Boston comedy scene exploding

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on December 24th, 2009

Is that an accurate summary of the article by Nick Zaino in the Globe?

Well, it’s much closer to the truth than that which is offered by Bill Blumenreich. The owner of the Wilbur Theatre has a habit of saying ghastly things about the competition. We suspect he attended the Vince McMahon School of Business.

Bill Blumenreich, Comedy Connection owner, says the club scene is over and the only way to make a profit now is with big names, which is his specialty. With the revenue from his new liquor license, he lined up an impressive roster of national acts at the theater, including Rob Schneider, Sinbad, Richard Lewis, Eddie Griffin, Pauly Shore, and Damon Wayans.

“They’re going to all fail,” Blumenreich says of the clubs. “The day of Boston comedians selling tickets have come and gone. These guys are very funny guys, and they have absolutely no ticket-selling ability.”

We posted about an ’08 Globe article, which quoted Blumenreich just after he finished sinking millions of dollars into the renovation of the Connection’s new home at the Wilbur, he said:

“I love the Boston comics,” says Blumenreich, “but the day of Boston people flocking to see local comedians has come and gone. You can’t squeeze blood out of a stone.”

Blumenreich’s pronouncements have all the subtlety of a Mike Tyson press conference. Does this goofy shit work on anyone? Are Globe readers/standup comedy fans going to heed Blumenreich’s silly predictions and spend their comedy dollars accordingly? Are the other club owners supposed to be quaking in their boots?

Actually, any first year psychology student might conclude that Blumenreich is terrified that he’s made a horrendous error. His fear drives him to desperate denunciations of his competitors and of the comedians that toil in “lesser venues.”

If the quotes that follow his are any indication, his terror campaign isn’t working. And, with the exception of Comedy Vault owner Dick Doherty– who refers to Don Gavin, Mike Donovan, and Frank Santorelli as “dinosaurs”– they all seem to have their heads screwed on straight.

Zaino wonders if all the clubs can survive. No such question is ever asked about Boston’s rock venues. Their music venues come and go. Large venues exist alongside tiny ones. Gargantuan venues like the TD Garden stoke the city’s affection for arena acts and whet their appetite for music of all kinds… which appear at The Paradise and at The Roxy and in small niche spaces.

They can survive with a combination of luck and savvy and marketing and a combination of up and coming local acts, mid-level out-of-towners and good, solid comedians– what Doherty might call “dinosaurs” (That there is some sharp marketing on Doherty’s part!). And if, in nine months, the majority of the clubs are still open for business, we should see an article on how the Boston comedy scene is exploding. But we are not holding our breath.

All this hand-wringing and trash-talking is unseemly.

We’ll see for ourselves– we’ll be appearing at Mottley’s Jan. 22-23. From what we can gather, it seems as though Boston is regaining some of the strength and stature that it had when we were semi-regulars there in the late-80s/early 90s. Stay tuned.