Seriously funny people
Audiences can’t seem to get enough of Rip City, the Saturday Night Live-inspired sketch comedy show which is selling out faster with each announcement. The longest-running improv show in town at Theatre 99 continues to be a reliable source of joy for locals and tourists alike, with more students than ever enrolling in its improv training program. Stand-up comedians, once frustrated by the lack of shows around town, have curated their own events, and now, there’s a local comedy show to attend most nights.
Charleston comedians agree that the comedy scene here tends to ebb and flow, but right now, it’s having an undeniably exciting moment.
Rip City, the SNL of Charleston
Curated by comedy duo Nameless Numberhead, aka Henry Riggs and Maari Suorsa, the Rip City comedy shows are different each time, with hilarious group sketches, wacky video shorts, performance art and more. After a three-year hiatus from live performances, Rip City made its return to the stage last November.
Husband and wife team Riggs and Suorsa bring Rip City to various venues about once a month including Hed Hi Studio, LO-Fi Brewing and Silver Hill Studios, where they’ll perform May 27.
Every couple of months, Rip City also presents a special show, most recently Rip City on a Boat. Riggs and Suorsa revealed they’ll take over the Terrace Theater in August with Rip City at the Movies, a collection of short live sketches, screenings of music videos and more.
There’s a core cast of performers, including Lindsay Collins, Camille Lowman, Andy Livengood and others, plus special guests like local musicians who want to try out their silly side on the Rip City stage or a sketch group looking to perform. Riggs and Suorsa make sure to let their audience know at the end of each show that they’re always welcoming new talent and open to hearing pitches for performances.
“The people I want to be on stage are the people who feel drawn to do it,” Suorsa said. “We think everybody has a funny sense to them, and we’re truly trying to break down those barriers of entry. You don’t have to label yourself as a comedian, but you can participate in something that’s fun and maybe not something that you normally do. … It pushes artists to think more openly about their mediums.”
Recent graduates of the Charleston of Charleston (CofC) comedy club made their live sketch debuts at Rip City on a Boat, Riggs and Suorsa said. They’re working with the CofC comedy club to create a pathway for new performers to get their sea legs.
“A bunch of new sketch groups have been forming,” Riggs said. “It’s a cool time for sketch comedy right now.”
Riggs, a Charleston native, theorizes this is in part due to a change of attitude towards local art post-pandemic.
“The mentality is shifting,” he said. “Instead of being maybe jealous or wanting bigger markets, like New York, Chicago, other cities, there is this new sense of gratitude towards what we do have, I think because we got it taken away for three years.
“In the ‘before times,’ Rip City was super underground,” he said. “It felt like nobody knew about it; we were frustrated that we couldn’t share our joy for it. We changed our mentality coming into it this time around where we just want to show people that we really like to do this. And we’re getting that feedback from people. They can see that we have a blast.”
Besides making their shows funnier and more strange each time, Riggs and Suorsa said their goal is to eventually open a permanent space which will have classes, performances and more.
“We want to create a space in Charleston for this weirder side of variety and comedy where mediums blend together,” Riggs said. “Where studio artists meet musicians, meet comedians, meet actors, meet dancers, and it’s this space for local creatives to share and collaborate and enjoy each other’s work.”
Theatre 99, space to learn and love improv
Local legends Brandy Sullivan and Greg Tavares are the artistic directors of Charleston’s longest running improv theater, Theatre 99 located above the Bicycle Shoppe on Meeting Street. They’ve performed together as The Have Nots since 1995 and opened Theatre 99 in 2001 with Timmy Finch.
This hotspot allows locals and visitors to enjoy short- and long-form improv using audience suggestions to create scenes on the spot with a talented crew of improvisers.
The performances start with a show of hands, ‘who’s been here before?’ and usually, it’s about half and half. Sullivan said people who’ve been to the show often come back and introduce friends and family to Theatre 99.
Tavares added, “You can bring your 80-year-old grandma, and she’s gonna love it.
