When the Funny Stop Comedy Club closed in March after more than four decades in operation, it left a hole in the city’s comedy scene.
“It was like a family,” local comedian Nicole Knight said of the club. Knight performed at Funny Stop for the first time in 2018, the year she started doing comedy.
After years of performing in the region, Knight is turning her talents to producing shows. On Friday, she’ll host a comedy night at the Jenks in Cuyahoga Falls featuring sets from Samantha Archual, Brett Thomas, Precious Moore and Tim Wolfe. It’s her first time producing a show on her own. If it goes well, she hopes it will lead to more comedy shows in Akron and the surrounding area.
For Knight, the show is a chance to channel the energy and camaraderie of her early years of performing in and around the city.
“It’s really easy to be yourself in front of audiences in this town for some reason,” she said. “It’s better than, honestly, anywhere I’ve gotten to perform otherwise. I just wanted to work to bring that back and give my friends a place to showcase their comedy, without having to go all the way up to Cleveland.”
Since Knight started doing standup, the city’s comedy scene has shifted. She got her start at Late Night Laughs at Cheese & Chong’s, an open mic hosted by fellow comedian Matthew Farkas. That show ended in January 2020.
Then, the pandemic hit, and the landscape for comedy and other live entertainment changed overnight. It also delayed the first Rubber City Comedy Festival until 2021. After a five-year run, the festival is on hiatus due to the closure of Funny Stop, its home base.
Today, Akron comedy is in a rebuilding phase. The Killbox Comedy Club opened last month. Farkas now hosts open mic nights at Barmacy in Highland Square and downtown at Baxter’s Speakeasy. He’s also a founding member and chairperson of the Rubber City Comedy Festival. He said he hopes to bring the festival back in 2027.
Continuing Akron’s comedy legacy
The bill for Knight’s show is stacked with people she came up with in the local comedy scene.
“I’m just excited to see what kind of vibe it’s like,” said Moore. “There’s so many comics in this area, so it’s always good to spend time with the ones who started when I started.”
Moore is the daughter of popular local comedian Earnest Moore (AKA Uncle Pimpin). She got her start in comedy in 2018. At the time, she was a door-to-door salesperson.
“I was doing door-to-door sales, and everyone kept telling me I was funny,” she said. “I would end up having everybody in the house at the door laughing.”
Archual wasn’t surprised by Knight’s decision to organize and host a comedy show. The longtime friends started out in comedy together. They took an improv class, and that eventually gave Archual the confidence to perform on her own.
She has fond memories of those early years, from performing at Funny Stop to workshopping jokes at writing circles with other comics.
“It’s basically dead now, which is really sad,” Archual said of the local comedy scene, “which is why I’m excited by what Nicole is trying to do to bring it back.”
With comedy night at the Jenks, Knight hopes to continue “the Akron legacy of having good audiences and good comics.”
“I put a lot of work into trying to have a space for people to laugh when stuff is possibly shitty,” Knight said, “so hopefully it can be a reprieve for some people when stuff’s kind of crazy right now.”
COMEDY NIGHT AT JENKS 1929
Friday, June 5, 8 p.m.
The Jenks (1884 Front St., Cuyahoga Falls)
Tickets: $15 via Eventbrite
