Just off Center Street in Provo is the not-even-a-year-old Dry Bar Comedy Club. If one comes expecting a cold beer, they may get one, but it will be an alcohol-free apple beer. Although, a better recommendation would be to try the frozen raspberry lemonade. Along with the beer, you won’t hear any cursing unless it’s gosh-darn it or dang. This “bar” is changing the way America knows comedy, and they are doing it any flipping way they want.
The Dry Bar Comedy Club is a family-friendly club where anyone can come and have a good laugh. Created by Neal Harmon, VidAngel CEO, the comedy club extends its family-friendly standard of entertainment to live audiences. Each show, two comedians from around the United States are brought in to share their talents of making people laugh for an audience that any age can enjoy.
“I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and I have always wanted my shows to be family friendly. One doesn’t have to be crude to make people laugh,” Tom Mabe, one of the comedians performing this past weekend, said. “I enjoy making my family laugh, and I wanted to share that with other families.”
Although “dry” is in the title of the comedy club, the jokes and the comedians are anything but. Sam Fedele, another comedian from last weekend, and Mabe each had unique styles in their performances that made each hour refreshing to watch.
Fedele focused his performance on poking fun at the younger members of the audience. He called out a younger couple from the audience who had only been married for three weeks and spent a third of the show giving marriage advice. But, he mainly made fun of the husband regarding how little he knew about women and how that wouldn’t change later in life.
Mabe was the perfect example of country living. Hailing from Kentucky, he brought the southern humor that most people only get to see in movies. He shared stories of his childhood growing up in Kentucky. One of which was how someone kept running over his snowman, so he took matters into his own hands and built it somewhere that would give the driver a great surprise during their next snowman homicide run.
“I loved how the comedians interacted with the audience and had us participate in their sketch,” Brandyn Tebbs, one of the attendees, said. “They didn’t just get up there and sling a bunch of jokes at us.”
By the reaction of the audience, Dry Bar Comedy Club will be around for many years to come. The atmosphere, refreshments, stage and the comedians themselves are something worth seeing. It is a high recommendation for anyone seeking a weekend of exhausted abs and a sore face.
