Open mike bedrock of Acme

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on April 12th, 2007

Tom Horgan, writing last month in The Minneapolis Star-Turbine, says that much of the Acme Comedy Co.’s success is due to owner Louis Lee’s cultivation of local talent through the club’s open mike night.

Life is good at Acme. Its open-mike night has become the bedrock of the club, cultivating local talent and consistently making Monday the busiest night of the week.

Any club that devotes anything less than full attention to its open mike is flirting with disaster. It is the lifeblood of any club (outside of NYC or LA) and, in many cases, it can be an exciting evening that serves as “intake,” not just for comedians, but for potential weekend customers.

The article contains neat factoids about Acme- particluarly interesting is that it was a quarter of a million in the hole after the first couple years of operation.

We haven’t performed at the Acme since late 1992… perhaps we’re too heavily associated with the red ink. We swear– it was none of our doing. If anything, we helped to staunch the flow of the red stuff, as we got ink (aka “The Black Stuff”) in the local papers whenever we appeared! In fact, on the occasion of his last Acme appearance, the Male Half was on television twice in one day— on Star Search and Comedy On The Road– leading to a nice hit in the MS-T.)

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