for others kind of relaxing and fun because I don't make the final decision they do. I just make.

R. Scott Edwards: 7:22

Right. And you pointed out something interesting is that when you're writing for others, whether it's political speeches or television or whatever script, it's being written and rewritten and viewed by other people that give feedback and make adjustments. Whereas in stand up comedy, like you said, you put the words to paper, then you go out and you perform them on stage. And it's not until you get in front of a room full of strangers that you know if it's good or not or if it's going to work or not. In the case of your other writing, it goes through basically a filter that allows not only you, but the person you're writing for to hone it and take that lump of coal and make it into a diamond of a speech or a joke. I think that's an interesting process.

Mike Larsen: 8:14

Also stand up comedy jokes, I mean, that is the purest form of writing. It is as few words as possible, trying to get the biggest effect and the biggest surprise. That's all. I mean, a joke is a short story with a surprise ending. How can I surprise people in the fewest number of words and hopefully also maybe comment on society or something else. Whereas writing a speech or even a, you know, a television show, there's so much else going on in dialogue and you know, you're not. You have much more time to express your. What you want to get across joke writing in and of it is by itself just, you know, it's very, very difficult and technical to do it well repeatedly. You know, you see someone like, you mean any like, great comic who just has, you know, a hundred great jokes and it's like each of those jokes is just in a work of art to get it, you know, so.

R. Scott Edwards: 9:20

Well, take the perennial comics like Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno, who are richer than God and yet they love stand up comedy so much in writing so much, they're still out there sharing their material and still writing new stuff. But it is the cream of the crop. I mean, it is a tough road to hoe when it comes to writing consistently and keeping that writing funny to a room full of strangers. That, as you said, is quite a challenge.

Mike Larsen: 9:50

Yeah, it's why we do it, because it's hard. I mean, there's plenty of people who just kind of go on and are funny people and they go on and goof off and they can get laughs and that's fine, that's great. Good for them. But yeah, if you're, if you want to do it on the quality of your jokes, you know, there's a risk reward to each joke, which is kind of the whole point, you know, I'm very much a person who likes showing off my jokes, you know. You know, the show part is really just like, ooh, I can't wait to show them that thing I wrote today, you know?

R. Scott Edwards: 10:23

Well, when you were writing political speeches, though, it's not a joke fest. You have some serious material to get out and then you try to find ways to lighten it up or make it more engaging with the audience by adding a little humor. Did you find it was easier to write the funny part or is it difficult or easier to write the more serious part of a political speech?

Mike Larsen: 10:48

Well, most speeches are at events for specific organizations, so yeah. And now I write for what, my job at Ohio State. I'm a content director. I write speeches for the administration and I write all sorts of stuff for them. And sometimes there's humor, but very often there's not. But once you know how to manipulate someone's emotions with a joke. Right. And I don't mean manipulate in a bad way, but, you know, it's like a magic trick, right? I bet you didn't see that coming. You know, once you do that for comedy, you can do that for anything. For, you know, if you want people to be angry or to go to motivate them or to cry or, you know, it's kind of the, at least in my head, the way I write, it's kind of the same thing.

R. Scott Edwards: 11:44

It's interesting because you're making it very clear that professional writing is a real cross craft that has to be learned over time and developed and you've certainly done that. The other thing I thought was important that you said was that you have to write for the audience.

Mike Larsen: 12:02

Oh, definitely.

R. Scott Edwards: 12:03

In stand up comedy, you have a new room full of strangers each and every show and that presents a certain challenge. But in political speech writing, you know, ahead of time, who basically you're talking to usually.

Mike Larsen: 12:17

Yeah.

R. Scott Edwards: 12:18

So you have a chance to kind of write for that audience. And it's so funny because in show business, outside of writing, just in performing, one of the mainstays of stand up comedy is read the room, right?

Mike Larsen: 12:33

Oh yeah.

R. Scott Edwards: 12:33

If you have a room full of drunk construction workers, it's going to be a different audience and different material than if you're doing a church function or a normal, you know, eight o' clock Saturday night show. So reading the room, reading the audience and performing to that audience is so crucial in stand up comedy. But I think it's also interesting how you point out you want to write for a certain audience.

Mike Larsen: 12:59

Yeah, I know somebody actually pointed out to me, another comic who said that my real skill was reading a room that, that has transferred over politics is all reading the room or reading the electorate or whatever. But no, and it's not always, you know, it's pretty EAS to read the room if you're in a church or a biker bar. The more normal thing is Saturday night at Laughs Unlimited. And it's a, you know, 250 suburban middle class people, but they can be wildly different in what they want from the comic if they're, whether, whether they're going to accept political stuff, even if they disagree with it, or whether that's going to shut them down or, or if you say, you know, do they want, you know, blue humor or is that going to shut them down? You know, so yeah, it's always like, I think for me is when I walk into an audience that looks more or less like me and I'm like, all right, where are they going to go? It still doesn't tell me too much. You know.

