After a wonderful opening weekend (Friday, June 30-Saturday, July 1st), the Hamptons’ brand-new year-round comedy club theater—STICKS AND STONES COMEDY CLUB—is up and running. The club is located in the heart of the Village of Southampton inside the professional and elegant theater at the Southampton Cultural Center. Sticks and Stones Comedy Club will present national headlining comedians and performers. It will be hosted by local Sag Harbor resident and comedian Joe Winchell. Opening weekend featured national star comedians Carmen Lynch and Jordon Rock.
Joe Winchell talking about his form of comedy, said to Hamptons.com, “ I think I’m still kind of looking for the exact label for my comedy, but it’s kind of single-guy-nostalgia-man-child-comedy.”
He said his influences include George Carlin, Big Jay Oakerson, Bill Burr, Dan Soder, Rachel Feinstein, and Shane Gillis. He said, “I could honestly name more because there’s a lot of funny people out there that I admire and look up to.”
The way Joe Winchell started is a fascinating tale. He had stopped acting and went out and tried to get a regular job, which he found difficult because, as he said, “ I’m not good at (regular jobs), I got fired from a tennis club, I quit an awning company,” he stressed he “didn’t get invited back” to a golf club. All this in less than 2 years. During this time, he ran into an old college friend of his named Mike. Joe recalls, “…I hadn’t seen [him] in a bit, and he says he started going to open mics and doing some stand-up, which I thought was awesome because I’ve loved stand-up comedy for years; he tells me I should try it so he takes me to a mic and basically now I’m here.”
Comedy is a tough business. Folks watching the Amazon Prime series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel,” get a real feel of how difficult getting established in stand-up comedy is. Mr. Winchell has his take. He said,” I’m not sure you can be born to be a comedian because I think being a comedian is so much about life experience and what you’ve personally seen and how that’s shaped your worldview, I think some people just have ‘IT.’ you know that special X factor.”
Many say how important audience chemistry is for a comedian. Even the best have struggled. Joe Winchell believes, “The best audience for my comedy is a group of 28–35-year old’s that just smoked a joint in the parking lot and texted their baby’ sitters ‘be home by midnight,’ or just a room full of single millennials.
I’m looking forward to performing in a brand-new space, I also don’t usually get to perform this close to where I live, so there are going to be people there that know me but haven’t seen me perform, and there will be others who this will be their first comedy club experience which is awesome.
Sticks and Stones Comedy Club will host national headlining comedians with two shows each evening, at 7pm and 9:30pm. Doors will open an hour before each show so guests can mingle in our art gallery, sip drinks provided by The Clubhouse, and nibble on farm-to-table delicacies from Southampton’s own Hen of the Woods.
