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'I really do think comedy is essential': St. Augustine comedy club owner says crisis is no laughing matter to industry

Local club owner says works best in intimate venues, and capacity limits are crimping profitability even at clubs legally allowed to open.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla — It’s been nearly 23 weeks since Jackie Knight’s Comedy Club has hosted a show, and the venue’s namesake is discouraged.

“I really do think comedy is essential. People have got to laugh,” Knight said in an interview Thursday with First Coast News.

And in fact, Knight believes there’s nothing stopping her from legally opening the club, nestled inside The Corner Bar at 830 Anastasia Boulevard in St. Augustine. The club serves food along with beverages, a criterion that has allowed many restaurants to operate while bars remain closed during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People want to come out but they’re uncomfortable with coming out, so I could say ‘Yes I’m open,’ and have some of my loyal die-hards show up, but it’s a big guess,” Knight said.

The stakes of that guess are amplified, she said, because of the overhead – “I have my headliner, my opening act, my door girl, my seater, promo, my motel rooms for the comics,” she said, detailing her expenses.

All while comedy, she and others agree, is best served on a small platter.

“The comics like the intimacy of [a small venue],” Knight said. One of her longtime regular performers, Ron Feingold of Central Florida, reinforced that notion.

“I don’t think comedy works, really, on any other venue except in-person,” Feingold said in an online interview. Although he travels the country delivering laughs, he says he and many of his peers are sidelined and suffering financially.

“I’ve been unemployed and have not done a single comedy show since the end of February.”

In addition to his own website, Feingold helped initiate an online platform to help comedians by connecting them with their audiences, called Laugh Link.

But Knight affirmed that virtual connection can’t replace in-person performance.

“Doing comedy on Facebook or YouTube, it’s not the same,” she said.

Just one of the many typical venue opportunities cut off to standup comedians is the cruise industry.

“Of course the cruise ships aren’t running now,” Knight lamented on behalf of the many comedians she’s gotten to know in the business.

“These comics have become my family.”

On that note, Feingold said the feeling about Knight is mutual.

“She’s really a house mom to a lot of the comedians as well,” he said, explaining that Knight treats comics like people, not hired help.

But even a mother figure can’t weave together the immediacy upon which comedy thrives and the profitability that right now depends on larger space than many clubs can offer.

“I can seat 80,” Knight explained, “but when you social distance that and break that down at 50 percent, I don’t have enough clientele.”

She’s considered plastic partitions to help protect performers and audiences, or even taking the stage outdoors.

“If I could find an outdoor venue, I could attempt that. I don’t want to do it in this heat,” Knight said.

Knight’s landlord, Corner Bar owner Patrick Morrissey, agreed with all of her concerns.

“It wouldn’t be worth opening," Morrissey said. "We wouldn’t get enough patrons in here.”

Asked whether he thinks there’s a short-term solution, he said “At this point, no. Because they’ve tried to open bars and look what happens there,” referring to people ignoring advisories to social distance, crowding closely in drinking establishments.

On the one hand, Knight gave a glimmer that she remains optimistic: she continues to plan ahead.

“I keep [comedians] booked out," she said. "They’re booked until next January.”

But she remained frustrated, hinting at the adage that laughter is the best medicine.

“I think we all need comedy more than anything right now," Knight said.

Now, she said, that medicine and the people whose livelihoods rely on it … might depend on a vaccine for coronavirus before they can begin delivering it again.

“I’m ready and so are my comics," she said.

Click here to learn more about Jackie Knight’s Comedy Club in St. Augustine.

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