Good for a Laugh
Check out live comedy for hilarious night out
If you’re always on the lookout for things to do in Wilmington, it’s likely you have been hearing more and more about improv and open mic comedy, stand-up comedy, and even live sitcoms.
Comedy is blowing up in the Port City, and if you’re looking for a good laugh, your options are expanding.
Nutt Street Comedy Room, in the basement of The Soapbox at 255 North Front Street, has been operating as a comedy club for more than three years.
“I’ve tried to let the place evolve into what it wants to be,” says manager Timmy Sherrill, who has tried hosting live music at the venue to bring people in. “It just wants to be a full-time comedy club.”
Nutt Street is currently open Wednesday through Saturday nights, although the goal is to eventually host some sort of creative show seven days a week.
“What makes a place like this stand out,” says local comedian John Gray, “is the chance to be creative.”
Nutt Street brings in national acts on weekends. Comedians well known from HBO, Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing, and late-night talk shows bring their varying comic styles to the venue.
The doors open at seven, and by seven thirty, the place starts filling up.
“We’re at capacity every night,” says Sherrill.
The crowd is diverse. The theater-style seats ringing the stage fill, and just after eight, the lights go down.
An emcee warms up the crowd and introduces the local comedians who perform before the national act. A show of hands reveals that the crowd is split about fifty-fifty between first timers and people who have been to a show at Nutt Street before.
On this night, Gray’s hilarious set on his obsession with body hair removal is followed by Cliff Cash’s politically-charged humor.
Cash humorously shushes a talking audience member at one point; a few moments later, when she is still talking, he rails into her, challenging her to stand on stage and make people laugh while he sits in the audience and chats with his friends about his work day. The audience howls. It is one of the high points of the night.
Mack Lindsay, the main act, comes out swinging with some borderline offensive jokes – not exactly typical of Nutt Street’s comedians. He starts to lose the crowd at one point when he makes a few cracks about people who join the military, but he manages to reel us back in, and has the room on his side when his set ends.
Wednesday is improv night, which offers audience members an unscripted, interactive experience for only $2. Thursdays at Nutt Street are free open mic nights – an excellent opportunity to check out local talent. Beginning this month, Nutt Street will start screening television’s Saturday Night Live at the venue, with performers signing up to do short sets during commercial breaks.
For other comedy options, check out the schedule at Orton’s, 133 North Front Street. The live sitcom It’s All Relative is showing Wednesday nights through March 13. Also, Wilmington’s own comedy theater troupe Pineapple-Shaped Lamps performs regularly at The Browncoat Pub & Theatre, 111 Grace Street, and other local venues.
To view more of photographer Bryce Lafoon’s work, go to www.brycelafoonphotography.com.