R. Scott Edwards: 14:00

Right. And I think that. And I don't know if the audience knows, but a lot of comics will kind of throw out fishing lines and test the room if they can't tell by looking at them that you know what's going to work with a particular audience. Now, when you do political writing, and we want to reiterate, you were the communications director for a congresswoman, Jackie Speier, and you had a lot of success with that. That is really a whole different world than comedy clubs. Was that adjustment easy for you or a challenge? How did that really come about?

Mike Larsen: 14:38

Well, I had always. The thing is, I had always done both. I went to, you know, college for, you know, I studied poli sci, I was involved in. And at the same time I was doing open mics in San Francisco. And so it was always kind of one and the same. I'd known Jackie forever since I was in, pretty much in high school. So when, you know, I had kind of always kind of written for her on the side, if she was going to do something, she had great people working for her. But she'd say, hey, I'm going to do an event. I'd like to do something funny. What do you. You got an idea, you know, so.

R. Scott Edwards: 15:12

You were kind of the punch up guy. Yeah.

Mike Larsen: 15:14

You know, and I do that a lot. I. People call me a lot and say, hey, can you give us something here? And. And it's become not just comedy punch up. Very often. It's like I need to stir them up. I need to motivate them to go knock on doors or to. Or I want them to get mad and realize, you know, what's happening in the government, whatever it is. You know, honestly though, I say writing to me is a privilege. I love writing when anytime I'm actually writing in any job I have, I'm do. I'm thrilled. It's all the other part of all of these jobs that were the work for me. Calling clubs to get dates, you know, dealing with the actual politics of politics, you know.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:05

Okay, so, you know, like we've talked about on the podcast, the business, business of comedy from, you know, the business.

Mike Larsen: 16:11

Of everything is a pain in the ass. The writing is a privilege.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:17

You know, it's so interesting.

Mike Larsen: 16:18

There's a great writer named Matt Berry who was also a great comedian from Denver. I don't know if he ever knew Matt. Very successful writer, but he told me on my first writing job that writers write for free. They pay us to rewrite. And I really like that.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:34

Yeah, that's because the rewrite is a.

Mike Larsen: 16:36

Pain in the ass, but the writing is one. It's like, what a privilege. I get to write for a living.

R. Scott Edwards: 16:44

Well, your brain works differently. Some people love getting on stage and performing. Others appreciate and understand the importance of writing. Other people are good at the business part. I guess. For me, as a business entrepreneur, I thrive on the business part. But I would couldn't write my way out of a paper bag. So everybody's got this different talents, and you really used yours for a life full of success. So congratulations on that. Now, I picked up from the conversation, you're not actually teaching at Ohio State. You're supporting the administration with writing.

Mike Larsen: 17:25

Yeah, I have. They hired me actually as a speechwriter last year and then made me director of content for their advancement department, which is, you know, handles fundraising and all that. But, you know, Ohio State is enormous. So this advancement department is a very. Is many people doing many different jobs. And so I'm still kind of learning. I'm loving it, though. I've never worked in academia, and I find people who work in college environments are just very cool, smart, positive people. So I'm loving that.

R. Scott Edwards: 18:06

Well, it sounds like it brings a whole different challenge to your gift of writing. You had the comedy section, you got the political section, and now you're writing for academia, which the biggest, the hardest thing there, Mike. And I'm sure you're learning this is they use big words.

Mike Larsen: 18:30

I don't. I have a San Francisco State education.

R. Scott Edwards: 18:33

We use the basic words that probably will make you more successful. But I was going to. I haven't said it much on the podcast, but my son Bobby literally just got his PhD at the University of San Diego. And one of the interesting things in what. It's a really niche, it's basically history, but he has a special niche in the culture of American Indian language and culture. And because I'm a supportive father, I read his dissertation and I was constantly looking up words, and I never even went to college. So to have a son get a PhD and he's now teaching. Yeah, he just had his first teaching gig at UC Irvine doing right now. But anyway, I only brought that up because academia is a different beast than politics and comedy. And I think it's fascinating and also for you, probably a positive challenge to start writing in this direction.

Mike Larsen: 19:41

Yeah, no, I love it.

R. Scott Edwards: 19:42

What a great opportunity.

