New comedy club to open in downtown Albuquerque
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ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — It’s almost show time for downtown Albuquerque’s brand new comedy club.
Dry Heat Comedy Club is on track to officially open on June 23.
Sarah Kennedy and Kelli Trapnell are the women behind the new spot near 6th and Central. They say the idea started with a podcast, which was created to figure out why Albuquerque doesn’t have a comedy club anymore. Kennedy interviewed performers, local business owners, and state representatives hoping someone would catch on.
“Originally, my plan was to have a very rich person, come and listen to that podcast, and then be like, ‘Oh, I’ll open it,’ and then just let that happen, and then that didn’t happen,” Kennedy said.
The women decided to do it themselves, under the impression it wouldn’t be too difficult.
“It turns out that opening a space is rather complicated,” Trapnell said.
The women leased the old yoga studio in mid-March and have been hard at work ever since. Some local comedians helped paint walls, hang lights and bring in some recovered stadium seats from Facebook Marketplace. They still have to build the stage, but say it will be designed specifically for standup comics.
Kennedy says they are excited to bring a new business to downtown Albuquerque, which she says it going through a state of change.
“Our [comedy] scene here in town needs a home for them to get to do their performance” she said. “And it’s better to have it be somebody who lives here, and even lives downtown, to do something in downtown for the people who live here too.”
Both women say the new spot will offer local talent a place to refine their acts and gain a following, but it will also give the community a place to laugh, together.
“It’s nice to just be able to sit in a dark room and laugh at people who are like, this is a wild situation,” Trapnell said. “You know, who have seen all the same news as you who have who are reacting to all the same, like massive world things, and laugh about how ridiculous it all is that, you know, everything is happening all at once.”
The first performances are scheduled for Thursday, June 23. The women say they have a full lineup of local comedians performing throughout the weekend. Kennedy is set to close out the first weekend with her own performance on Sunday.