Melissa Gans

Battle of the Bay Comedy Competiton 2011 Finals - Sat., Dec. 10th, 2pm, $20

Over 100 Bay Area comedians are competing for the coveted title of Winner of the Battle of the Bay Comedy Competition 2011 as well as a grand prize of $1,000 plus a paid weekend at the San Jose Improv! Don't miss this chance to have your voice heard!

SATURDAY, DEC. 10th, 2PM, $20
THE FINALS with headliner Kurtis Matthews and host Tom Anderson:
Kelly McCarron and Nato Green and Keon Polee
David Nguyen and Kyle McFadden and Matt Casey
Pete Munoz  and  Ken Townsend
Stephen Ku  and Justin Lucas

**Please note that the Improv is 21+ and has a two-item minimum (popcorn and drinks.)

San Jose Improv
62 S. Second Street
San Jose, CA 95113

High Street Comedy - The Island of Alameda

Your weekend: Tickling your funny bone

Submitted by Michele Ellson on 1, January 6, 2011 – 12:03

Alameda residents like to keep it local, and Melissa Gans is no exception. When she moved to the Island a few months back, she and boyfriend Tom Anderson decided to put together a show in town so they wouldn’t have to drive to San Francisco for stage time.

The result is High Street Comedy, which kicked off with shows in December and is happening each Tuesday night at High Street Station. The shows offer comedy club headliners from around the Bay Area – without the pricey comedy club experience, or the drive.

“We want to get everyone on the Island aware that they don’t have to cross a bridge to get good comedy,” Gans said during an interview this week.

The shows are hosted by Anderson, and this coming Tuesday’s headliner is Bay Area comedian Tom Smith. Upcoming shows will be headlined by Kevin Munroe (January 18) and Sal Calanni (January 25), both of whom appear regularly at San Francisco’s Punch Line comedy club.

Calanni and Smith teach at San Francisco Comedy College, where Gans serves as marketing coordinator. She helps organize shows at Castagnola’s and The Purple Onion in San Francisco for graduates of the college, and she said she’s thinking about organizing some here, too.

Gans said she chose High Street Station because the coffeehouse offers beer and wine, but is also open to all ages (as opposed to 21-and-over comedy clubs), so young adults can attend. (“We’ve had some high schoolers come by,” Gans said, though she said the shows are geared toward adults.) The shows also begin at a date-night-friendly 7:30 p.m., so parents can get home and relieve the babysitter before the witching hour.

The shows are wallet-friendly, too: Admission is on a sliding scale of $5-$15, and there’s no two-drink minimum.

High Street Station is at 1303 High Street.

Original link: http://www.theislandofalameda.com/2011/01/your-weekend-tickling-your-funny-bone/

Sat., Feb. 12th, 8pm, $15-$20: Big Wave of Comedy

Let the laughs wash over you in this hilarious stand-up comedy showcase in the biggest little city in the world!

Come laugh your head off at:
Headliner Reggie Steele, Comics Unleashed with Bryon Allen and Regular, The Punch Line. Reggie's natural and engaging style proved to be very popular among audiences and in 2003 he won the Rooster T. Feathers Amateur comedy competition, besting over a 100 Bay Area comedians.  Reggie shares his stories with great comedic physicality, wit, intelligence, and warmth which invites audiences to naturally connect with him.

  Host Tom Anderson, Pretty Funny TV, is a regular at Bay Area clubs, including the Purple Onion and Castagnola's, where he hosted and produced the weekend shows for many months. Currently, he co-produces High Street Comedy, a weekly showcase in Alameda and spends the rest of his time surfing.

Tom Smith, a Bay Area local favorite, was a semi-finalist in the Battle of the Bay comedy competition at the San Jose Improv and was named by the East Bay Express as the number one reason to visit their "Best Comedy Club in the East Bay."  He has appeared in clubs, bars and assorted peculiar venues from California to Dublin, Ireland.

Gretchen Noel, a Reno native, performs comedy all over the Bay Area and was featured in the OCD-ADD Comedy Show and the Left Coast Comedy Tour.

BUY TICKETS NOW!

High Street Comedy Tue at 7:30pm, $5-$15

We're delighted to announce a new stand-up comedy showcase on Tuesdays at 7:30pm in Alameda!