Mike Larsen: 19:43

It's all. Honestly, though, really in my head, it's all the same. And writing is a constant hustle. You know, one of the things that stand up taught me was you Know, you're always looking for work. You know, you get a gig, if you're lucky, you get a five day gig. That's like a long run in comedy, you know. You know, for me, it's all the same skill, but I love it. And I here in Columbus, which has like a really kind of hot, burgeoning comedy scene, it's also allowed me to get, do a, get a lot of stage time and work with a bunch of young comics and kind of be part of a scene again, which is awesome. I'm just loving that part of my life.

R. Scott Edwards: 20:25

And that's a perfect segue into. My next question was that you've kept your toes in stand up comedy throughout your life, and it's really been kind of the thread that pulled all these different careers and writing challenges together. But your most recent was a big birthday bash where you were kind of the host comic and brought in some of your friends in comedy. How much stage time are you getting and are you finding the audiences different from when you were young or is the writing changing? What's happening with you in comedy?

Mike Larsen: 20:58

From my own, just from my own personal level, I'm enjoying it more than I ever have and mostly because the only reason to do it now is for the love of comedy. There is no, you know, back when I was working Laughs Unlimited, we were all on our way up, you know, I was trying to get to that writing job that I got a few years later, you know, but it was always proving yourself, doing better, who's in the audience. And now no one's discovering me. I'm doing it purely for the joy of doing it. There's hardly any money in it, so I love it. I try to, I try to get up at least once a week and I usually, I probably have two or three, like bigger shows a month, you know, where I'm doing half hour, 45 minutes at different clubs around here. So I love it. And I have a kind of a gang of comics in their 20s and 30s who I've gotten to know who, you know, I'm happy to share what, you know, what I've learned and kind of help people with how to write jokes and that sort of thing.

R. Scott Edwards: 22:04

So you've become the experienced mentor. And I totally agree with you that one of the advantages of getting older and being successful in life is that at our age, the pressure of putting food on the table or finding that next gig has been lifted a bit. And now we can work, as I mentioned earlier, like Jerry Seinfeld and Jay Leno. We can work for the joy of what we're doing.

Mike Larsen: 22:31

And.

R. Scott Edwards: 22:31

And that's kind of, I guess, the reward of a successful life. So congratulations on that. And are you being prolific in your comedy writing? I mean, I know I said many times that comics need to write material and then work it over and over and over to get it perfect. But because you like writing, do you mix it up or you have a set?

Mike Larsen: 22:57

Well, but, you know. Well, it's changed a lot. The Scott we back in, in, you know, the last unlimited days, you would. It would not be strange for you to book a comic and then book the same comic, you know, three years later and they're doing 90% the same act. You know, I mean, hell, we knew people who never changed their 45.

R. Scott Edwards: 23:18

You know, Denny Johnston.

Mike Larsen: 23:22

Right, right. Or. Yeah. And they were great acts. No slam on them at all. I'm thinking of like, Great Scott, the, the magician.

R. Scott Edwards: 23:31

Yeah.

Mike Larsen: 23:31

You know, you could. I could, I could recite his act by memory, you know, but he was great. You know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. But now, because so much comedy is posted online and because like when people do Netflix specials like a bargazzi, there is a new hour every year. The expectation now is to be doing more material, which is great. So at any given time, you know, say I did, I think 35 on Sunday night for my birthday show. I bet 25 of it has, is from the last six months. You know, there are some golden oldies in there that I love and that work, and so I keep them, but for the most part, it's pretty. All pretty new stuff, which is what I love about it. I mean, I really, in many ways doing. When I'm on stage, it's like I've set up my little table at the craft fair and selling my ashtrays that I made. Here's a joke I thought of yesterday. I hope you like it.

R. Scott Edwards: 24:36

Well, that's a great analogy, Mike. And I think you bring up something kind of important and it just leads. I just have a couple more questions. Part of comedy is that when you do do something on tv, it's considered burned material. So you spend three or four years putting together a set. If you do it on TV once or twice, even though the audiences wouldn't mind seeing it live, you do kind of consider it burned material. But relating that to your political writing, each and every speech that you write is kind of a one off. Right. I know that a lot of politicians will repeat a theme in their speeches, but would you say that politics versus stand up comedy, which burns material faster.

Mike Larsen: 25:25

Well, yeah, everything's more original in writing speeches that are not, you know, whether it's political stuff. I've written more TED talks than I can even think of. Written a lot of TED talks on a lot of different subjects for people and, you know, depends on who they are. Some people, like academics, they tend to repeat their stuff because it's what they believe. This is their theory of this or whatever. And that's what most of it is. And so maybe the intro's different and maybe there's a story in the middle that's different, whereas other people want to do a whole new idea every time they get up and speak. Jackie Speier was challenging to write for, but wonderful to write for because one, she is a master communicator. And so whatever you write for her just comes off so much smarter when she does it, you know. But she wanted things to be different. All everyone. I said that last time there, you know, there could be one person in the audience who saw me last month. Let's not give them the same thing, you know.

