Lowell comics usher a comedic ‘boom,’ taking the city’s small stages by storm
LOWELL — When folks ask comedian Jen Howell how to get to Lowell, she tries to point them in the right direction.
“It’s about 40 minutes north of Boston, but precisely 10 minutes west of self respect,” Howell said, “and that’s where Lowell is.”
On a weekday night in an old mill building, in a coffee shop weirdly open at 7 p.m., laughter erupts.
Inside lies a ragtag group of comics who signed up for the open mic night, vying for five minutes of “stage” time — it’s not really a stage, more like a platform. But that small cohort is growing, and their jokes and gigs are becoming a lot less underground.
The comedy community and its fans are experiencing somewhat of a renaissance in Lowell, a city already known among locals as an artistic and creative haven (see Western Avenue Studios). The city is sourcing comedians, but they’re not heading to Boston or Worcester for shows. Instead, they’re walking down the street to Mill №5, CNCPT 6, The Safe, Warp and Weft and a host of other locales now offering a platform and audience for aspiring stand-ups.
Before her open mic at Mill №5’s Coffee and Cotton last month, Howell recounted her jokes bashing the city she’s occupied for more than 10 years now. You make fun of the things you love, she said, but also to drive people away to keep the rent affordable.
Howell owns Sutra Studio, a yoga and meditation space located in Mill №5. That made starting stand-up last year a little difficult, given how “easily recognizable” she was.
“I tried to keep it a secret, but the city of Lowell has a way of enchanting people,” Howell, 40, said. “So now all the jokes that I used to only tell in yoga classes are now happening in our venues.”
The pandemic ushered in a wave of new comics in the city, but the staunch competitiveness that typically comes with the stand-up grind isn’t so apparent. Yes, it can be tough to book gigs, and there’s always someone who’s funnier with more experience, but Howell and others report an “extremely supportive” environment in the city.
Perhaps it’s the “shared suffering” that comes with comedy, Howell said, or maybe there’s something in the water of this “scrappy city.” (Someone broke into her studio three times last year. That kind of scrappy.)
As comic Jacques Lambert put it, “Therapy, that’s nice. The coward’s stand-up.”
“A lot of people lost their therapist over the pandemic,” Lambert said. “The co-pays got too high, so it was like, ‘You know what? I’ll just get on stage and seek the approval from strangers my parents never gave me.’”
Lambert, a longtime Lowell resident, returned to the stand-up stage after spending years in the comedy world out in Los Angeles. Having worked mics in other nearby cities, Lambert said there’s something uniquely inclusive and welcoming about Lowell. The arena of comics is much more diverse, he said, and they’re constantly workshopping jokes to help other acts succeed.
“They all come from different religions, different backgrounds, different views, different lifestyles. It is wonderful that I’ve never seen anybody punch down doing this, and I cannot say that about (elsewhere),” Lambert said. “And if somebody does punch down, the room will let you know.”
Over the last few months, Lowell’s comedy scene has categorically exploded — Lambert calls it “a boom,” but comedian Casey Woods poked fun at the phrase.
“You keep using the word ‘boom,’” Woods, 25, said. “It does kind of harken back to that prospector time. ‘Hey, there’s gold in these hills!’ Word travels, right?”
Woods, who grew up in Downtown Lowell, was already tapped into his theatrical side when he tried stand-up a few months back. As an improviser and an actor, Woods said his previous performances serve him well in the comedy circuit, where he’s discovered the joy of writing jokes.
By day, Woods works at Life Alive, but by night, he and other comedians hit four to five venues back to back. The grind is real.
Like Howell, he too loves his life spent in Lowell, a city that’s “not too big, not too small” — or as “a famous alcoholic” said (not verbatim), “it’s kind of like a town and a city.”
“We get to know the homeless people here, it’s nice,” Woods said during his set at Coffee and Cotton. “They’re not just strangers you pretend don’t exist. They’re more like acquaintances (pause) you pretend don’t exist.”