Alameda local Tom Anderson will host the 90-minute show that will feature some of the funniest people in the Bay Area at High Street Station Cafe, which is located at 1303 High Street (at Encinal) in Alameda. Drinks and food are available. Doors open at 7pm and the show will start at 7:30pm.  Cover $5-$15 sliding scale.
Dec. 21st line-up:
Headliner Joe Nguyen, Winner, Russian River Comedy Competition
Karen Smyth, Women Who Kick Comedy Butt Tour
Kelly McCarron, 5 Funny Females Tour
Edwin Li, Slanted Comedy Tour

BUY TICKETS NOW!

http://www.highstreetcomedy.com
Upcoming Headliners:
Jan. 4th: Ken Townsend, Regular, Rooster T. Feathers
Jan. 11th: Tom Smith, Regular, Bay Area clubs

7x7 Magazine's Best of San Francisco Nightlife

Best Cheap Laugh: SF Comedy College

Getting a pair of $12 cocktails forced on you is no laughing matter, and SF Comedy College is boldly speaking out against the two-drink minimum. Actually, they just never got themselves a liquor license, so all shows are BYOB and cost as little as $5 to get in the door—price of a 12-pack of PBR not included. 414 Mason St.

Best Place to Just Chill: San Francisco Magazine 2009

July 2009: San Francisco Magazine - Best of the Bay

Laugh yourself into oblivion
Sure, you can throw down serious cash at Cobb’s or the Punch Line to see the polished headliners from HBO and Comedy Central. But at indie comedy joint the Clubhouse, the laughter comes a lot cheaper—and it’s harder earned. The $5 weekday cover price ($12 on weekends, for tickets purchased online) and BYOB policy create a no-holds-barred atmosphere in which the best up-and-coming local comics can test new material and crack jokes that are too off-color for the mainstream. The buzz on the talent the Clubhouse draws—such as funnymen Ali Mafi and Nico Santos, who tour with the big leagues—has led to sold-out Friday and Saturday nights. 414 Mason St., S.F., 415-921-2051, clubhousecomedy.com

New Jew Revue

Holiday Hilarity!

The New Jew Revue

Sam Arno, Debbie Campo, Melissa Gans, Jerry Goldstone, Norm Goldblatt, Nato Green, Moshe Kasher, David Kleinberg and Alex Koll

Friday, December 15, 2006, Throckmorton Theatre  8:00pm, $20

Born hard-of-hearing and opinionated, Melissa Gans loves to share funny stories about her life to friends, family and most notably, people in elevators or the express line. Smart, passionate and often sarcastic, Melissa likes to play with words, beliefs, people and golden retrievers.  A Bay Area native, she?s hosted, produced and performed in several local comedy shows, including "Five Funny Females," "Comedy at Caffe Sapore" and "The Stand Up Project."  Trained at the San Francisco Comedy College, Melissa regularly appears at clubs, benefit shows, private parties and theaters around the Bay Area, including Cobb?s, the San Jose Improv and The Clubhouse. She's also performed at Gotham Comedy Club, Carolines, Laughs Unlimited and the Comedy Store. Currently, she's producing a new show called "Naked Comedy!," at The Clubhouse in San Francisco.

Comedians on Comedy: Maria Bamford, Brian Regan, Greg Giraldo and more!

07 - Guest Series 1: Greg Giraldo and Jesse Joyce

I've been producing this series for five years, showcasing some of our best comedic talents. Our most recent series featured popular comedian and everyone's favorite Target spokeswoman, Maria Bamford, (http://www.mariabamford.com in a rare and intimate question-and-answer session on Wednesday, July 21st from 5pm-6pm.

05 - Guest Series 1: Brian Regan

On Saturday, January 22nd,  the San Francisco Comedy College welcomed renowned comedian Brian Regan (http://www.brianregan.com) in a rare and intimate question-and-answer session. Held at the SFCC Clubhouse, this event marked the first installment of the SFCC’s new ”Comedians on Comedy” lecture series.

More than 40 comedians and fans came to hear Brian discuss his 24 years of working as a stand-up comedian. Attendees were rewarded with sage advice, autographs, photographs and lots of laughs.

Entertaining, stimulating and warm, Brian shared many hilarious moments throughout his career, from his worst experience with an insistent heckler to his first appearance on The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson. His very funny story seemed even more touching the next day with the news of Carson’s passing.

Stressing the importance of getting laughs unique to who you are, Brian encouraged new comedians to ”be yourself, be real and to let the audience like you.” Sound familiar?   

The SFCC thanks Brian for taking time out of his busy schedule and sharing his afternoon with us.  

