FUNNY IN SACRAMENTO

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inside: What it takes to make people laugh

Funny in Sacramento

Sometimes they’ve killed it. Sometimes they’ve bombed. Homegrown comedians, including longtime local icon Jack Gallagher, talk about their profession and their career trajectories.

Mike E. Winfield

BY MARK BILLINGSLEY

There are no overnight successes in comedy. The grind is real. Open mic nights in front of seven people serve as onthe-job training. Bomb or kill, there’s always the next night to perfect the craft and hopefully perform in front of larger audiences, go on tour and maybe even get that sitcom deal. But before fame and fortune, there are stops at Luna’s Café on 16th Street, Vince’s Ristorante in West Sacramento and maybe an opener or middle spot on a Thursday lineup at either Laughs Unlimited or Punch Line.

Before COVID-19 hit hard in 2020, Sacramento had a thriving comedy scene, and rising comics took advantage. The venues are slowly shaking o the dust on the microphones, readjusting the spotlights and opening the stages, and there’s never been more to talk—and laugh—about than right here in the Cap City.

“Before COVID, you could go to the Comedy Spot on Sunday, Luna’s on Tuesday and Wednesday, Vince’s on Thursday. You could do stand-up every day of the week,” says Ruby Setnik, a young comedian on tour with fellow Sacramento stand-up JR De Guzman. “It’s awesome to be an amateur comedian in Sacramento. There’s always an audience that wants to listen to you. There’s a lot of places to work, but it’s not oversaturated. It’s kind of a secret great place for comedy.”

Sacramento has a strong, diverse scene that produces popular comics. JR De Guzman sold out the 900-seat Crest Theatre in October. He won the 2016 StandUp NBC competition, and Mike E. Winfield won it in 2019. Kiry Shabazz won the competition in 2017. The annual competition searches for comics from diverse backgrounds and signs the winner to a talent development contract. Winfield was a finalist on this season’s “America’s Got Talent.”

Jack Gallagher has been a staple of the Sacramento comedy scene for decades. He returns to stand-up for a show at The Sofia on Dec. 10.

“This will be the first time I’ve done stand-up in 15 to 20 years,” Gallagher says. “It’s not scary. I’ve been doing comedy for 45 years. My one-man shows—I’ve

Mike E. Winfield

written eight of them—are built to be a roller coaster. They go from funny to dramatic and back and bring a varying degree of emotions. They are thematic and theatrical. But with stand-up, you’re just a joke teller, per se, and not a storyteller. It’s more free-form. I’ll do 90 minutes about getting older, my family. It’s all new material, and I’ll be trying to get a laugh all of the time.”

JR De Guzman got plenty of laughs at his triumphant return to Sacramento in front of his largest headliner crowd to date. De Guzman graduated from Jesuit High School and later from UC Davis with a degree in psychology. The former music teacher combines funny songs with bits based on current events and his ethnicity. De Guzman was born in the Philippines.

“It was amazing, so fun,” De Guzman says of his recent show at the Crest. “I got the chance to bring my family up on stage and had Jimmy Earl and Ruby (Setnik) open for me. Jimmy nurtured me as a young comic.”

In 2012, De Guzman took an improv and sketch comedy class at the Comedy Spot in 2012; the graduation “ceremony” was to perform at an open mic night. He bombed.

“I was scared out of my mind and forgot a lot of my jokes,” De Guzman says. “Back then, I didn’t perform with my guitar, so I didn’t have anything to fall back on.”

De Guzman said he’s still adjusting from clubs to larger theaters and needs to become more animated and command the stage. It’s a nice problem to have.

“I’m grateful I started in Sacramento and, especially when I started, there were multiple open mics,” De Guzman says. “There was just so much stage time when I started, and so many di erent styles. There were examples of pathways into the business. Guys such as Mike E. Winfi eld were already on the road. I saw that I could do this full time. I saw that I could take risks because at a bar in Roseville, for instance, audiences are a perfect blend. You can have conservatives and liberals, there’s a mixed demographic and you learn how to play to di erent rooms. When I was middling, I would do a few songs to gauge the room. If they were looser, I’d do some of my darker stu .”

Compared to some other comedians, De Guzman’s dark stu is not all that dark, and Mike E. Winfi eld is squeaky clean by today’s standards. Sacramento comics aren’t known for working blue, the industry term for using o -color jokes and profanities, but the content may stray that way depending on the mood of the comic and of the audience on a particular night. Winfi eld got his start at an open mic night at Laughs Unlimited in 1999 and bombed so badly, “I’VE HAD NOTHING BUT SUPPORT IN SACRAMENTO FROM COMICS AND, ESPECIALLY, OTHER FEMALE COMEDIANS.” he says, it took him years to get — RUBY SETNIK the courage to return to the stage.

