What more can be said about Acme Comedy Co., the 33-year-old Minneapolis joke institution that's widely considered one the world's best spots to see standup? A lot, actually.
Here's how Minnesota Historical Society Press teases Home Club: Up-and-Comers and Comebacks at Acme Comedy Company, the new book from frequent Racket comedy writer Patrick Strait...
Before the sold-out crowds, world-famous performers, and national prestige, Acme Comedy Company was in trouble. Too much debt and too few customers. A product no one wanted in an economy where everyone struggled. Then it all changed. Home Club is about failure and redemption, the tension between art and business, and the incredible story of how a soft-spoken Chinese immigrant and his 300-seat club in a Minneapolis basement became a home for a new generation of comics and fans.
Home Club hits bookstores Tuesday, March 25, and its author will host a release party the following day at—you guessed it—Acme (details here). You can buy Home Club now through the MNHS website. And, below, you can get a free taste of the book, courtesy of Strait and his publisher.
• CHAPTER 14 •
BETS, FIGHTS, AND NATURAL DISASTERS
While there have been a number of defining moments in the life of Acme Comedy Company, from Robin Williams personally requesting to perform at the club in 2008 as he prepared for his comeback stand-up comedy special to Tim Slagle reuniting with his biological mother for the very first time inside the club, a litany of insane, hilarious, shocking, and bizarre moments have played just as big a role in shaping Acme’s history.
Here are a few of those moments, told by the people who lived them.
Sarah Drew: Comedy Doesn’t Take a Snow Day
Part of the reason comedy thrives in Minnesota is because it gives people something to laugh about during the brutally cold half of the year. Back in 2010, however, the conditions nearly became too intense for Acme to handle. “We had Tom Segura headlining back during the blizzard of 2010,” Drew recalls.
“We got something like twenty inches of snow, and I remember getting stuck three times on my drive into work. That night, there were literally six of us, three of which were the comedians. All of a sudden, fifty people showed up, all with southern accents. They were just like, ‘This is what the weather is like in Minnesota, right?’ ”
While some would have panicked, Drew and company dug deep, juggling multiple jobs and making the show just as good for those fifty people on that night as it would have been in the dead of summer with three hundred people and a full staff.
“Tom killed,” she says. “He said it was one of the best sets of his life. I remember he got to like the fifty-minutes mark and yelled to me from the stage, ‘Hey Sarah, should I keep going or should I fuck off?’ And I was like, ‘Fuck off, Tom. We’re going to be sleeping here if you don’t get off the stage soon.’ But it felt really good to see how we all came together to make that night a success.”
Rich Miller: Talk Softly and Carry a Big Knife
Even after Rich Miller was no longer living in Minnesota, he and Louis Lee had developed a close enough relationship that Miller would come help out at the club from time to time.
Usually that meant keeping the show moving, helping out the bartenders, or managing the occasional unruly audience member.
One night, however, Miller got more than he bargained for. “I remember Louis lost one of his managers right before his big banquet season, which is like the end of November through January,” Miller recalls. “He called me and asked if I’d give him a hand, so I said sure. I really didn’t want to be out on the floor, but he’s a friend, so I figured what the hell?”
There must have been something in the air that holiday season, because according to Miller he had an unusually large number of people who needed to be shown the door. “I threw out so many drunks that year,” he laughs. “They flocked to me. One night I threw out a group of forty guys. It was a big bachelor party. They came in on a bus, and they were already drunk. They were giving one of the waitresses a lot of shit, so I actually stopped the whole show and told them, ‘All of you guys are out of here.’ ”
While tossing a group of drunks would be nerve-racking for anyone, Miller says there was one particular patron who really struck some fear into his heart. “One night, I threw out a biker and his girlfriend,” he recalls. “And they went nuts. He’s threatening me, she’s screaming at the staff, and we’re just trying to push them out the door. In the middle of all of this, I look up and I see Louis in the doorway by the kitchen, and he’s staring at us and sharpening the biggest butcher’s knife I’ve ever seen. I had to stop and catch myself. I’m thinking I have to try to throw this guy out, and I’m most worried I’m going to start laughing. Like, Louis, what are you going to do with that?”
On that night, Lee didn’t actually get involved in the confrontation physically. But on some nights he found himself in the thick of all the chaos.
John DeBoer: “Please Stop Elbowing Me”
John DeBoer couldn’t catch a break at Acme during the pandemic.
His shows were canceled twice due to the mandatory curfew that was implemented in the wake of protests following the murder of George Floyd, as well as by a second wave of COVID cases that forced shutdowns around the holidays.
Finally, he was able to have a show at his home club. But even that one almost didn’t happen. “My aunt and my mom came to the show that night, and when they first got there they overheard a very large man in a hoodie outside talking to his friends about how he was going to fuck with the comics,” DeBoer recalls.
“So they told me, and I told one of the employees to watch out for them. Sure enough, not five minutes into the feature act and these guys are all throwing popcorn at each other.”
Already on high alert, the staff member told the gentleman that he needed to leave. That’s when all hell broke loose.
“Hannah [Rhodes, one of the Acme managers] told me that someone was throwing popcorn, and I was like, ‘We don’t even serve popcorn!’” remembers Brandon Simon, one of the several managers and employees who got involved in the ruckus. “So I go running towards the door, and I see Joe [Feely, a third Acme manager] and another one of the employees trying to drag this guy out. And he punches Joe right in the face.”
