Chicago’s Only Black Owned Comedy Club Closing Its Doors

jokes and notes

Chicago Institution Jokes and Notes Closes This Weekend

The Chicago Sun Times is reporting that Chicago is losing an important part of its comedy landscape. Legendary comedy producer Mary Lindsey is closing Jokes and Notes, Chicago’s only black owned comedy club.

Lindsey has been an important part of comedy history in Chicago; prior to opening Jokes and Notes, she was one of the owners of All Jokes Aside, a legendary club that not only launched some major careers (including Bernie Mac and Cedric the Entertainer), but was also the subject of the award winning documentary Phunny Business.  Mary Lindsey opened Jokes and Notes to fill the void left by the closure of All Jokes Aside, which also had help support the careers of Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, Jamie Foxx, MoNique, Carlos Mencia, D.L Hughley, Mike Epps, JB Smoove, Aries Spears, Bill Bellamy, Craig Robinson, Deon Cole, Earthquake and Tommy Davidson among others.

The Chicago Sun Times reported that a combination of gentrification and a lack of businesses, like restaurants that would draw fans to the neighborhood, caused a financial strain on Mary Lindsey and the club, and despite having great talent and one of the best open mics in the business, Lindsey decided it was time to close her doors.
The club recently celebrated its 10th anniversary in Chicago’s Southside, and we spoke to Mary last December about the club’s accomplishments.  “This year there were two really special moments for me out of that ten year history, the success of two comics,” she told us. “Deon Cole was one of my hosts when I started. He went out to LA and started writing for and now he’s on Black-ish, he does Angie Tribeca. He’s doing such amazing things and he came from that platform at Jokes & Notes. And Lil Rel Howery– actually that’s his stage name, his real name is Milton Howery– but he never used that (laughs). I’m very proud of him because ten years ago he waltzed into Jokes & Notes, a funny guy and just wanted to fill himself out. But he turned out to be one of my favorite comedians because he listened, he wrote well, he produced when he was supposed to and he was just a really funny person covering stand up, improv, sketch, and I just love him. He started at Jokes and Notes on a Wednesday night open mic, and now he’s on Friends of the People on truTV and a RELevent tour that is being produced by Kevin Hart, and now he’s doing The Carmichael Show in NBC that just got picked up again. Given the hard work, and not knowing if it would work, I feel blessed that I was able to make that difference for those two specific comics and all of the comics who have achieved.”
The last show at Jokes and Notes will take place this Saturday, and Lindsey expects some surprise drop-ins from some of the comedy stars whose careers she helped nurture. “I don’t know who’s going to show up. A lot of them have told me they’re coming. It’ll be epic,” Lindsey told the Sun Times, adding,  “I think I’m going to be this big, sappy crybaby. It’s the end of something really big that made such a huge difference to this generation of comics, and they’re sad to see it go. But I’ll get through it. And then I’m just going to drop the mic, lock up.”

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