Boon for local business
Bringing comics into a room full of interested — and hungry — fans is another perk to the city’s growing appetite for laughs. At Coffee and Cotton, most of the room’s 40 or so attendees had a drink in hand, mingling at the coffee counter, eyes still glued to the stage.
Small businesses benefit from the crowds, especially ones they wouldn’t normally get at 7 p.m. on a Thursday, Lambert said.
Mondo Comedy, a monthly booked show featuring local comics and a regional headliner, means a lot of popcorn, soda and beer is consumed at the Luna Theater, another staple of Mill №5. Greg Boggis, who organizes the affair, said the event really drives business back into the building, which still is considered somewhat of a hidden gem.
Close to 50 people showed up last month. It’s much the same deal at Coffee and Cotton.
“There was one person sitting in a chair at 7:45 last Thursday,” Lambert said before the open mic. “Here, tonight, at one point or another, there will be 30, 40 people at one time … This helps drive their numbers.”
Joel Mongeon, event manager at Mill №5, said the building benefits from events, “main attractions” that entice foot traffic. Mongeon said the mill values hearing from different voices, and given the city’s size, there comes a “camaraderie and acknowledgement of peers.”
In his eyes, the mill is the “perfect spot” for the open mics and comedy gigs. Mongeon also pointed to a new wave of comedy, one that’s more empathetic and less cruel.
“They’re performing in ways that they are passionate about, and they’re doing it in a city like this,” Mongeon said. “In a space like this, they’re finding community with their comedy performance.”
The May 25 installment of Mondo Comedy, to everyone’s surprise, brought out Mayor Sokhary Chau, who said it was his first stand-up show in the city. And it looks like it won’t be his last — after the show, Chau remarked that “laughter is the best medicine” and raved about how other comedy events support the city.
“The Luna Theater is a perfect location. It’s right in the middle of the city, and they do a great job getting different acts to come to the city, to the Luna,” Chau said. “Hopefully the other small businesses can invite different shows, different comedians to be at their establishments, and I look forward to sharing many more laughs with the residents of Lowell.”
Within an hour of Lowell, Lambert estimates about 150 people are regularly working those venues, trying to make it as a full-time comic. But the reality is that only a select few — maybe 10% — will climb a rung or two up the ladder and make it big, he said.
There aren’t talent scouts in Lowell, he added, but this is where the next generation of funny people will call home. This is their origin story.
Growing through comedy
Fredo Cruz began stand-up in June last year, back in his hometown of Lawrence. It was something he always wanted to try, just not too geographically outside his comfort zone. The 24-year-old ventured out to Boston, “hated driving” and found Bomb Shelter! at Lowell’s The Safe.
Since then, stand-up helped Cruz come out as bisexual, and he continues to use his comedy to create lightness around dark periods of his upbringing. Growing up overweight and contending with his sexuality within a traditional Dominican family became fodder for one-liners and funny stories on stage. Not much is off-limits for Cruz.
“When you talk about things that are actually real to you, it feels funnier,” Cruz said, “when it comes from a real place.”
As someone who’s struggled with depression and suicidal tendencies, Woods said it’s easy to fall into the “depression comedy” crutch that other comedians have latched onto over the past decade. On the stages in Lowell, Woods said he’s able to bring that tragic experience to a comedy show and make it funny and interesting.
“It provides a really fun challenge for me, to find a way to joke about this stuff,” Woods said, “about the depression, about the self-loathing, in a way that is sort of new and not a way that you may have heard it before.”
Woods tries those bits around other comics, feeling comfortable enough to do so. For that reason, there’s definitely something “magical” in the air, Howell said.
“I haven’t been at it very long,” Howell said, “but the community is very tight-knit … When there’s people that are excited about the art growing, they’re very supportive of each other.”
Originally published at https://www.lowellsun.com on June 18, 2023.
