Though Toledo has seen no shortage of comedians in the past several years, the same cannot be said for its club scene. Connxtions, which operated for years, closed in December of 2013, and Laffs Inc. closed in January of this year, less than two years after its March 2014 opening. Now, Toledo’s only comedy club isn’t actually in Toledo— it’s in Perrysburg.
Location ain’t no joke
Comics from the area all have their theories as to what actually has caused clubs to fail. According to Mike Szar and Anthony Martinez— co-hosts of Sukit Hookah’s tightly packed open mic— both Connxtions and Laffs suffered from their location.
“Connxtions [location] was just bad,” Szar said. “The sign is right next to the entrance of the bowling alley [next door], and you couldn’t get to Connxtions through that [entrance].”
Next to the bowling alley on Heatherdowns Boulevard is a mini-golf course, which the old club was wedged behind. Its sign still stands and the building looks like it could still be in operation, if it weren’t for the boarded up doorway.
Even so, the club was still drawing in decent crowds. Szar and fellow Toledo comic, Reese Leonard, both said the shutdown of the club was abrupt. It seemed to be a case of the owner, Frank Stevens, just not caring after a decades-long career.
The Laffs stop being heard
Laffs Inc. also had location problems with the entrance facing the parking lot behind the building. Szar also pointed out that Laffs Inc. opened at the worst possible time: the summer.
“There’s this old thing in comedy where during the summer, [the scene is] notorious for dying down,” he said.
Conventional wisdom says most businesses don’t make a profit in the first one or two years of business, and opening at such a slow time of the year helped founder the club. This was compounded by the constant stress of booking new talent, as reported by former Operations Manager Dave Strouse.
“No matter how well we did the one week, we had to start from scratch the next week,” he said.
Part of this work included advertising, which Strouse said they poured at least two hundred thousand dollars into during the two years they were open. Despite it being their biggest operating cost, Strouse said it simply wasn’t enough. The people the ads brought in didn’t help keep the club above water; they needed about double what they had.
Why the Funny Bone still stands
It seems the Funny Bone has weathered the storm by being able to book big names. “The Perrysburg location belongs to a chain and has corporate backing, which makes it a hotspot for booking agencies,” said Dominic Baker, a regular comic at the club who often helps manager, Nadia Castilleja, with operations.
“Those other clubs get the B-names that are equally, if not more, funny than most of the celebrities you would come to see,” Baker said. “People pay to see celebrities. They don’t pay to see people that they don’t know.”
Strouse agreed, saying people weren’t comfortable paying to see a name they didn’t know.
The Funny Bone is a trusted brand, and it’ll likely take another chain or a lot of industry know-how to succeed as a Toledo comedy club.
Sukit Hookah, 1919 Monroe St. 419-725-0850. Sukithookahs.com
Funny Bone Comedy Club, 6140 Levis Commons Blvd., Perrysburg. 419-931-3474. Toledo.funnybone.com
