Are You Kidding?

Feb. 8, 2015

Traverse City’s Comedy Community Comes Together

Not long ago, if northern Michiganders were looking for laughs on stage they’d have to visit Grand Rapids, Detroit or Chicago. Not anymore.

Local improv group Good On Paper offers workshops in on-the-spot performance and two standup comedy promoters, Falling Down Stairs and Rotten Cherries, run open mic nights that give would-be wags a chance to test their stuff. Now, locals can watch comics take to the stages around town several nights each month.

DIDN’T REALLY GEL WELL

Four years ago, Dave Basey nearly died in a car crash. During the months he spent recovering, he decided he wanted to change his life.

The Benzie Central graduate wanted a comedy career. The problem was there was no place to try out.

He joined a talent show. He hung out at Turtle Creek Casino when touring standups performed to hound them for advice. He drove to comedy open mic nights in Grand Rapids. He even tried musical open mics in Traverse City.

"There were a few places that I just decided that I wouldn’t go back to, like the Hayloft Inn, you know – country western, senior citizens and my comedy didn’t jive," he said. "It didn’t really gel well anywhere, but I just kept doing it. Even though I would get a few laughs, it wouldn’t be so awesome."

Basey resolved to create something in Traverse City. "I was spending tons of money driving down to Grand Rapids thinking, "˜Man, I’ve got to get something up here,’" he said. "I did a lot of searching, talked to a lot of bars, and InsideOut Gallery finally said yes."

InsideOut is where Basey hosts Rotten Cherries comedy open mics the first and fourth Monday of each month, and it’s also where he’ll be hosting the Traverse City Winter Comedy Arts Festival open mic nights at 7pm the Friday and Saturday of the Festival.

THAT PLACE CALLED THE OTHER PLACE

InsideOut Gallery is also the home of the improv group Good On Paper. They perform here the second Saturday of each month and will also be featured Comedy Fest performers at 9:30pm on the Saturday of the festival.

Good On Paper founding member David Avis said he’s glad to see a developing comedy scene.

"It’s exciting that it’s grown up like that. It used to be that all I knew when I was growing up was the Other Place. That place called the Other Place was the place you could get standup on Fridays and Saturdays. And that’s really all we knew," Avis said. "To go from that to this – even though that place isn’t there anymore – I know four or five, six venues now that are regularly hosting comedy."

Michael Libby, another Good On Paper performer, believes the comedy scene will continue to develop and create new fans and performers.

"The folk music scene, it’s slowly grown and grown and grown, and I think it’s the same thing with comedy. The comedy came in small and now it’s getting bigger and bigger and more people are trying to find different things," Libby said. "Even Hear:Say (also held at InsideOut), where you hear people tell stories, they’re trying to be like The Moth, they’re trying to find people that are coming up with interesting stories or funny stories. I think it’s trying to spread out into different areas."

EARLIER SHOWS WITH BOOZE

Good On Paper changed venues last year and the move enabled them to play earlier and have bar service.

"I think the biggest part of changing to this venue was the time change," Good On Paper member Bryan Boettcher said. "At the Old Town Playhouse, we had to wait until that Saturday show was over. With this, you can start your night with an awesome comedy show and go out after that."

It’s natural for Good On Paper members to finish each other’s sentences. They’ve been at it for a long time. Avis alone has been doing improv for 15 years. He was a member of a local improv group that began in 2001 after a Second City touring company offered an improv workshop.

"That’s how it started with me. My wife said, "˜Hey, let’s go see a Second City show’ and I was kind of aware of them. I mean, I was aware enough to know what they did," he said. "And I was like, "˜Wow, that is like magic. I could never do anything like that."

I WOULD NEVER HAVE THOUGHT

People often ask to become members of Good On Paper.

"I make them tell me 10 jokes," Avis said.

"No, I don’t. It’s actually pretty easy because we’ve kind of determined that six is the number that works the best for us, so unless somebody leaves, there isn’t really a place for new people."