R. Scott Edwards: 26:33

Wow. Yeah, that's. That does add a challenge. Well, thanks for answering that. So you've had this really successful career in and out of politics, this thread of comedy, stand up comedy throughout. Now working with Ohio State, you've had a really successful career. So congratulations on that. But Mike Larson, what's next? Is anything planned, any projects, anything you're looking forward to in 2026?

Mike Larsen: 27:02

No more and better comedy. You know what? The festivals thing is new. I'm doing a bunch of comedy festivals this summer.

R. Scott Edwards: 27:10

Oh, cool.

Mike Larsen: 27:12

And I've done a couple in the past, but I've never really gotten into it. And so I stay, I do stand up and then they usually ask me to be on a panel to talk about comedy writing or something. You know, I get to hang out with, you know, and meet young comics. So I'm really looking into, looking forward to that and really trying to. One thing that happened, and you know this from comedy, being in Ohio these last few years, a lot of my act is about Ohio. And I've got to remind myself I'm going to be in North Carolina in a couple of months. I got to start working on more evergreen jokes that are not dependent on local information. So I'm kind of working and kind of exploring new things that I want to talk about.

R. Scott Edwards: 27:57

That's good. That just adds that additional challenge, as you explained in this podcast interview. You enjoy that. Well, congratulations, Mike. You're becoming a Stand up comedy mentor. You're continuing your writing skills. The people of Ohio State and the comedy clubs in Ohio are getting a good taste of Mike Larson. I'm excited for your festival work. I think that sounds great. And the fact that you've done writing for politics and TED talks and academia, you've had such this wealth of opportunity that you took advantage of and made into an amazing career. Thank you so much for sharing all that information with my audience.

Mike Larsen: 28:40

Thank you, Scott. And I also have to thank you for, I mean, you gave me a ton of work as a comic, starting as an opening act, all the way up to headliner. And, you know, people don't realize how important. Just those stringing those steady gigs together that keep you in the business long enough so that good things can happen, you know, so you were maybe more weeks than anyone between, you know, your other clubs. So thank you. You had a very big part in my success.

R. Scott Edwards: 29:15

Well, you're welcome. And of course, I was taking full advantage of your talent. So as a producer, that's my job. Well, Mike Larson, continued success in Ohio and again, thank you for sharing some of your life with my audience. Ladies and gentlemen, we'll be back next week with some great stand up comedy. But we want to thank the very successful and professional writer and stand up comic Mike Larson for being on the show. Thanks, Mike.

Mike Larsen: 29:44

Thank you, Scott.

R. Scott Edwards: 29:46

Wow, that was a great interview with a very successful standup comic and writer, Mike Larson. But let's hear a little bit of his stand up comedy right now.

Mike Larsen: 29:55

Driving here tonight. Great news item on the radio. A kid in Texas this week got drunk, climbed up on top of a big tank of gasoline and looked inside and it was dark. So he lit his lighter. The newsman called it a tragic death. That's not tragic. If he lived and reproduced, that would be tragic. Tired of making excuses for stupid people. But a year ago, a guy in Tennessee was shot and killed while robbing a gun store. This diabolical genius had attempted to rob the gun store at knife point. Now I'm amazed the gun store owner could stop laughing long enough to shoot the gun. I suppose it shouldn't be making fun of him. He was trying to improve his lot in life. Using a knife to get a gun. Trying to picture him earlier that day outside the cutlery store with a big dirt clod. It was almost an extra. My own stiff. And he just tonight coming to the show. I just bought these cowboy boots. I've never owned cowboy boots before and.

R. Scott Edwards: 31:23

Oh, well, thank you.

Mike Larsen: 31:24

It was a good choice. Then. I never owned them before.

R. Scott Edwards: 31:27

I was trying to cross Alameda here.

Mike Larsen: 31:29

In front of the studio. Got about two lanes into traffic when I found out that you can't run in cowboy booths. I think that's why cowboys fight. Running away is not an option. I bought these. I was in Fresno, California for the California Raisin Growers Convention. Oh, raisin lovers. All right. It was a lot of fun. I. I don't know if it's just raising farmers that are so nice or everyone in the greater rotted fruit industry, but boy, what a blast I had, man. A great raisins, of course. Very important crop. I don't think I need to tell you, without raisins, gingerbread men couldn't see. I know what you're saying. Sure, you could use prunes, but then they'd always love real surprise.

R. Scott Edwards: 32:38

Ladies and gentlemen, we'll see you next week. Bye. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy. Your host and mc. For information on the show, merchandise and our sponsors or to send comments to Scott, visit our website at www.standupyourhost nmc.com. look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of stand up comedy. Visit a comedy showroom near.