Sip, Swirl, and Laugh At California Wine Country’s Comedy Fest Celebrating The Laugh Cellar’s One Year Anniversary
by Heather Cassell
It’s laughter in the vines this weekend in California’s premier wine country with the 3rd annual Wine Country Comedy Fest.
Comedy is “what keeps you happy” it is “the spice of life,” said Wine County Comedy Fest co-founder Lisa Pidge who has “the ultimate standup comedy experience in wine country” happening this weekend.
The vines might shake with laughter as upward of 600 or more laugh seekers descend upon Santa Rosa for the 4-day laugh fest (Thursday, July 19 through Sunday, July 22) featuring 24 comics and lots of wine at The Laugh Cellar in Santa Rosa, California.
“We have comedians coming from as far as New York City, Los Angeles, Washington State, [and] Oregon,” Lisa told Girls That Roam about the festival which has sold out every year.
Comedians Ruby Gill, Jenny Yang, Shanti Charan, Priya Prasad, Liz Stone, Karen McCarthy, Helen Chu and many more are gracing The Laugh Cellar’s stage this weekend.
The festival also is a celebration of the one-year anniversary of the opening of The Laugh Cellar by Lisa and her wife and co-producer Carlee Pidge.
The comedy club is the only one in Sonoma and Napa counties and is the nation’s first known lesbian-owned comedy club.
Smoke & Fire
This weekend’s comedy festival is truly a celebration for The Laugh Cellar and Lisa’s family and team of five people.
It’s been an interesting year for the comedy club that started out as a monthly traveling comedy show, Crushers of Comedy, in 2014. The shows were runaway successes bringing big names to emerging comics to wine country and attracting audiences upward of 300 or more, said Lisa.
Four years later, the Wine Country Comedy Fest kicked off The Laugh Cellar’s grand opening.
Less than three months later, the Tubbs fire nearly took it all away. Fortunately, Lisa and her wife and co-producer, Carlee, and their newborn baby and the club escaped the inferno unharmed. When the smoke cleared, both their home and the club were still standing, but it has still been a struggle for the new nightlife venue. Despite it’s weekly sold out Saturday comedy night and other events on other nights, the sudden withdrawal of tourists, the holidays, followed by winter made it a challenge.
“It’s been hard, but we’ve done it,” said Lisa.
The club has survived by being a community space drawing in people with its bar and the “Comedy, Dog! Cafe,” a hot dog bar that is a play on words of a comedy term. Guests get their choice of all-natural dogs, polish dogs, turkey dogs, and veggie dogs that all come with a joke and some chips, she said.
“Hot dogs and comedy what more can you want?” Lisa asked quoting other comedians.
It’s been such a hit with the comedians. They come in and get their dogs with their joke before the show begins and, “They’ve been reading them on stage. They think it’s the funniest thing ever,” said Lisa, who has crowned “Comedy Dog” a mascot of the club entertaining guests before the doors open.
Lisa and Carlee provide an alternative for wine country’s nightlife, which is dominated by live music, by offering trivia night, karaoke, dance parties, and opening the club for private events on its off nights.
The couple hasn’t completely left the wine road, they are currently planning to take The Laugh Cellar to other destinations in Napa and Sonoma soon, she said.
“It’s kind of fun to do something a different location,” Lisa said about missing traveling from winery to winery producing comedy shows.
Yet, she also loves having The Laugh Cellar.
“I’ll tell you it’s such a blessing to have our own venue,” said Lisa. “Now that we have this place, I think it’s safe again to go back out onto the road.”
Queering The Vines
The women also have an eye on diversity. Lisa, a biracial (half Filipina and half white) woman grew up in Sonoma County and lived all over the world New York, Tokyo, St. Petersburg, Florida; and Seattle. Seven years ago, she moved back home settling in Kenwood. Carlee and she are giving opportunities to women, people of color and gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, queer and intersex people on the stage and being represented at the club.
As an LGBTQI-friendly space, they created Lavender Room Karaoke and host queer dance parties.
“It’s really important for Carlee and [me] to make this a destination for gays and lesbians all over the world come to when they’re in wine country,” she said.
Lisa is most proud of the hospitality Carlee and The Laugh Cellar’s team provide to audience members and entertainers.
“After the show, I always go out and stand out in front and great everybody goodbye,” shaking everyone’s hand, she said.
“One woman emailed me the other day and she said, ‘I’ve been to Santa Rosa for so many years and I’ve been to so many businesses and I’ve never experienced and team or a staff or business as nice as yours,’” Lisa recalled the email.
The best complements however come directly from the comedians themselves.
“Our biggest success … is the reputation that we’ve built in the stand-up comic world,” said Lisa, who did improv standup comedy herself for a while in the 1980s and 1990s, is proud of the fact that she receives inquiries from comedians from all over the world wanting to perform at The Laugh Cellar, “because they have heard that’s a great room.”
“I was across the entire country, I want to let you know that this was the best clubs I performed at my entire tour,” Lisa said a big named comedian (she wouldn’t disclose their name) told her at the end of their tour. The Laugh Cellar was the comedian’s last stop on the tour.
“To me, that is a huge thing,” said Lisa. “That’s been our biggest accomplishment, blood sweat and tears into making this place a place where people want to be so the comics … are talking about [it].”
To catch the Wine Country Comedy Fest now through Sunday, July 22, tickets ($20 – $28 per show) are available at www.crushersofcomedy.com/comedy-fest.html.
Book your next romantic getaway to the Caribbean with Girls That Roam Travel. Contact Heather Cassell at Girls That Roam Travel at 415-517-7239 or at .
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