Gannon Knight Features

     Once the temperature dips below freezing, those winter blues take hold. Walking to class is comparable to braving the bone-chilling weather of the Arctic Circle, smiling – equivalent to gnawing on a popsicle – and laughing, well, forget it.
     If it seems like happiness around campus subsides simultaneously with the temperature and fellow students aren’t as chipper as they once were, maybe a good, hearty laugh will turn those frowns upside down.
     Located at 1402 State St., Jr.’s Last Laugh is Erie’s sole comedy club and quite possibly the perfect remedy for the city’s winter blues.
     “The winter months are definitely our busiest times at Jr.’s because I think that people need to cheer themselves up a bit,” said Debbie Richardson, one of the four owners of Jr.’s Last Laugh. “Erie’s winters can be downright mean, so a little laughter can absolutely warm a person up.”
     Jr.’s kitchen and bar opens at 5 p.m. and the shows begin at 6:30 p.m. Thursday, Friday and Saturday, with an additional show at 9:30 every Friday and Saturday night.
     According to Richardson, the club has been booking top-notch comedians for more than 13 years, from classics like David Brenner, Sinbad, Michael Winslow, Paula Poundstone and Auggie Smith to Comedy Central’s Larry the Cable Guy and Greg Warren.
     “If you look at Comedy Central’s ‘Stand-up Showdown,’ which is a group of 20 comedians, I would say 14 of them have been here,” Richardson said. “And the ones that haven’t been here, most likely aren’t or weren’t here because they aren’t clean enough.”
     Although Jr.’s Last Laugh is a comedy club, the venue does set restrictions on what comedians say during their routines.
     “We try to keep it as clean as possible,” Richardson said. “It’s adult humor. It’s not Disney, but we try to keep it so you don’t hear the F-word and vulgar things that are going to be over the edge. We try not to have it be too graphic.”
     So, what’s the difference between stand-up comedy and the comedians who perform on television?
     “You think if you watch Comedy Central that it’s the same thing, but it’s so not,” Richardson said. “Especially when some of it is physical comedy or hearing them play on the audience – it’s just so much more fun when it’s live.”
     Theater majors at Gannon are all too familiar with the stage. Alison Bartley, a senior theater and communication arts major, said that they don’t necessarily perform stand-up routines in front of audiences and assumes comedians have it even harder than actors.
     “When you’re in a play, you’re portraying someone else; you’re reading someone else’s words,” she said. “As a comedian, it’s you up there, and it’s your original work. I’m sure it’s different for comedians, because the audience is judging you and not your portrayal of another’s work.”
     Kathleen Cahill, a junior theater and communication arts major, agreed with Bartley in that comedians take on an incredible challenge putting their original works out there for the world to hear.
     “It’s very casual and it’s your own material,” she said. “No script was given to you; I think it would be intimidating to show your own jokes and humor and hope it’s a success with your audience.”
     Richardson said that she urges Erie college students to attend Jr.’s Last Laugh because of the fun atmosphere – with features like glow-in-the-dark tables – the great food and reasonably priced drinks, as well as the one-of-a-kind interaction between the audience and the comedian.
     “As my husband says, it’s the most fun you can have with your clothes on,” she said laughing.
     “Sometimes the comics will make little jokes about Erie that a lot of college students around here can relate to. Some of the observational comics will come in and they’ll hit something right on the head that you’ve driven by several times and never even had that thought.”
     Richardson also said that an event like the Dueling Pianos every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. – which requires no cover or reservation – receives a lot of great feedback from the younger crowd because it’s more unpredictable dialogue between the audience and the alternating piano players on stage.
     “They’re known for picking on people and they actually call themselves ‘equal opportunity offenders,”’ she said. “So, I don’t care if you’re sitting way in the back, they’re going to find you and they’re going to insult you.”
     Richardson said although the insults are all in good fun, the Dueling Piano event isn’t for the thin-skinned.
     “They will definitely humiliate you,” she said, “So if you’re pretty sensitive I would recommend coming on a Thursday, Friday or Saturday for just regular stand-up.”
     Because Jr.’s serves alcohol, the Liquor Control Board requires guests to be 21 or older, or have someone who is at least 25 years old to vouch for the underage person.
     Walk-ins are always welcome at Jr.’s, but Richardson said that she recommends calling a couple weeks in advance to ensure seats.
     Richardson added that although co-owning a business is challenging at times, she wouldn’t trade her job in for the world.
     “What’s really cool about our business is that I’ll see people in their 20s and then the next week I’ll see someone celebrating their 90th birthday,” she said. “It’s rewarding because they’ll all be laughing at the same comedians. We have something here that spans three generations where people can come for a nice night out and some great laughs.”