Doug Hecox: D.C. market back from the dead

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on September 8th, 2005

Washington D.C.? It’s 2-1/2 from Philly, just down the road from Balitmore and just about a 3-hour drive from NYC, if you don’t hit any of that monster traffic. (Or, if we’re talking 1987, it’s a short hop on a shuttle into Washington National!) So why isn’t it a standup powerhouse?

Our man in Washington, Doug Hecox, says D.C. and surrounding area is actually on the comeback as a hub for standup and a haven for comics.

Eight years ago, the comedy landscape in Washington was flat. The legendary Comedy Café had just closed, and returned to its former life as a nude bar. A couple of Headliners rooms finding temporary refuge in Holiday Inn bars in Alexandria, VA, and Bethesda, MD, did only modest business and are no longer around. Despite a mammoth population boom in the Nation’s capital, the DC Improv was the only room for miles around. One could easily count the number of local comedians on two hands.

It is a different DC today. The city still has the “takes-itself-too-seriously” vibe, but there are more local comedians than ever before in the Washington-Baltimore area and a surfeit of comedy rooms– ranging from open-mic shows to showrooms like the DC Improv and, up until September 1, the Baltimore Improv.

To bolster his contentions, he interviews three D.C.-area comedians, Ryan Conner, Danny Rouhier and Chris White. Check out the entire column by clicking here.

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