Clear Water Comedy: Eau Claire’s Buzzing Comedy Scene
If you’ve taken a peek at our events calendar, you may have noticed a moniker that keeps popping up: Clear Water Comedy. It’s a collective of stand-up comedians that produce, book, and perform comedy in Eau Claire. Back in 2012, when co-founder Cullen Ryan moved to Eau Claire from the Twin Cities, there wasn’t a huge comedy scene in Eau Claire. Ryan had been doing comedy in the Twin Cities and wanted to continue in Eau Claire, so he took matters into his own hands.
After scouting many open mics, he settled on the one that seemed most conducive to comedy: The Plus. Ryan started doing a ten minute set every week at the open mic there. Soon, 1 comic turned into 5, then 10, and then the open mic exploded with comedic talent. “By 2014, and this is not an exaggeration at all, we would have 150 people there to watch open mic,” Ryan says. “One week we had 32 comics drive from Minneapolis to do our mic. It was bonkers.” That’s when Clear Water Comedy was born. The owner of The Plus, Benny Haas, asked the group of comedians if they’d like their own night to do comedy, and they said yes.
Since then, Clear Water Comedy has been booking shows with regional and national acts, and continuing to do open mics. They’ve expanded into more venues, and host at least weekly events. Ryan says that word has traveled across the pond – they even have an international headliner coming to the stage in the fall.
Charlie Roettger has been performing with Clear Water Comedy for about a year, and says he was embraced by the collective. “It’s a tight-knit community filled with warmth and levity that pushes each other to improve at their craft and show more of themselves in their performance,” he says. He got bit by the comedy bug at age 6 when he performed jokes for a school talent show, but recently returned to the craft last summer, at Clear Water Comedy’s open mics at the Lakely.
Roettger says that Clear Water Comedy never fails to amaze him with how genuine and supportive the comics are of each other. “Cullen Ryan has been a phenomenal mentor to me and the other comics.” Ryan says, “We try to be extremely supportive of people, give really good advice, and be really encouraging.”
As for upcoming shows, Ryan says he’s excited to welcome Eddie Pepitone to the stage in July. “He’s one of the funniest people in the world. When Clear Water Comedy started, he was definitely one of the people on the shortlist that we wanted.”
Clear Water Comedy has been around for almost ten years and is not going anywhere. “All we really care about is bringing the best comedy that we can to Eau Claire, and trying to create the best comedy we can,” says Ryan. “We’re not trying to do anything other than spread comedy. Life is hard, and relaxing and laughing for a bit is the best gift you can get.”
Find out more and see upcoming shows on their Facebook page.