By C. Darren Thompson
Special to the AFRO
“You are so funny, have you ever thought about doing standup?”
A simple question, yet one many comedians often credit as their impetus for beginning a career in comedy.
For Anthony Oakes, a standup comedian living in Washington, D.C.’s Ward 7 and host of Seven Black Minutes at Busboys and Poets, it was a sign. Ten years ago while working at a hair salon, Oakes heard this question from two different clients, and one recommended that he enroll in a comedy workshop. His boss overheard the conversation and told him that he could get the day off to attend.
“When I got up there and told my first joke…it was like an epiphany,” he said, relating his first showcase to an out-of-body experience.
For aspiring comedians living east of the Anacostia, breaking into comedy can be difficult to do. Roughly 200,000 people live in Wards 7 and 8, but there are currently only three venues to watch, learn or perform comedy — and they are all within a four-block radius of each other in the Anacostia neighborhood. Anacostia Arts Center and Busboys and Poets have open mic nights hosted by DJ ART.is, where comedians, poets and other performers can get stage time. Busboys and Poets also plays host to Oakes’ Seven Black Minutes, and for those interested in learning improv comedy, Washington Improv Theater (WIT) offers free improv classes to D.C. residents living east of the Anacostia at Project Create. (Disclosure: The author is a teacher and board member at Washington Improv Theater.)
Haywood Turnipseed Jr., a standup comedian living in Ward 8, had moved around a lot growing up, but decided to call the District area home after leaving the Air Force. As a child who used humor to break the ice, he said when he and his wife, who were living in Maryland at the time, got to Congress Heights, “It was a different vibe, it was home.”
Seventeen years ago, while going through his self-described quarter-life crisis, he passed a bar in Dupont Circle offering a chance to tell a joke and win $25. “This is something they write movies about!” he recalled thinking, so he gave it a try. He proceeds to name others there telling jokes who he did not know at the time but are prominent in the comedy community: Jermaine Fowler, Tim Miller and Aparna Nancherla.
Living in the Maryland suburbs trying to break into comedy, “Most of the shows were in Adams Morgan, because that’s where places were open every day,” Turnipseed said.
He recalled that early on, people thought he was a Baltimore comic because he found the trip there often easier than getting to Northwest D.C.
“D.C. was such a tight-knit comedy community at that time,” he said, recounting that many of those comics lived near the open mics around Adams Morgan and Columbia Heights.
Lori Pitts, a Ward 7 resident and improvisor on the WIT all-female identifying ensemble, Hellcat, the artistic director of Ally Theater Company and founder of Voices Unbarred, said to open up art and performance opportunities in different parts of the District requires easy access to transportation. She has lived in every quadrant of the city since moving here after college, but said most arts opportunities are in Northwest D.C.
“Now that I’m farther, I am more dependent on my car,” she said. But, when living in Northwest, she could take a scooter to improv practices and shows if she didn’t feel like driving. While the cost to rent a space to perform is a major factor for many artists, Pitts said when considering arts spaces for her work she looks for Metro accessibility and easy parking, but also places people “know about and want to come.” Art needs an audience, after all.
Art also affects the communities it lives in. From empowering young people to take ownership of their communities to revitalizing cities, art gives people something to see and somewhere to be. Comedy, specifically, can serve as a way to unwind during stressful times. With over 200 comics having done specials for Netflix and 60 percent of their subscribers having watched at least one comedy special, it seems clear that given the current climate people need to laugh. Which raises the question: Do the communities living east of the Anacostia River not want the same?
Seven Black Minutes often sells out. Comedian Tommy Taylor Jr., host of Almost Ladies Night at The Wharf, started hosting comedy shows in his backyard in Congress Heights during the Covid-19 pandemic, appropriately titled Backyard Vibes, after many comedy venues had shut down. The Backyard Vibes show is currently being held every third Thursday at Saint-Ex on 14th Street NW, but the goal of Taylor’s show, “is to continue and expand upon this concept of creating comedy shows in unconventional open-air locations AND remain close to underrepresented communities.”
WIT also is showing success at Project Create, having graduated two classes through their curriculum. Two of those graduates now participate in their Harold training program and perform on Mondays at Studio Theater as part of Harold Night.
If there is a demand for comedy from the community and a desire for opportunities for the comics, why aren’t there more comedy venues east of the Anacostia? The answer is lack of infrastructure and development.
Following the Green Line out from Anacostia station towards the border station at Southern Avenue, there aren’t many commercial corridors that would create the type of foot traffic that is helpful for open mics and free shows. THEARC has a theater space, but it’s fairly large and not ideal for a smaller showcase. There seems to be high expectations for comedy and art with the redevelopment happening at the former St. Elizabeth’s campus, so Ward 8 still has hope for another commercial corridor.
But what about Ward 7, which doesn’t have a designated arts district to help its comedy scene? The Highland Community Entertainment Hall, the Chateau Remix and the recently opened The Strand all feel like the kind of places comedy could happen, but none have consistent foot traffic or easy Metro access, and only The Strand has dedicated parking. There were hopes in the community about a possible recreation/civic center at the old Fletcher Johnson school site with 20,000 square feet of retail, which could have anchored an arts destination, but the most recent designs only call for a free-standing emergency room. With the Giant supermarket pulling out of the development at Capitol Gateway, that leaves Minnesota Avenue N.E. corridor as a viable option for comedy in Ward 7, and with a single very small restaurant, that too seems unlikely.
Meanwhile, Adams Morgan has been home to so many open mics that Hotbed opened as a comedy club on 18th Street, and the 14th and U Street Corridor and Columbia Heights continue to be regular haunts for comics looking for stage time. Even Cleveland Park now has a popular open mic at Fat Pete’s BBQ.
When a community is lacking amenities, artists can fill that void and serve as an anchor in places often overlooked by businesses or underinvested in by the government.
“If you control the arts, you control the narrative of who holds the mirror up to power,” said Pitts.
The communities east of the Anacostia hold most of the city’s food deserts, and it appears they hold the city’s arts deserts as well. And maybe that is the point. If there is no art, there are no critics. If third spaces are limited, then community is limited. But as Turnipseed Jr. said, “Stars are formed by claiming space.”
Perhaps it is time for wards 7 and 8 to claim more space.
This article was produced as part of Humanities DC’s Community Journalism Program.