“I prepared something like three jokes, and I didn’t know you were actually supposed to write comedy,” Winfi eld says. “I got up there and froze. People paid $5 but wanted late-night-TV quality. I quit after that. It was a disaster. I came back a couple of years later as Winfi eld McNamara. It was not a stellar set, but better.”

“It depends on who you are,” Winfi eld says of a comic’s decision to work blue or not. “I push sometimes. But every time I think I’m pushing boundaries, there’s someone telling me, ‘Nah, Mike, you ain’t pushing nothing.’ That’s why (“America’s Got Talent”) fi t me so well. When I’m working on a bit, sometimes vulgarity works, but I like topical Ruby Setnik comedy. Life is so rich, man, there’s not much need for me to go after JR De Guzman dark stu or work blue. I’ll talk about being a Little League coach or taking edibles by mistake.”

Gallagher says he admires comedians who are original. If a comedian works blue and they’re funny, he has no problem with it.

“There’s nothing wrong with a well-placed F-bomb,” he says. “But if you get into a hole and start throwing F-bombs to get a laugh, and to get out of the hole, then that says to me that you don’t have any good material, or any confi dence in yourself.”

Curse words, Gallagher says, become like too many exclamation points in a paragraph. They lose their effectiveness, he says, noting that new comics who go right to blue are neither funny nor clever.

“As far as I’m concerned, you can push the envelope, go as far as you want, as long as you take the audience with you,” Gallagher says. “You’ll know instinctively when you have to change course. One comedian, a famous one and I’m not going to name names, he’d die out there and just keep digging. He didn’t care.”

Setnik says local comedians watch out for each other, especially the female comics.

“As a female comedian, I’m one of only a few, and it’s hard to fi nd mentors,” she says. “It’s a boys club, but it’s how you learn how to do stand-up. It’s an extra barrier to overcome, but I’ve had nothing but support in Sacramento from comics and, especially, other female comedians. Women such as Becky Lynn, Melissa McGillicuddy and Celeste Winter have all helped me.”

Winfi eld says that diversity is to be celebrated and is a primary reason Sacramento comics have gained so much success and notoriety in the past fi ve years or so.

“The Sacramento comedy scene is worldly underrated,” Winfi eld says. “Guys like Kiry Shabazz, Lance Woods, BT Kingsley, Ricco Da Great, Steph Garcia, Cheryl “The Soccer Mom” Anderson and Regina Givens are all great Sacramento comics. We’re all out here grinding.”

Gallagher has reached a level of fame, and an age, he admits, that he no longer has to grind for gigs. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t still work hard on his craft. If someone calls, he says, he’ll take the gig. But he’s not chasing jobs anymore. “It takes a lot to get up on stage and grab the microphone, and Sacramento has been great to me,” says Gallagher, who recently had a recurring role on Larry David’s “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” “I brought up my two boys out here. We still spend about half our time (in Sacramento) and the other

half on Cape Cod. I used to get recognized all the time, but I don’t anymore. If you’re under the age of 50, you don’t know who I am or what I’ve done. But I do take a lot of pride that people in Sacramento like my stu .” Gallagher says he stopped doing clubs a while ago, but there was a time when he was in the comedy clubs most nights, working on material and waiting for the call for a spot on “The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson,” which he did back in 1986. He knows exactly what De Guzman, Winfi eld, Setnik and the others are going through. “Sacramento has a very active comedy scene from what Kiry Shabazz I’ve heard from my students,” says Gallagher, who teaches a stand-up comedy class at The Sofi a. “There are a lot of open mic nights. But I’m at a point now where 20-, 30- or 40-year-olds don’t want to hear about me getting up four times a night to go pee. But, man, those jokes kill at Del Webbs.”

Jack Gallagher

Fairy Godmother for Local Comedians

Jennifer Canfield has been called a nurturing influence on more than one Sacramento comic. She takes that to heart, she says, and will continue to watch over any comic who comes through Laughs Unlimited, her venerable Old Sacramento comedy club.

BOB SAGET SHOT A LOCAL COMMERCIAL FOR LAUGHS UNLIMITED WELL BEFORE HE BECAME FAMOUS WITH TV SHOWS SUCH AS “FULL HOUSE” AND “AMERICA’S FUNNIEST HOME VIDEOS.”

