Rooftop Comedy

Dominic and Jono of Rooftop Comedy

So... while visiting California a few weeks ago I decided to drop by Rooftop Comedy's headquarters in San Francisco. Yep that happened... Jono (Editor, Community Manager) and Dominic (Managing Producer) were cool enough to to give me a tour of the office and talk shop about the changing face of comedy in a digital age.

Now if your a serious comedian or a real comedy nerd, and you've done the slightest google search related to stand up comedy, chances are you've run into this site (if not look em up). Rooftop was one of the first comprehensive comedy websites I discovered while doing the research into starting this site (yeah believe it or not research was done) and found it to be an incredible resource plus a great inspiration.

What's outstanding about Rooftop Comedy is the insane amount of content they produce. Basically they film and distribute live stand up comedy performances from comedians all over the country (and the world) at some of the best comedy venues in existence including Chicago's own Lincoln Lodge and CHUC comedy clubs. They have THOUSANDS of videos that are all available for fans to view, free of charge. Most of the great Chicago comedians of the last 5-10 years can be found on there. For me, such access was invaluable.

Where the magic happens

Another cool aspect about Rooftop is how connected and supportive they are to the national and local comedy scenes in general. They were one of first organizations to reach out and let us know that they too loved the Chicago comedy scene, were glad we were covering it, dug what we were trying to do and continue to be supportive to this day. Rooftop basically set the bar for us on being a proactive digital and social media resource for the exploding Chicago comedy boom.

Now... I'm sure some are you are like "yeah yeah I know all of this." Well... did you know that Rooftop Comedy has a record label now?

Yep... Rootopcomedy Productions is producing comedy albums for some of the best comics in the game including Chicago standouts like Beth Stelling. Dominic reports that they will continue to aggressively focus on producing great live comedy albums and that the Chicago scene is definitely on the radar for upcoming projects.

Oh yeah one more thing, got a set that Rooftop Comedy recorded and you think you nailed it like a rock-star?  Well they can produce you a master DVD of your set (headliner or showcase) and mail it to you. What!? Now you can have merchandise (if you so desire) just like the big boys.

The bottom line is that Rooftop Comedy is a class act organization that supports the art of live comedy. Check it out sometime.

James Allen Kamp
Editor