Ridley celebrates three decades

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on February 16th, 2009

Check out the article in Crain’s Detroit Business by Julie Yolles marking the 30th anniversary of Mark Ridley as a comedy entrepreneur in the Detroit area.

“Mike Binder told me that I invented the three-comic format,” Ridley said. “He also gave me the idea of bringing in comics from out of state that whole first year, which really opened the doors for me in L.A. and New York.”

The successful three-comic format, which Ridley still uses, is a 15-minute time slot for the opening emcee, 20 minutes for the middle act, and the headliner fills the remaining time in the 90-minute show.

When Ridley opened the Comedy Castle, he estimates that it was only the fifth or sixth comedy club in the country.

(There follows a quote from SHECKYmagazine– an estimate on how many comedy clubs currently do business in America. We also heaped praise on Ridley, but the quotes never made it into the article. We suspect our testimony was dumped in favor of quotes from former hometown boy Dave Coulier.)

We worked at the Comedy Castle for the first time last winter. It is an exceptionally well-run room with delightful crowds. (And, of course, it all comes down from the top– Mark Ridley knows that happy comics make happy crowds, which, in turn, makes happy comics. It’s a simple, non-vicious cycle that Ridley is adept at perpetuating.)

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