This weekend I get to perform at my home club in Wausau WI. I’ve performed many times at the Koo Coo’s Nest but has always been in a hosting capacity or with my improv group. But this weekend is different as I get to feature at my home club.
When I first started doing comedy in Wausau it was done in a small bar room inside of a Best Western. It wasn’t the greatest room but it was a place that had comedy. I started doing guest sets there and quickly started hosting shows regularly.
It was what I looked forward to the most every week. Trying to perfect the jokes I had performed and writing new ones to add to my set. Knowing that the room was booked by an agency I always wondered if I should try and submit to them so that I could potentially get more work. But I kept seeing comedians that were really, really good; so that made me want to get really, really good before I submitted.
Soon the comedy room in Wausau switched and it went to new owners and they moved it to a new hotel in Wausau. The guys that ran it I knew really well and I kept doing guest sets and kept hosting shows on a regular basis. It was at this time I started to get more work around the state and started doing more hosting gigs at Skyline Comedy down the road.
After two years the hotel didn’t want comedy anymore so my friends lost their room and comedy moved to another hotel and under a new owner. So once again I had to earn the trust of another group of people so that I could have a place to perform.
This room didn’t do as well. I remember being furious at the city of Wausau because they had a unique thing to do every Friday night but no one wanted to see it.
Luckily, my friends had an opportunity to open a free standing comedy club. They no longer would be at the whim of a hotel. Things started slowly but things started to build and get better and better. I hosted open mics, I started an improv group there and now I get to perform there as a feature act through the agency that I was at one point too afraid to submit to.
The people who have made the club what it is have put in a lot of time and effort to make it the best place in Wausau for entertainment. They took a bar that was very notorious for being shady and turned it to something great. It is truly the hidden gem of Wausau and I can’t wait for this weekend.