A new comedy club in Burnsville? You must be joking.
Just a few years ago, you'd get laughed at just for saying a comedy club was opening anywhere in the Twin Cities area, let alone a suburb like Burnsville. After the comedy boom fizzled in the mid-1990s, Acme and a couple of other clubs were the only places left standing.
But even a depressed economy can't kill laughter, as the recent deluge of new comedy clubs will attest.
The newest -- the MinneHaHa Comedy Club -- opened in November in Burnsville. The club is in the lower level of a restaurant called Anthony's Parkway Grille, the former site of Benchwarmer Bob's (love that name). The intimate room features three shows every weekend (one on Friday, two on Saturday) and seats about 130 people.
"I think people south of the river haven't experienced much comedy other than what they see on TV," said owner Michael Orensteen. "It's not the same."
No, it definitely is not. Last Thursday, I trekked down Interstate 35W to check out MinneHaHa. The club hosted two sold-out shows by a quartet of American Indian comedians who call their show the Pow Wow Comedy Jam.
L.A.-based comic Marc Yaffee kicked off the show by saying: "We're gonna party like it's 1491."
The room was filled with residents of the southern suburbs, but the show also pulled people from "the cities," i.e. Minneapolis and St. Paul. The foursome tore the house down -- with people banging on tables and crying with laughter. Personally, my face hurt (from laughing). My favorite joke came from comedian Vaughn Eaglebear: