Anyone looking for entertainment beyond the usual bands or DJ setups will want to visit Reds Saloon on Wednesdays for its free weekly Comedy Nights. Don\u2019t let the “free” part fool you. This is no amateur-hour gathering. The show features up to six comedians a night in a roughly hour-and-a-half show that places national headliners alongside a worthy mix of local openers \u2014 and a joke or two from host and comedian Josh Nelson. It\u2019s a fast-paced night of fun that\u2019s both extremely entertaining and one of the area\u2019s best entertainment values. Nelson produces and emcees the shows, which began in 2012. While a weeknight might not seem the optimal time for a gig, Reds Saloon\u2019s full houses mean Nelson has had no problem drawing out-of-town talent. “It first started out by my reaching out to people I had done shows with,” he said. “Now that it\u2019s got a really good track record, comics from Los Angeles are actually hitting me up to do the show.” While comedy is subjective, Nelson notes Reds Saloon draws a discerning crowd, ranging from young hipsters to older married couples. “The audiences really know comedy pretty well. They\u2019re pretty good at judging what\u2019s funny or not. This isn\u2019t like a comedy club, where the audiences laugh really easy, so comedians have to bring their \u2018A game,\u2019” he said. “But when they do, the audience really respects that.”
\nNelson regularly travels to Los Angeles to check out talent and has a list of more than 100 comedians on call for the shows. “What\u2019s great about these performances is that a lot of the comics who come to the show are doing so just before they become really big,” he said. “While the comics are up and coming, a lot of them have already done television, Comedy Central Network, HBO specials, \u2018Last Comic Standing\u2019 and things like that. So they are people that you\u2019ll be seeing more of later on. In many cases, they\u2019re acts that will run you up to $20 on the weekends at clubs, while here it\u2019s free.”
\nLos Angeles-based comedian Andrew Santino is a regular in San Diego comedy rooms, having also worked on such television programs as \u2018Punk\u2019d.\u2019 A recent headliner at Reds Saloon, he doesn\u2019t mind the drive. “Standups will go do any show if it\u2019s a good show,” he said. “(Nelson) never puts on just a random weekday show. People treat it like it\u2019s their last day on earth there. It\u2019s fantastic.”
\nNelson said the night tends to draw a younger crowd, but he hasn\u2019t noticed much difference between Los Angeles and San Diego comedy. “I guess people think we\u2019re all working out, so that comes into more play,” he said. “People are in better shape, and [comedians] make fun of that.” Closing in on five years into his comedy career, Nelson became a comic the old-fashioned way \u2014 on a dare. “A friend and I went to a comedy club, an open mic,” he recalled. “I said, \u2018I could do that,\u2019 and my roommate said, \u2018No you can\u2019t.\u2019 It was embarrassing, so I said, \u2018All right, I\u2019ll do it!\u2019 “I wrote jokes for six weeks, went and tried them out and it didn\u2019t go terrible. Somebody told me I was funny, so I tried it again, and I\u2019ve been doing it ever since,” he said.
\nWhile a life in comedy might seemingly have the same odds of success as being a musician, Nelson notes the rewards can be great. “I love that rush when its going well and you make people laugh,” he said. “There\u2019s no better feeling than that.”
\n\u2022 COMEDY NIGHT: Wednesdays at REDS SALOON, 4190 Mission Blvd. 8 p.m. thewoodgroupsd.com\/reds.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Anyone looking for entertainment beyond the usual bands or DJ setups will want to visit Reds Saloon on Wednesdays for its free weekly Comedy Nights. Don\u2019t let the “free” part fool you. This is no amateur-hour gathering. The show features up to six comedians a night in a roughly hour-and-a-half show that places national headliners […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":726,"featured_media":260058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"Got the blues? Hit up PB\u2019s Reds Saloon for some good, free belly laughs","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"jnews_override_counter":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11551],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-260057","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260057","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/726"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=260057"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/260057\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/260058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=260057"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=260057"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=260057"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}