By This Is Topeka
There are some things happening in Topeka that everybody seems to know about.
And then there are the things you stumble into one Friday night and wonder:
How did I not know this was happening here?
TopCity Comedy might be one of them.
For roughly 15 years, local comedians, touring performers, first-timers with shaky hands and seasoned comics with hundreds of shows behind them have been getting on stages in Topeka and doing one of the hardest things you can ask somebody to do:
Make a room full of strangers laugh.
And behind a remarkable amount of it has been TopCity Comedy.
It Started With an Open Mic
TopCity Comedy traces its beginnings to 2011, when Vicki Trembly and Dan Shenck began building opportunities for stand-up comedy in Topeka.
Like a lot of great local institutions, it didn’t begin with a giant venue, corporate backing or some elaborate master plan.
It began with a microphone.
Early open mics gave Topekans a place to try comedy, sometimes for the very first time. Over the years, those stages moved through different venues, different formats and different eras of downtown Topeka.
But the basic idea survived:
Give funny people a place to be funny.
And something happened.
A comedy community grew around it.
Topeka Got Funny
That distinction matters.
There is a difference between occasionally having a comedian perform in your city and having a comedy scene.
A comedy scene means somebody can walk into a room with five minutes of material, bomb spectacularly, come back next week, get a little better, meet other comics, eventually feature for somebody, eventually headline—and maybe someday become the touring comedian another young comic is opening for.
TopCity helped create that ladder in Topeka.
Local performers have developed through its open mics and competitions. Touring comedians have stopped here. Audiences have learned that they don’t necessarily have to drive to Kansas City or Lawrence to see live stand-up.
And TopCity kept experimenting.
There have been showcases and comedy contests. There are traditional stand-up nights alongside concepts like TopCity Squares, a live comedy game show, and other interactive formats.
The organization has also taken comedy outside its regular venues, producing shows for businesses, organizations and special events.
That’s how scenes are built.
Not overnight.
One room at a time.
Friday Night in Downtown Topeka
Today, one of TopCity Comedy’s anchors is Friday Night Funnies at Cosmos Court, 909 S. Kansas Ave.
Every Friday night, the lights come on, somebody grabs a microphone and downtown Topeka gets a comedy club.
The lineup can combine local performers with comedians coming through from elsewhere.
And we think more people should know about it.
Actually, we’re going to help with that.
This Is Topeka × TopCity Comedy
We’re excited to announce that This Is Topeka is partnering with TopCity Comedy.
And we’re not interested in simply putting their logo somewhere and calling it good.
We’re going to cover them.
When an interesting comedian is coming to town, we want you to meet them.
When a local comic starts making noise, we want to tell you who they are.
When TopCity launches something strange, hilarious or completely unexpected, we want to show you.
We’ll preview shows, introduce performers, talk with the people behind the microphones and occasionally take you behind the scenes of the comedy community that has quietly been growing here for years.
But here’s the fun part: we want your help.
Want to Go See Comedy on Our Dime?
We’re serious.
If you’ve ever thought, I could probably write about a comedy show, here’s your chance to prove it.
This Is Topeka has tickets.
You bring the sense of humor.
We’re looking for people in the community who want to go see a TopCity Comedy show and tell the rest of Topeka about it afterward.
You don’t need to be a professional journalist. You don’t need a journalism degree. You don’t need to know what an Oxford comma is. Frankly, we’re not entirely convinced anybody knows what an Oxford comma is.
You just need to be curious, be able to tell a story and—this seems particularly important for this assignment—be funny.
Shoot us a line at [email protected].
Tell us who you are. Tell us why you want to go. Make us laugh.
If we like what we read, we’ll give you the tickets.
You go to the show.
Have a drink. Grab some food. Watch the comics. Pay attention to the room. Find out who absolutely killed, who surprised you and what it actually feels like to spend a Friday night at a comedy show in downtown Topeka.
Then come back and tell the rest of us about it.
And yes, we’ll publish it on This Is Topeka.
Think of it as community journalism with a two-drink minimum.
(Okay, we don’t actually require the two drinks.)
This Is What We’re Here For
Because part of what This Is Topeka is supposed to do is remind all of us that there is more happening in this city than we sometimes realize.
There are musicians playing in rooms you haven’t discovered yet.
Artists making things you’ve never seen.
Restaurants you still haven’t tried.
People starting businesses.
People putting on shows.
People creating things simply because they believe Topeka deserves to have them.
And every Friday night, there are people standing underneath stage lights trying to make this city laugh.
For 15 years, TopCity Comedy has been giving them a microphone.
Now we’re going to help make sure people hear about it.
And occasionally, we’re going to hand you the tickets and let you tell the story.
Welcome to the partnership, TopCity Comedy.
Let’s have some fun.
