There's nothing more stereotypical of a comedy club than a brick wall.
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With its history stretching back to New York comedy club The Improv, the brick wall now goes hand in hand with stand up. So it seems only fitting that the Canberra Comedy Club's new location also fits in with this same brick wall tradition.
After 12 years of bringing laughter to Civic Pub (and a slight name), the Canberra Comedy Club will kick off its run upstairs at Verity Lane Market this week.
"The Civic Pub were renovating and repurposing their room, and it wasn't appropriate to continue comedy there so we parted ways," Canberra Comedy Club's David Graham says.
"And when it was out in the wild that we were looking around at other places, we received a lot of interest. A lot of people wanted a host us and Verity Lane was the best place. You need a few things for comedy. You need a stage, good sound, you need it to be dark, everyone pointing the same way, and booze. So it's great."
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The fact that Verity Lane's upstairs space sits on where Private Bin used to be - and that the nightclub itself hosted comedy nights in the 90s - is just the cherry on top, according to Graham.
The Canberra Comedy Club starts its run in the space on Wednesday, which is when they will also start running double headline shows. This week it features comics Chris Ryan and Ivan Aristeguieta.
"Ivan Aristeguieta is a Venezuelan guy who's immigrated, and he's on the up and up and has been on a lot of TV. And Chris is also on the up and up and she's worked hard to become a national comic," Graham says.
"I remember when I first did comedy, I entered Raw [Comedy competition] thinking I was going to do well, and it was Chris Ryan's first night of comedy and she absolutely destroyed. We still joke about how it showed that I'm better at running rooms than performing."
Graham says he also hopes that the regular gigs will show that comedy is well and truly back post-COVID.
When the pandemic hit, the comedy scene in Canberra was exploding. The Canberra Comedy Club's Civic Pub event had grown from a once-a-month event to almost a weekly one, and other stand-up nights had started to emerge. And while it slowed down due to restrictions, Graham says it's reaching that point again.
"Lots of places have popped up around the place - the Polish Club, Transit Bar and Gang Gang and Blackbird, and Smiths all have comedy nights," he says.
"There are lots of free or minimal pay rooms around, so the community is going quite well but we need to make sure that we have a premiere room to put on the best shows, which is where we come in.
"People want to go and have a night out and have a nice dinner and pay for the comedy ticket and watch the finished product and other people like to go for the hidden shows that are free or only five bucks, and you see the comedian working it out on stage."
Canberra Comedy Club is at Verity Lane on Wednesday at 7.30pm. The show will also be at Goulburn Club on Thursday at 7.30pm. Tickets from Trybooking.
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