This weekend brings the first full-time comedy club ever in Montgomery County, Maryland.
The Give a Hoot Comedy Club opens this Friday on Shady Grove Road, as the brainchild of longtime stand-up comedians and philanthropists Irwin Weinstein and Ken Watter.
“Ken and I have been friends for probably 15 years,” Weinstein told WTOP. “We started doing open-mic comedy together. Somewhere in the last seven or eight years, we kept toying with the idea of opening a comedy club … it was much more of a challenge than we thought it would be finding a venue that was open to having a comedy club inside.”
Ultimately, they found La Mexicana Restaurant as an eager and excited host, allowing folks to order their favorite Mexican dishes before enjoying a night of belly laughs.
“They have a really nice private room that they let us have and they have a full menu,” Watter said. “They are as into the concept as we are. They are really excited about having us.”
The grand opening festivities kick off with a special ribbon-cutting at 3 p.m., followed by comedian Chris Coccia performing standup sets on Friday and Saturday nights.
Other upcoming comedians include John Knight on Jan. 27-28, Moody McCarthy on Feb. 3-4, Howard “G” Gaskins of the “Kiss My Bumper” commercials on Feb. 10-11, Jay Black on Feb. 17-18, Kevin Lee on Feb. 24-25, and Rahmein Mostafavi on March 3-4.
“We came up with the idea that when we open a comedy club … we wanted it to give back to the community … the idea being that each show each weekend we would donate part of our proceeds to local Montgomery County nonprofits,” Weinstein said.
Half of this week’s proceeds will benefit Comfort Cases, while next week will benefit Stepping Stones Shelter, and the following week will benefit A Wider Circle.
Listen to our full conversation here.
