What happened with Zanies?
In defense of the manager of this club, who I’ve never met, this list of rules was definitely not plan A. It was a move of desperation. I applaud the fact that he wanted to keep the open mike going. Many clubs have shut down their open mikes all together. And I think that move is bad for the comedy community as it doesn’t support the growth of talent. While it is good that he’s keeping the open mike rolling, such dogmatic rules do not foster a relationship with your talent or your audience. I’m wondering, what happened at Zanies’ to cause the owner to create these rules. He must have been burned, but the question is did he weigh all the consequences of such a document? For example, did he consider that a former comedian from San Francisco who had never met him or been to his club would write and publish such a snarky commentary?