On Sunday, June 3, 2007, the San Francisco Comedy College (SFCC) welcomed well-known comedian Greg Giraldo, of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and The Greg Giraldo Show, and Giraldo’s current feature act on his national tour, Jesse Joyce, of the Comedy Addiction Tour, in an entertaining and enlightening interview with SFCC CEO Kurtis Matthews, followed by a question-and-answer session with the audience. Held at the SFCC Clubhouse, this event was the latest in SFCC’s ongoing “Comedians on Comedy” series, which has previously featured such renowned comedians as Brian Regan, Alonzo Bodden, Maria Bamford and Chris Titus.

More than 25 comedians and fans came to hear Greg and Jesse share their stories about working on the road, the changes in the stand-up industry over the past two decades and the differences between the Los Angeles and New York City comedy scenes as well as their experiences juggling jobs, family and a personal life with the day-to-day reality of being a professional comedian.

Trained as a lawyer at Harvard, Greg started doing comedy after becoming bored at a low-level job at a law firm. Citing Dave Attell as one of his favorite comedians, Greg stressed the importance of being authentic and being honest on stage. Talking about whether it’s necessary to be clean on stage, Greg said, “Being clean will help you get more work, but if your style is naturally ‘dirty’…be yourself. If you’re looking to do television, you will need to be squeaky clean.” Jesse seconded this, adding that he advised people to be clean “until you get to a place where you can do anything you want.” 

 Jesse wanted to be a comedian from very early on and talked about a video of himself as a kid saying to the camera, “I want to tell jokes.”  An uncle who did stand-up for a short while was a great inspiration, so he started working on his act. Moving to New York City shortly after college and taking any job that he could quit at a moment’s notice to take advantage of any opportunity to do stand-up, Jesse was focused on doing as much as stand-up as possible.  “I knew that I had found my voice when I stopped talking about things that I thought were funny and started to make things that I wanted to talk about funny.” There was a very funny moment when in describing how hard and long the journey of doing stand-up is, Greg said, “then you (finally) get funny, then Dane Cook comes along…”, suggesting that Cook does not necessarily focus much on stand-up.

 Both Greg and Jesse described New York as the best place to develop as a comedian, as it is easy to get 4-5 sets a night, accelerating the process of becoming good whereas in Los Angeles or San Francisco, it might not be so easy to get more than one set. However, comedians who are also looking to become actors should move to Los Angeles as the focus is on stand-up as a stepping stone to movies and television. Both agreed that a move to Los Angeles or New York City is an inevitable part of making it as a comedian. “Have an ultimate goal.” Greg said. “Know what you want to do, as no one is waiting to tell you.”

The SFCC thanks Greg and Jesse for sharing their Sunday afternoon with us.

 

SF Gate/Chronicle!

Wow!

Read the full article from the June 19, 2005 SF Chronicle Datebook...or part of it below:

THE FUNNY BUSINESS ONSTAGE
- Delfin Vigil
Sunday, June 19, 2005
Kurtis Matthews does just about everything standing up.

Whether he's restocking soda and candy, putting up a poster of Lewis Black or adjusting a closed-circuit television, the guy behind San Francisco's Comedy College's Stand-Up Project has trouble sitting still.

The serious look ingrained on Matthews' face makes it clear that helping people be funny is no joke.

"This is a showroom for comedy -- not a toxic club," Matthews says, inspecting the new paint on the walls of the seventh floor of a Tenderloin building turned comedy club. "We're not here to get wasted. We're here to laugh and appreciate comedy as a pure form of art."

On Saturday nights Matthews and his comedy students convert their Mason Street classroom into the best comedy club in town -- where there is no two- drink minimum, no ID required and not even a cover charge.

"Part of the idea for the Stand-Up Project is to bring camaraderie back to the comedy community," Matthews says, standing next to a sign that reads "Over 1 Billion Jokes Told."

The evening begins with an open-mike hour at 6:30, which is when his "junior varsity" team -- beginning students from Matthews' satellite classes -- takes the stage. "The best of the varsity team starts at 8 p.m.," Matthews says.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
San Francisco Comedy College Stand-Up Project takes place at 7pm Saturdays at 414 Mason St. No. 705, San Francisco. Admission is free. For information on classes, call (415) 515-1098 or go to www.sfcomedycollege.com.

E-mail Delfin Vigil at dvigil@sfchronicle.com.

Come out, you guys... Seriously, it's a great show!