Always quick to protect their own, the bartenders and other managers came rushing to aid in the situation. “I see the bartenders running over, and I figure it must be going down,” laughs DeBoer. “And they start dogpiling on this guy. Every manager is in on it, Hannah is smacking him, and then all of a sudden Louis jumps on top.” Simon adds, “He did this move where he double-tapped his elbow and then started elbow smashing the guy in the back. Finally the guy stops fighting and just calmly says, ‘Whoever is elbowing me in the back, can you please stop?’ ”
The situation resolved itself quickly after that, but the legend of Lee and his deadly elbows began to grow. “That next week, Cy Amundson [a longtime Acme comic] called me up.
He didn’t even say hello when I answered the phone. He just goes, ‘He double-tapped his elbow? How did I miss this?’”
Nick Swardson: How Many Shots is too Many?
Despite leaving for New York and becoming a major star in both stand-up as well as movies and television, Nick Swardson always made a point to return to Acme as much as possible. And whenever he did, he was welcomed back with open arms.
Usually.
“Pretty early on in my career I came back to town to do shows on my birthday weekend one year,” recalls Swardson. “I had Zach Galifianakis with me as my opener, and I was just in a really good mood.”
Not one to turn down an excuse to party, Swardson decided to start celebrating that night from the stage. “I’m in my mid-twenties and being dumb, so I grab a waitress while I’m onstage and I say, ‘Can I get seven shots of tequila?’ And they were all for me. Then I look out into the crowd, and they’re all kind of giving me this look like, Whoa. I realized that was sort of a loose cannon move, so I tried to cover real quick and said, ‘Does anybody want to do a shot with me onstage?’ And it became chaos.”
Suddenly, the typically well-behaved Acme crowd went riotous, hopping onstage with drinks and shots, toasting their hometown hero and throwing the show into complete disarray.
“It was the most stupid thing I could possibly do,” Swardson laughs. “It was like such an Iggy Pop thing. I remember I saw Iggy Pop one time and he invited people up onstage and it just became a complete disaster. That’s pretty much what happened that night at Acme. Honestly, I think it was one of my favorite moments ever.”
Even the managers, who had grown accustomed to all sorts of insanity happening around the club, were none too impressed. “They gave me this look from the back of the room like, Nick? No. Come on, man. But I didn’t feel bad. There’s no rules in comedy.”
Louis Lee: The Most Cutthroat Gambler in all of Comedy
If you step into the back office at Acme, you’ll notice some unusual decorations covering the walls. Framed photos of various comedians with handwritten messages calling out their own stupidity, snapshots of grown men dressed in wildly embarrassing outfits, and a handful of dollar bills all serve as trophies of bets between Louis and various comedians throughout the years.
While plenty of comedians have challenged Lee, there is one who just couldn’t take enough of a beating from the Acme owner: Cy Amundson. Amundson, a diehard Minnesota Vikings fan, pledged his undying allegiance to the purple his entire life. While some would look at this dedication as endearing, Lee saw it as an opportunity for humiliation. “The first year that [Brett] Favre played for the Vikings, we placed a bet that they would win a championship,” Lee recalls. “Then when they lost, Cy had to write a letter explaining how I was right about everything, and that he was wrong.”
While that outcome was fairly innocuous, Amundson and Lee decided to up the ante the following year. “The next season, he bet me that the Vikings would go 12–4. When they didn’t, he had to wear an Aaron Rodgers jersey onstage and fellate bananas,” Lee laughs. Allegedly there is video evidence of this bet locked away in the Acme safe, a fact Amundson is likely all too aware of.
While most people would have walked away after two consecutive years of abuse, Amundson was a glutton for punishment and made yet another bet with Lee the following season.
“He bet me that the Vikings were going to go to the Super Bowl, and they lost again,” Lee laughs maniacally. “This time, the deal was that he had to get up on a Monday night at the open mic and let the other comics roast him. Instead, they held an intervention onstage for his gambling problem.”
While Amundson was a favorite target, Lee has won bets with comics, bartenders, and Acme managers, and he always comes to collect his winnings. One year he made a bet with comedian Tommy Ryman, with Ryman placing his faith in the Minnesota Vikings to win the Super Bowl. Had Ryman won, Lee would have been forced to pay him a thousand dollars. But he didn’t win. And the price was steep.
On January 31, 2023, Ryman was scheduled to be the closing act for Acme’s open mic night. But he wouldn’t be performing his own jokes. Instead, he would be performing a very special comedy set written by his fellow comics at Lee’s behest. “Tonight we have a special set,” said comedian Mike Lester from the stage. “The bet was that the Minnesota Vikings would win the Super Bowl. Which is a shitty bet. But before we bring up Tommy to pay his debt, we have a few special videos.” Past bet losers Amundson and Pete Lee appeared on screen chastising Ryman for his poor decision-making.
“What are you doing?” said Lee. “You don’t bet with Louis. He will dominate you. Welcome to the Don’t Bet Against Louis Club.”
“I know exactly what you’re going through, and exactly what you’re feeling,” Amundson added in his video. “If you’re going to continue to bet with the Dragon, I think I can give some advice. He doesn’t care about money. This is a man who deals in power.”
Finally, Ryman took the stage to perform a set written by Bryan Miller and Nate Abshire. Immediately, Ryman had to pop off his shirt onstage, revealing a collection of gold chains draped across his body and abs drawn on with a marker. And that was just the start. Over the next several minutes, Ryman, who has carved out a niche as a clean comic and has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on his YouTube specials, had to rattle off hacky jokes about women, Irish people, and COVID vaccines, before finishing it off by humping a stool onstage.
“In conclusion, I was wrong, and Louis Lee was right,” Ryman said at the end of the set. “Looking back, I haven’t been this wrong since I fed my dog a chocolate bar to cheer him up.”
