Wake Up With Joe Rogan Discussing the Glory Days of the Boston Comedy Scene

I heard this conversation between Joe Rogan and Boston stand up legend Don Gavin when it first aired last year. And I was thinking about it this weekend when I did my first club show since the shutdown. I’ve done parking lots under heated tents and brewery warehouse shows, but no actual clubs until now. And since we are now re-re-shut down effective today, whatever future shows we have are all in doubt at the moment. So it’s only natural I guess to look back with longing at the glory days of the great Boston comedy scene.

I broke in a couple of years after Rogan (who by then had already moved onto New York but still came back on occasion and I got to open for him a few times) so it was very much the same as he describes it. The city had no less than three clubs going seven nights a week. And several going 3-4 nights. Plus there were a couple others in Cambridge and the towns just north of the city like Giggles and the Kowloon in Saugus. If you were trying get experience and hoping to be seen and didn’t care about getting paid, you could find a stage every single night. And some guys would double up or even triple on a given night.

Also like they said, the headliners would host, which made it an incredible challenge for new comic. I heard Bill Burr describe it perfectly on Dennis Miller’s podcast the other day. The late, great Kevin Knox wouldn’t so much host as he would interrupt slaying the audience to give you five minutes and they’d be sitting there listening to you but just wanting him to come back out. It was insane but the best experience you could ever hope to find anywhere.

Those days are gone for good. Live stand up will never be. Let’s just hope when it does come back it comes all the way back. And soon. Though we’ll all always miss these old days.