In the Village near Ball State University, the bar Be Here Now turns into a comedy club each Wednesday night.
On Wednesdays at 9 p.m., Muncie’s craft bar and performance venue Be Here Now transforms into a comedy club. Professional comedians mix with aspiring ones who’ve discovered the stage as a cheap alternative to therapy. Upstairs is bustling as people crowd around the bar, laughing and shouting their drink orders. Players surround the pool table, sinking shots and trying not to knock over drinks with their pool sticks. Downstairs, comedians sit on the tattered couch, waiting for their time to hit the stage. One thing brings them all together—deep belly laughter.
While Comedy Underground is designed to be a weekly open mic, host Davon Shoemaker treats it like a booked show. The lineup follows a structure, with regulars, debut acts, and a paid—usually touring—headliner.
First-time audience members are often surprised by how funny and hard-working the comedians are, Davon says, and most people want to come back.
The event hosts big names like Olivia Grace, who has performed on Comedy Central’s Roast Battle and wrote for the Roast of Bruce Willis, and Dwight Simmons, whose comedy album reached No. 1 on iTunes in 2018. But the venue is also an encouraging place for new comedians, with the host always giving a warm welcome to newbies. There is an unwritten, audience-wide rule that you lower your expectations, laugh a little harder, and clap a little louder. And getting involved is just a Google survey away.
The basement can flood with people. The comedians’ seating area—or “greenroom”—to the left of the stage is a corner of old couches with tears and exposed springs. The walls are covered in graffiti, with paintings and posters from past performers. There are two rows of seating, with more room in the corners. The room is musty with the combination of smoke and e-cigarette vapor. The lighting is dim, except for a single spotlight on the performer.
It’s not like watching stand-up on Netflix or YouTube. Laughter is a social activity, so it’s fun to be around other people when watching comedy shows. In fact, an article from the March 2015 edition of Human Nature says laughing not only releases endorphins, reducing stress and fear, but it is a mechanism for creating social bonds. Comedy Underground could even be a great first date, if dinner and a movie seems too boring.
At Comedy Underground, there are many reasons to laugh. Maybe it was a funny joke or a funny look from the person sitting next to you. Someone near you might have a funny laugh. Maybe the last comedian was so bad they were good, or you can’t believe they just said that.
Even if there are only a few people in the audience, laughter draws more in. People upstairs at the bar begin to hang over the railing, enthralled by the show. Comedians can go from telling jokes, to talking to audience members, to running upstairs to get a drink, to going back to telling a joke.
The content varies just as much as the people performing it. A recent headliner, Krish Mohan, offered poignant, yet comedic takes on American hypocrisy through the lens of an Indian immigrant. The person before resorted to sexual humor. You never know what you’re going to get, and it’s refreshing. Whether you came to drink, play pool, listen, or perform, you leave laughing.
