Your weekend: Tickling your funny bone
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/
