Chris: I used to organize stand-up open mic shows at The Londoner Sukhumvit, and over those three years I saw the tremendous growth of improv comedy in Bangkok. After the bar’s closure, I needed to find a new platform for the Bangkok comedy scene, and so the logical next step was to start a proper professional comedy club. I became the creative director for stand-up and Drew for improv of the Comedy Club Bangkok. 

 

Drew: Things have really started to build. We’ve also offered some stand-up comedy workshops to try to encourage more up-and-comers to give it a shot, and the results are great. The stand-up open mic nights we’re having now blow away the shows that used to happen at The Londoner. The audiences are loving it, too. The pros who come to town and perform love the space, the audience and the community. 

 

Drew: Our audience is also growing, with many new faces each week, as well as regulars. I think the audience is very pleasantly surprised with the level of skill and professionalism that they are seeing on stage. We have regular professionals coming through Bangkok, both stand-up and improv professionals, as well as skillful local talent.

 

Chris: February is the first month where we have added shows beyond our regular Friday night show, and you can look forward to more and more of that as the club develops, with the ultimate goal of having regular shows several nights a week… but that is a bit down the road.

 

Drew: We have presented many different formats, from one-on-one competitive improv, to team improv and game shows. Now we are focusing on the hardest, most rewarding, and down-right funniest form of improv, where we take a few audience suggestions and turn them into an entire show, with recurring characters, and interwoven storylines. We are also stepping into the world of comedic theatre, with a staged reading of the play Ardrake, which was all in blank verse--think Shakespeare. Later in the year will have some other theatrical presentations as well.