news
The Laugh Resort’s Last Laugh
The Laugh Resort—one of Toronto’s few clubs devoted entirely to stand-up comedy—is closing its doors after this Saturday, possibly for good. The venue has known for some time that they would be shut down sometime this year, but the shock came last week, when they were told they had vacate the location as soon as possible.
Ever since the Hyatt purchased the Holiday Inn where club is located, they knew their days were numbered. Owner Jim Vanderberg told Torontoist that the Hyatt needed the basement space—occupied by the Laugh Resort for the past eight years—for a restaurant, one of two that are required to be officially classified as a five-star hotel. Vanderberg says that, while they are optimistic in finding a new venue, they have been looking for the past five months to no success.
The club has had a number of heavyweights over the year (Romano, DeGeneres, Sandler), but the true loss is to our local comedians who now only have the central locations Yuk Yuk’s and Absolute Comedy to rely on for bookings. Absolute Comedy is all the way at Yonge and Eglinton, and we’re pretty sure most comedians can’t afford public transit.
As a sort of last hurrah, the Laugh Resort will be having all their available regular comics performing short five-minute sets this Saturday—not an open stage, Vanderberg assured us, but more a chance for their professional comics to say their tearful but hilarious goodbyes.
Photo of Toronto comedian Nathan Macintosh courtesy of Reggie D’Souza