JR De Guzman credits Canfield for being a steadying influence on him both on and off the stage. Before his 2022 breakout, De Guzman was a grinder, taking slots at Laughs Unlimited whenever Canfield called.

“I’m so glad that things have worked out for him,” the Laughs Unlimited owner says of De Guzman’s rising star. “I’m super proud of him. I have home videos of him playing guitar with my daughter when he was just starting out.”

Canfield says Tony Baker is another comedian who started working at Laughs and is a national headliner now who sells out shows months ahead of time. Baker credits Laughs with giving him the confidence to become a successful comic.

“He’s become an internet sensation and is blowing up,” Canfield says. “He says that when he comes through Sacramento there’s nowhere else he’ll play than here at Laughs. That makes me feel good.”

Canfield is particularly proud that she still offers comedy workshops and open mics for those just starting out in the business.

Comics such as Bob Saget and Tom Segura are huge stars who cut their teeth at Laughs Unlimited. Saget shot a local commercial for Laughs Unlimited well before he became famous with TV shows such as “Full House” and “America’s Funniest Home Videos,” Canfield says.

Canfield says she purposefully doesn’t book big-name comedians and would rather book stage time for comics working to make a name for themselves. Gone are the days of the wild parties at the club’s downtown condo, she says, and does she have some stories. The condo is still there, but it’s more of a place for rest and reflection rather than ribald revelry.

“The 1980s were pretty wild,” says Canfield, who has worked at the club in one capacity or another for more than two decades. “But now, the comedians who come through are so much more business oriented. They have to be. They have to do so much self-promotion now through social media.”

Events DECEMBER

DEC. 7 – JAN. 7 Still Lifes in

Focus—In “Twelve: Objects as Subjects,” midtown’s Viewpoint Photographic Art Center showcases still-life photographic works for its 14th annual open juried exhibition, with a Second Saturday reception Dec. 10. Whether found, constructed or blended, the still lifes range in subject matter and creative approach. Sierra College professor of photography Kirkman Amyx serves as exhibition juror. viewpoint photoartcenter.org

DEC. 10 – 24

New Nutcracker—

Sacramento Ballet brings back its annual holiday production of The Nutcracker, choreographed by Nicole Haskins, Colby Damon and Julia Feldman to Tchaikovsky’s musical masterpiece. Audiences are sure to delight in this new version of the ballet, performed to a live orchestra by company dancers and dozens of area youths who auditioned for coveted roles of mice, candy canes and more. At SAFE Credit Union PAC. sacballet.org

DEC. 11

Towering Talent—

At 5 foot 4, stand-up star Kevin Hart may joke about his small stature, but his sky-high success as a comedian, actor, writer and producer seems to know no limits. Star of numerous TV series, films (“Ride Along,” “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle” and “Jumanji: The Next Level,” “Night School”) and top comedy albums, the Philly-born and -raised comedian brings his Reality Check tour to Golden 1 Center. golden1center.com THROUGH DEC. 24 THROUGH JAN. 1

Is Santa Over

It?—Overworked (80 million more gift requests just this year!), overstuffed (too many cookies!) and overwhelmed (woke elves! a melting North Pole!), could Santa be ready to hang up his reindeer reins for good? Will Mrs. Claus intervene? Find out at “The Lost Claus,” B Street Theatre’s mainstage holiday play written by B Street’s own Buck Busfield and Dave Pierini. At The Sofia. bstreettheatre.org

Some Enchanted

Evening—There’s a new holiday pop-up playground in town: Enchant, a date- and family-friendly space illuminated with 4 million twinkling lights. Take in the festive afterdark atmosphere as you stroll through the Christmas light maze, visit with Santa, go ice skating, and shop, sip and snack your way through a village full of artisan vendors and eateries. At Sutter Health Park. enchantchristmas. com

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Taste

inside: Aimal, the Sequel / Tacos for the Win / Baked Good

Brave New World

Meet BellaBot. Billed as a “premium delivery robot,” Bella brings plates of food directly to customers’ tables at OZ KOREAN BBQ’s two Sacramento locations. Oz owner Peter Kim invested in the machines to solve the labor shortage plaguing local restaurants. According to Pudu, the robot’s Chinese manufacturer, Bella can deliver 400 dishes in a single day and work 24 hours without pause. Not only that, but she never needs a smoke break. 3343 Bradshaw Road; 2605 West Taron Court, Elk Grove; ozkoreanbbq.com

Kevin Barnett, Aimal Formoli and Suzanne Ricci

Fried chicken with wild mushroom hash and chili purée