If you’ve watched old sitcoms, you’ve heard canned laughter. Thanks to a new option at Riverside Theatre’s Comedy Club, the laughter’s coming out of a box.
Starting this season, VIP boxes are available for booking – complete with stocked bar. The bi-monthly comedy weekends offer two shows nightly on Friday and Saturday. Starting in January, they are often sell-outs, when the schedule changes from twice a month to monthly (Comedy Club uses the same black box theater as Riverside’s Second Stage series.)
With a little planning, including telling Riverside what kind of booze you want in the bar, you can guarantee seating from eight to 12 people.
The actual box has been in existence for several years now. While regular seating at Comedy Club is at small tables on the floor of Riverside’s Waxlax Stage, the VIP area is up above the howling hoi polloi, next to the light and sound booth at the back of the room. Theater seats have been installed on risers. Bottles of liquor are provided as requested, along with ice, glasses, and beer or wine. A server comes to check in, but otherwise, the groups are on their own to enjoy the show.
And enjoy they do.
Up until now, the VIP boxes have been reserved for theater sponsors, among them SpringHill Suites’ Amy Selby, director of sales for the hotel. “It works out great for us,” she says. So great, in fact, that clients are calling her asking if they can come along. “At first I was saying, who wants to go? Now, it’s, Hey, can we be a part of your VIP box?”
“It’s a great way to laugh and ease the tension,” she says. “And I don’t even feel like I’m working.”
Prior to the performances, she issues a general disclaimer – the comedy has not been cleared for general audiences. “Most of them are pretty clean,” Selby begins tentatively. Then she stops herself. “What am I saying? I always tell our guests I do not control the comedians.”
Selby does say she holds in her laughter until the most very important person in her entourage laughs first.
“I watch them, and if they laugh, I laugh.”
And an FYI that might be TMI: in the event of explosive laughter, the box features its own restroom.
The next Comedy Club is scheduled for Sept. 19 and 20 at 7:30 and 9:30. Riverside’s Comedy Club features grilled food for purchase and free live music beforehand, and modestly-priced drinks throughout the shows. Tickets are $16 general admission and $18 reserved seating. The VIP box can be reserved by calling the box office at 772-231-6990. Go to www.Riversidetheatre.com.
And when it’s an off-weekend for comedy in Vero, you can laugh your way to Fort Pierce’s Sunrise Theatre, which has an 8:30 p.m. show in its black box theater every other Saturday night – typically on the weekends there’s no comedy at Riverside. Tickets are $15.
Call the Sunrise box office at 772-461-4775 or go to www.sunrisetheatre.com.
Meanwhile, a different Vero venue, this one on the mainland, is getting its first-ever pop music series. The Emerson Center, site of one of Vero’s top celebrity speakers series as well as the free Florida Humanities lectures and performances, will be hosting Livingston Taylor, John Sebastian, Janis Ian and Tom Paxton in the upcoming season. The performances are the brainchild of Rusty Young, a New Jersey- based promoter who brought Judy Collins to Emerson last season.
Young’s non-profit organization, MusicWorks, which also books acts at Fort Pierce’s Sunrise Theatre, donates part of the proceeds to non-profit partner venues. The Vero PR firm Paris Productions is a co-producer of the series.
Folksinger Livingston Taylor, brother of James, performs Feb. 14. John Sebastian, lead singer of the Lovin’ Spoonful, performs March 14. And Janis Ian performs with Tom Paxton on April 10.
Young says he is also looking at other venues for even more intimate evenings than the Emerson’s 800-seat space. One of those under consideration is the Vero Beach Theatre Guild, which holds 300 people.
“I’m trying to bring George Winston,” says Young, referring to the jazz pianist.
“There’s a big market in Vero for music performances for an older audience,” he says. “But it would be great for Vero to develop younger audiences too.”
Tickets for all three shows go on sale Monday, in the hopes of filling premium seats well in advance. Go to www.emersoncenter.org or call the box office at 772-778-5249.
Meanwhile, the all-volunteer Vero Beach Theatre Guild’s first show of the season opens next weekend. The English farce, “No Sex Please, We’re British,” opens Sept. 18 and runs through Sept. 28. The comedy turns on the frantic confusion after a couple orders glassware for a gift but gets pornography instead. The play is directed by Clara McCarthy. Tickets are $24 and $22, with half-price tickets for those 18 and under, and can be bought online at www.verobeachtheatreguild.com or by calling the box office at 772-562-8300 weekdays from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.