Good On Paper also offers workshops for people who want to try improv. Libby, who studied improv in Chicago, said he was delighted to discover that a group like Good On Paper existed when he arrived.

"I moved here and there was no scene that I knew of," Libby said. "I’d been interested in doing this for years. I’d done it in the past. And then auditions came up and I was like, "˜Oh my gosh, this is what I would really be interested in doing.’" Libby said the flourishing comedy scene is just one surprise he’s experienced since moving to northern Michigan.

"I never thought there’d be a film festival up here. I never thought there’d be a standup scene here. I never thought there’d be a comedy festival," Libby said. "You know, there’s so much that happened since I moved up in 2006 that I would have never have thought if I moved to this place in northern Michigan that there’d be all this here."

FROM SKETCHES TO STANDUP

David Graves’ group Falling Down Stairs Productions used to film their sketches to put on YouTube. The focus of the group has since changed to standup.

"I got dared. A guy who is now my good friend"¦he was hosting a show in December of 2012 at Mt. Holiday Ski Resort. He’s like, "˜I heard some of you guys at Falling Down Stairs are funny. If you’re really funny, come do standup,’" Graves said.

Graves described the experience as nervewracking and fun. "It was a really great day for northern Michigan comedy," Graves said. "That kind of really was the catalyst to where I wanted to keep putting on shows, which eventually led Dave [Basey] to Rotten Cherries. It was really good."

Falling Down Stairs now hosts regular standup nights at Studio Anatomy, a small club in the basement of Front Street Commons.

Graves loves the thrill of watching people try standup for the first time.

"It’s really cool watching these first-timers go," Graves said. "Because they have such gusto and such passion. It’s fun because I remember my first laugh on stage and seeing them react the same way when they get their first laugh on stage – it’s great."

LIKE BOB HOPE

Graves has taken his act on the road, staging shows in Gaylord, Northport and Petoskey, but local comedy sometimes hits speed bumps as it travels around northern Michigan.

Graves said he’s had great experiences in Gaylord, but other times he’s been invited by groups that perhaps didn’t understand what they were getting into.

"Petoskey was painful. We were at this little venue that looked like it was in a church basement," Graves said. "We get there, and the center of the audience is just like 65-year-old to 70-year-old women and they’re stone-cold judging everybody who hits the stage."

Another time, Graves said he had to turn down an offer to stage a show in Ludington.

"The guy’s like, "˜OK, we need you guys to do a clean show.’ I’m like, "˜Alright, great,’" Graves said. "And then a couple days later, he’s like, "˜I need you to put on a clean show, but I need you to do it like Bob Hope would.’ I’m like, "˜What do you mean?’ And he’s like, "˜You know, like Bob Hope. Like, tell jokes like Bob Hope would tell jokes.’ I’m like, "˜OK, we’re not doing this anymore.’"

IF IT DIES, IT DIES

Avis, Basey and Graves all happen to share a first name. They call themselves the Daves of comedy.

The Daves say they’re not exactly sure where this local comedy scene is going.

Avis said he’s seen too many surprising things to make a prediction.

"Where this is going to go, or where Traverse City’s going to be in a couple of years, it’s hard to say because so many of the things that have happened just in the last five, 10 years, I never would have predicted," Avis said.

Graves is optimistic. "I can see us doing two shows a month – one show where we introduce people who are doing it for the first time and one show where we have people who have been doing it for a year or so," he said. "I can see us eventually getting close to something like a Grand Rapids. I mean, it’s not going to be in the next year or two, or maybe not even five."

Basey plans to move to Grand Rapids this summer to further his comedy career. He said he hopes the open mic he started will be carried on by someone else.

"I would like to hand off the reigns to someone else," Basey said. "I think I have a talent in this. I think I have a future in comedy and I have to pursue it. I’d love for somebody to take it over, but you know, if it dies, it dies."