Submitted by Harlequin Productions
A Recent Resurgence of Laughter is Taking the City By Storm
From left: Robert Humes, Dave Beacham, Maggie Lofquist, Vanessa Postil, Christian Doyle, Mark Alford, Taylor Dow, Ryan Holmberg, Miguel Pineda, Lauren O’Neill, Chris Ode
The Washington state capital city is known across the country for its artistically inclined populace. From its progressive music scene to its imaginative hippie culture; from Burlesque shows downtown to guerrilla art pieces dotting paths throughout the surrounding Evergreen forests, Olympia has a reputation for its creative expression. However, a strong Comedy scene has not been a major part of the city’s identity in recent history. That’s changing. Comedy is beginning a new movement that is taking over Olympia’s stages, and conquering its funny bones.
Just a few years ago, there was a surprising lack of comedic outlets in this city known for embracing the arts. The student comedy group Generation Friends at the Evergreen State College developed a strategy for finding comedy open mics for practice: pooling their money to road trip to Tacoma. In 2010, a Generation Friends alum, Miguel Pineda, envisioned an Olympia that out-of-towners would want to drive to see its brilliant comedy. That’s why he started a standup comedy open mic at the Royal Lounge downtown. Wanting to aggressively grow his idea for a successful downtown comedy show, he enlisted the help of yet another former Generation Friends member, Morgan Picton.
“There wasn’t any standup going on when we started up the Royal show,” remembers Morgan. And so, the Royal Lounge found itself pioneering a new show. “We were really learning on the fly,” Morgan recalls. But with his help, the show began to grow and grow. “The open mic show got bigger and bigger. Initially I was surprised. Those first couple nights when people I didn’t know started coming to the show, I was like ‘Oh wow okay, uh…please have a seat!’ After a few weeks in a row like that, it was clear there was an unmet need.” Morgan wrapped it up saying, “The town wanted to laugh…it just needed to be put in front of them.” The public’s overwhelming approval of the show was made clear a year ago when the Royal’s comedy show won a Best of Olympia Award from the Weekly Volcano.
You can see the comics for yourself on Tuesday nights starting at 8:30 p.m. at the Royal Lounge on Capitol Way North downtown.
Several Olympia businesses took notice to the Royal’s demonstration of this unfilled niche. In just the past two years, comedy open mics have suddenly sprouted up at multiple downtown businesses including Al Fornos, Le Voyeur, and The Northern. It’s plain to see that there’s a sizable interest in comedy among Olympians, and the demand is just beginning to be satisfied.
Fools Play is an improv troupe that has called Olympia home since 1999. Recently, the troupe relocated from Mud Bay Coffee in west Olympia to the Olympia Family Theater play space downtown. It’s been several years since the troupe last based itself out of downtown, and the stronger comedy scene was noticeable right away. Fools Play’s Mike Harris noted the vibe downtown by saying “I know that the standup scene has really taken off in the last few years. In the past, I never associated Olympia with standup. It’s great to see that happening. Seeing more voices contribute to [Olympia comedy] makes it stronger. There was a long period of time in Olympia where it felt like if you weren’t doing comedy in Seattle it didn’t count. And I don’t feel that way about Olympia anymore.”
Fools Play’s triumphant return downtown has been yet another step in strengthening the downtown comedy scene. You can catch Fools Play performing their foolish brand of hilarity Saturdays at 8:00 PM at the Olympia Family Theater space on State AVE.
Miguel may have summed up the overall state of things best: “I think there’s always been this craving for comic relief. There’s always been really politically charged things going on in our community, and there’s nothing to polarize it like something simply really, really funny. I’m really looking forward to the next layer of growth in this movement. And it is a movement.”
There has been a major recent development in the Olympia comedy scene. Harlequin Productions has announced the creation of its improv troupe, named “Something Wicked.” Harlequin has been staging theatrical productions in Olympia since 1991, but has never ventured into comedy until now.
The troupe’s first-ever performance will be on February 12th at 8:00 PM at the State Theater downtown. The event is sponsored by KAOS Radio and will be a comedy festival featuring several guest improv troupes including Fools Play, Generation Friends, Oly Improv, and members of the largest and longest running improv theater in the Northwestern United States: Unexpected Productions. You can order tickets by calling 360-786-0151 or by visiting www.harlequinproductions.org.
Comedy is on the upswing in our state’s capital. Come join the fun!
