Small, mighty and booming: These are only a few adjectives that describe the Sacramento stand-up comedy scene, which has been supplying laughter to our area since the early 1980s.
Things inevitably change over time. And when looking over the last 10 years, one who is nosey cannot help but wonder, what is going on behind the iron curtain that is Sacramento’s standup comedy scene?
Sacramento is a beautiful city for comedy because its, “Diversity bleeds comedy,” says local comedian Dejan Tyler, who has been performing stand-up comedy for 18 years. “The best comedy comes from experiencing different things. … Our comedy is relatable because our audience is everybody.”
But it still takes hard work and effort for show lineups to be as diverse as its audience. And too often venues do not pick local comedians for their shows. “I don’t understand how you can be biased towards your own people,” says Ben Rice, who is a comedian, booker and podcaster.
Getting booked on shows and making money as a comedian has also changed a lot since the pandemic. Before COVID comedians would be driving all over just to be seen and heard — hoping that a booker might see them. But now with the power of social media, if a comedian has a high social media following and can guarantee x amount of tickets to be sold by their followers, it’s easier to jump through all those hoops. It’s a numbers game, not always a funny game.
Unfortunately, this can also mean, “Comedy is pretty homogenized for a general audience,” says Rice.
Regina Givens is a Sacramento-based comedian who has been commanding the stage for 13 years. “A lot of promoters still think they need a man to close out a show. It’s a little sexist,” Givens says, “So, I started reaching out to diverse clubs where I headline. And you know what, they aren’t sexist over there.”
Givens says women and the LQBTQ+ community have given her a lot of support.
To this day, women are still outnumbered by men in standup comedy with about 11% women and 89% men in the industry, according to Zippia.
Despite the challenges that women are up against in the world of stand-up comedy, Sacramento comedian Kristen Frisk feels like the space for women has become more progressive in the 22 years of her career in standup comedy.
“When I was 24, I was nothing but tits and ass … and I was told if I went on stage, the audience would lose all respect for me.” Frisk went on to joke, “I have cleavage when I wear a turtleneck. I’m sorry!”
Being a part of Sacramento’s comedy scene means comics are either workshopping their jokes at open mics or testing them out in life, like Frisk who says she has a different approach when testing out material, preferring to try out comedy on the people she encounters in daily life. “I’m a mom,” she says. “I go to grocery stores, PTA meetings and dance mom clubs.”
While others may go to open mics at venues like The Touch of Class, which was established in 1979, some frequented Luna’s Café, which was established in 1983. These are two of the oldest rooms for artists of all genres to entertain Sacramento residents.
In Sacramento comedy, these rooms have been the pillars of the scene. With Touch of Class being a Black room known for having a tough audience and Luna’s Café for its white middle-aged hipsters. But on Aug, 3 Luna’s Café closed its doors and turned into a piano bar.
To say goodbye, Luna’s Cafe hosted a farewell show on July 15, where Kiry Shabazz dropped in to do a surprise set, during which he shared stories of his experience there over the years and how he, “Always thought of Luna’s Café as the white Touch of Class.”
