Just in time for Tax Day, Splitsider ran an investigation into how mid-sized cities’ comedy scenes stay afloat in the face of “the LA Exodus.” It’s worth a read if you care about the answer to that question, or even if your knee-jerk response to it is, “Um… yeah?” The case study here is Denver’s comedy scene, with a focus on Adam Cayton-Holland in particular, who’s in the unusual position of heading to LA this summer to write and shoot his new show, Those Who Can’t, while officially remaining a resident of Colorado. It’s a highly specific situation, but the question of maintenance in the face of a shifting scene applies almost anywhere.
Cayton-Holland, who will be performing at this year’s Bridgetown Comedy Fest, describes the Denver shake-ups largely as a good thing—much like a forest fire makes way for new growth, it’s a chance to make room for on-the-cusp stand-ups to step into the spotlight (I AM PARAPHRASING HERE). This is also true of almost any type of arts community in any mid-sized city. Or, okay, a city that isn’t New York or LA. Even when I lived in Chicago, every artist and writer I knew was mulling over moving to NYC to be closer to larger publishing and visual arts scenes. In recent years, though, it seems arts communities in smaller cities—or, let’s be real, cities that are not NY/LA—are increasingly self-sustaining. When N+1 published MFA Vs. NYC last year, they set up a false dichotomy: For most artists, it’s less The Academy Vs. Monolithic City of Culture, and more like Wherever You Live Vs. NYC/LA—and it’s increasingly not even much of a debate.
The same goes applies to that question: “Can a mid-sized city’s thriving comedy scene survive the LA Exodus?” Because yes, it probably can. Case in point? Here’s the Portland mention you knew was coming, pulled from comedy show producer Samantha Pitchel, who’s quoted as saying, “Within the past few Portland has lost Ian Karmel and Ron Funches, who both immediately got jobs on TV when they got to LA. These things tend to go in cycles. Comedy scenes tend to have a class of people who come up at the same time, and when one of them leaves they tend to all go together.”
This is only a problem if the scene goes stagnant. And if you’ve gone to any of this city’s open mics, you know that we do not want for fresh comedy blood.