By Jack Firneno
Wire Editor
It looks much more like a fancy catering hall than a comedy club. Being tucked away on a back road in Lower Bucks doesn’t lend itself to that image, either.
But for 25 years, Georgine’s Restaurant has been home to the Comedy Works every weekend. And during that time, the club, which sets up shop with dinner and a show in the banquet hall, has become something of a hidden gem for comedy audiences and the comedians themselves.
And for performers like Chris Rich, it’s like home.
“I’ve been there so long we have traditional weekends. I’m always there the weekend after Thanksgiving,” said Rich. “It’s great. My in-laws fly in, they all come to the show, and I don’t have to clean my house.”
Rich lives in Yardley — not the borough, more like South Sesame, she quipped — making the conscious decision to call Bucks her home as she regularly tours nationally, as well as overseas and on cruise ships, and makes television appearances on Comedy Central and ABC’s The View.
And, part of being a Bucks resident means never being far from Georgine’s when she’s home. It’s the club with regulars, people who come to see their favorite comics so religiously that Rich was asked to speak at an older fan’s funeral. And those regulars include other comics: you can often see them all at a long table in the back, enjoying their peers.
“A lot of places have popped up, but Georgine’s has outlasted them all,” she said.
There are reasons both comics and their fans love it. “The food does a lot of advertising for us,” said Rich about the restaurant’s renowned quality and low prices. The portions help, too: “They brought out a steak for my mom, we thought they were going to carve it for the whole table.”
And, it’s just got the right vibe. Comics crave an intimate place where they can feel connected to an audience, and they find it here. “There’s a saying, if you can touch the ceiling with the tips of your fingers, it’s a good room,” said Rich.
The room at Georgine’s is just slightly bigger than that once the stage is up, but still has a certain appeal to it that — and people locally have tried, she stressed — you can’t just build and expect to be there.
“Some places are just born to be comedy rooms,” she said. “It’s like a party, a little reunion. On Fridays, it’s packed to the gills.”
And, it’s been that way ever since Rich started at Comedy Works, long before it was in Bucks County. The original engagements started in the ’80s at the restaurant Middle East in Philadelphia, and were run by Steve Young and Joy and Jimmy Little. Comedians like Bill Hicks performed regularly, Jay Leno and Chris Rock dropped in to try new material, and belly dancers performed downstairs.
“You really had to work to be funny, because if no one laughed, all you’d hear were the finger cymbals,” Rich recalled.
But that’s what made it fun, she said: working alongside the pros, and building a community of comedians who would stay up all night after a show helping each other with their jokes.
Eventually, the Comedy Works expanded to Georgine’s, and for a while both ran concurrently. According to Mike Kaplan, who now runs the Comedy Works at Georgine’s, the Philadelphia room closed in the ’90s thanks to a lag in standup comedy popularity and an increase in parking costs.
But, the tradition blossomed in Bucks, where Kaplan regularly books people like Rich, along with Tracy Skeen, a nationally touring comic recently featured on the Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, and contenders from Comedy Central’s Last Comic Standing, like Mike Gaffney.
“It’s an intimate club, it’s not like you’re sitting far back,” said Kaplan. “The comedians know there’s a good crowd and that they’ll get a good response.”
And, he also works hard to ensure that: “Before we start the show, we remind the audience how to act,” he said. That means no talking or cell phones, and especially no heckling. “Some people think they’re helping the comic when they interact, but most times they’re not,” Kaplan explained.
It sounds like a formality, but not every club is as adamant about etiquette as the Comedy Works. And that makes a big difference for the comics, according to Rich.
“Almost every club makes that announcement, but they don’t always enforce it,” she said. At Comedy Works, however, Kaplan keeps his word. “Sometimes, the comics are shocked that people actually listen.”
But that kind of atmosphere has been around at Comedy Works since its inception. “Some clubs treat you like a DVD: ‘Sit over there, go on at nine, here’s the comedian’s menu,’ ” noted Rich. But she still remembers starting out at writing classes held by the original club owners, being encouraged to go to their open mics, and getting nurtured by the staff and other comedians as she got her stage legs.
“When you are really on the verge of getting to follow your dream, that’s the scariest time. You think, ‘If I fail at this, my life is gonna be so gray,’ ” she noted. “I was lucky. They were there to encourage me.”
For information, visit www.comedyworksbristol.com.
