Back in the mid-80’s, the Male Half was unparalleled among his peers when it came to predicting a downturn in the comedy business. He couldn’t imagine that Big Comedy could sustain the growth he saw around him, the expansion that enabled him to leave his day job and travel the country as a full-time comedian. Somewhere around 1990 or so, he took his eye off the ball and stopped predicting doom and even allowed for a bit of optimism.

Then, in 1993, the business collapsed.

This posting is not meant to get into the reasons, the theories, the details. This posting is to talk about the present and about the current health of live standup.

It’s good. In fact, we’re going to risk angering the Irony Gods and say that it is quite possibly nearly as strong as it’s been since just before the bust.

Some folks out there are saying quite the opposite– we’re seeing clubs closing right and left, they say. While that may be true– we have heard of clubs closing in at least three four cities– we hasten to point out that, in all but one case, the reasons for closing do not indicate that the business in general is in any peril or that the general business climate in those markets is somehow responsible for the shuttering of the clubs in question.

To put it another way: Some folks see a club close in their market (or in another market) and they conclude that the biz is sick, the Second Great Comedy Bust is nigh. What they ignore is that, in many cases, the club has foundered because of crucial errors made on the part of the owners. Or personal problems were a major factor (if not the only factor) in the dissolution of the enterprise. Or specific, isolated business matters, wholly unrelated to the economy at large, were in play. In these cases, the closure is in no way indicative of an industry-wide downturn.

We’ve cited recent newspaper articles that talk of new clubs opening with savvy game plans or old clubs being revitalized with new blood and enthusiasm. A reader sent us word of an article entitled “Northwest Comedians Are In Good Humor Now That Comedy Clubs Are Making A Comeback” in the Horizon Air inflight magazine. Sure, we hear about clubs that open and close in the space of six months, but we take each case individually and we try to discern exactly what occurred.

We have vowed to never again to make blanket statements based on vague feelings or assumptions. We monitor all facets of the business and keep our eyes and ears open. We’ve paid close attention for coming up on nine years, and we’ve been very optimistic for four or five years now.

And when we say that comedy is on the upswing, we have not arrived at the conclusion haphazardly.

None of this is license for club owners to slack off, to cease spending money on advertising or to sever the deal with the local radio station. And we’re not telling part-time comedians that they should quit the day job, or that full-timers should relax– it has always been our policy that comedians should try to develop as many different revenue streams as possible. But we are saying that folks should question any sweeping proclamation on the state of the business and subject it to a fair amount of scrutiny.