“What’s amazing is that over time we’ve built an improv comedy theater for regular people to go see live comedy, instead of seeing a comedy movie that night,” Tavares said. “We’ve created this one little place in America perhaps, where going to an improv comedy show is as normal as going to the movies. And that’s not the way this industry typically works — improv lives in the back alley or it’s like an alternative thing.”
During the pandemic, Sullivan and Tavares worked hard to keep the theater afloat and said pushing through the “dark times” has further solidified their passion. They’re focusing on in-house programming post-pandemic with three shows a week.
“Night in and night out, we focus on getting our wonderful local homegrown performers on our stage. And Brandy and I are 99% of the time up there, too,” Tavares said.
Sullivan said many local comics have taken improv classes at Theater 99, and more students are signing up now than ever before.
“We’ve always had a strong training program,” Sullivan said. “I don’t know if it’s a post-pandemic thing, but people are right now really, really interested in taking it. We’re up to eight faculty members now because of the demand for classes.”
Sullivan and Tavares even teach their improv skills to people in other fields — recently they taught improv to the hotel staff at The Vendue to promote skills in quick thinking and entertainment.
The pair has witnessed nearly 30 years of ebbs and flows of comedy in Charleston, but Tavares said it feels like a golden era right now.
“It’s blossoming into its next phase I’d say, because there’s stuff going on at different places all over town, and that just has not always been the case. For the first time in all the time we’ve been here, there are so many more people doing it,” Tavares said. “I’m super curious to see how that will invigorate, innovate, bring new energy and new ideas to improvisation in Charleston.”
Stand-up comedians curate shows around town
Another comedy discipline is on the rise in Charleston: stand-up. The only full-time stand-up comedy venue in town The Sparrow in Park Circle offers comedy about three times a week. The shows have been curated by North Charleston-based comedian Josh Bates since 2020.
“We have been doing comedy three to four nights a week for almost three years now, and it was kind of a best-kept secret for a while,” Bates said. “Now it’s getting a lot more attention. At least once a month we have someone perform who’s a regular at the Comedy Cellar in New York. Our performers range from really top-notch touring talent and our local talent to people doing a paid show for the very first time.
“You know, five, six years ago when I was getting into comedy, we didn’t have a proper comedy club,” he said. “And now we do.”
Bates invites local comics on the stage at The Sparrow. Some of them get the itch to follow his example and produce their own comedy shows.
One of those comics is Hagan Ragland, a stand-up comedian with 10 years of experience under his belt. In October he started hosting Hagan’s Big Fat Comedy Show at the Lucky Luchador on Hanover Street. He started out with booking purely local comics, and now seven shows later is also booking touring comedians from surrounding cities. He said he hopes to bring his “big fat comedy show” to other venues in the future.
“I like doing the dirty, late-night, raucous crowd stuff,” Ragland said. “And they’ve been just more and more packed each time. I’m just trying to focus on bringing more stand-up comedy to different venues in downtown Charleston.”
Charleston City Paper’s 2023 Best Comedian, Laura Dixon said though comedy can be a male-dominated scene, Charleston’s comedy crew has no shortage of talented women. She shouted out Robin Phoenix, Erin Lok, Mona Bender, Paige Laidlaw and Shawna Jarret, the host of Tin Roof’s open mics, as some of her favorites.
“The best part of being a woman in this scene is definitely the camaraderie,” Dixon said. “We’re all friends. We build each other up. We all support one another.”
Catch a comedy show in Charleston this month
Jokes at Blokes hosted by Erin Lok May 12 at Two Blokes Brewing.
Mount Pleasant.
North Charleston Performing Arts Center and Coliseum hosts Chucktown Comedy Week May 17-21. Touring comedians include Nate Bargatze,
Tim Dillion, Druski, Shane Gillis,
Big Jay Oakerson and Nick Millen.
Hagan’s Big Fat Comedy Show at the Lucky Luchador. May 18. Downtown.
The Sparrow hosts Joseph Coker
and Company May 18, Dedrick Flynn
May 20, and Andie Main on May 27. North Charleston.
Theatre 99’s founding improv group The Have Nots will perform May 27. Downtown.
Rip City Chs at Silver Hill Studio May 27. Downtown.
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