Goulash Comedy: Big laughs in the big city

Four years ago, comedian Chris Ivey was attempting sets in front of several full-length mirrors each night at his Allstate Insurance office, which had previously been used as a children’s dance studio. After everyone left the office to go home, he would stick around for hours and practice his jokes over and over, tweaking them in-between open mics. 

Ivey, now the creator of the Birmingham Comedy Festival and Goulash Comedy, has come a long way since then. 

Originally, he was interested in directing movies and TV shows, but when he made the move to Birmingham from Memphis four years ago, Ivey decided to take an improv class to meet people. Eventually, he found himself at an open-mic set at the Rare Martini, where a host was asking him to sign up to do a set that night. 

“I remember he told me if he didn’t get enough comedians, he wouldn’t get paid that night,” Ivey said. “So, I said, ‘Sure, I’ll do a set.’” 

He walked onstage and took the mic with absolutely no material prepared. Ivey laughs at the memory, comparing it to trying to make a fancy recipe without any idea of the ingredients. “It was awful, just really, really bad.”

Still, he said he remembers thinking to himself afterward, “I guess if this is the worst I’m ever going to be, and it only gets better from here … I could do this.” 

From there, Ivey started pursuing comedy in Birmingham, throwing himself into developing bits and jokes, going to two open mics every week and practicing every day after work. “I was like, I really want to be good at this, or at least OK at this,” he said. 

It took him three months of bombing on-stage to finally have a set he was proud of, where people laughed when they were supposed to. “Oh, man, it was an incredible feeling,” he said. He was hooked.

“Now, I love bad shows. I know that sounds weird, but if it wasn’t for the bad shows, the good shows wouldn’t feel as good as they do. That’s how I knew I’d probably be doing stand-up for the rest of my life, regardless of where it goes or what I do, because even when it’s not great, I love it,” Ivey said.

Even though he still works a pretty intensive day job as an Allstate sales manager, he said comedy comes pretty close in intensity.

“It’s kind of like I get done with work then I’m doing comedy, then I pass out, go to sleep, then I’m up going to work — it’s one of those things. I love doing it,” Ivey said, adding that he spent a lot of time, before he found comedy, chasing various passions. “You get a really good idea of how it’s tough being an artist, a writer, a painter, a comedian or anything really, doing the actual work of it and figuring out how to monetize and make money from it is really hard.”

As Ivey made his way into the comedy scene, he saw a lot of comedians leaving town to get more set time and follow bigger opportunities or open for more well-known acts. Ivey said it can be tough if a comedian gets booked for a show in Atlanta, or even further, and has to drive there after work, perform the show till 1 a.m., then drive back and catch a few hours of sleep before work. That sort of commitment isn’t worth it for everyone.

That’s part of the reason Goulash Comedy was born, to give Birmingham comedians more local stage time. 

“Far too often, people are like, ‘I just can’t do comedy and live in Birmingham, right?’ Or ‘I can’t do this or that and live in Birmingham,’” Ivey said. “Well, I think you can. We’re a big city, we have a lot to offer, so why not?”

The other reason Ivey created Goulash Comedy was to give the Birmingham community a chance to see new or well-known comedians from all across the country. 

A few times a month at the Syndicate Lounge for the past two years, Goulash Comedy Showcase has featured a set from a performer across the country that Ivey books to come into Birmingham for the night. Local comedians open and then the headliner performs for about an hour. Now, Goulash Comedy includes the Funny Free Fridays at Good People Brewing, which features several out-of-towners on the first Friday of the month, as well as the Magic City T’Night Show once a month at Saturn. 

Ivey said he put absolutely everything he had into the first Goulash Comedy Showcase, using his best jokes. It was a huge success.

“Then it hit me — Oh my God, I have to do this every week,” he laughed. 

The beginning booking process was time-heavy, he said, and took a lot of getting the hang of little tips and tricks by chance. He had no experience drawing up contracts or making offers, so he learned as he went along. 

By now, Ivey is proud to have local comedians able to say they’ve opened for big-name acts, some with Netflix Specials like Myq Kaplan, Sean Patton, soon-to-be Tony Bell or TV show stars like Liza Treyger and several others.

“If I’m going to tell someone to pay money for a show, I’m going to do my part and make sure it’s produced well, it’s tight,” Ivey said. “I want to give people in the city a way to see these [comedians] for not a lot of money, to actually see up-and-coming comedy.”

Recently, Goulash Comedy added an open mic Tuesday, run by local comedian Peter Davenport, where anywhere from a dozen to two dozen performers sign up for 5- to 7-minute slots, Ivey included. 

Ivey said a lot of cities only give 3-minute open mics, so 7 minutes can be a decent time to sort out some new material and jokes. The open mic is free to everyone and lasts about 90 minutes. 

“Comedy is one of those things you only get better the more you do it. And we have more opportunities than we did, but we could have more,” he said. 

Ivey said he still thinks the best thing that people can do for the comedy community is to start their own show. In the meantime, the Goulash Comedy open mic is a great place for first-time comics to practice. He said most of the audience is performers worrying about their own performance, so they aren’t thinking that much about others’ performance.

Plus, he said, open mic time allows different Birmingham voices to be heard each week. A lot of people fall in love with comedy just like Ivey did, he said, so it’s important for the Birmingham community to know they have local comedy outlets.

“Comedy allows for you to talk about whatever you want. If you come to an open mic, you tend to hear issues that people are having in their own life or society or different things, and it kind of gives you a pulse for how the city is feeling about things. Also, you get to laugh,” he said.

Upcoming comedians performing in November include Gwen Sunkel, Carson Tuey and Josshua McLane. Sean Conroy, from Comedy Central, is performing on Dec 1.

“Give us a chance, come out to a show,” Ivey said. “I promise you that you’ll enjoy it.”

Go to the Goulash Comedy Facebook page for more.