Comedic uprising

Dallas Comedy House is battling eviction.

The Dallas Comedy House and the taming of diversity in Dallas

Brandi Amara Skyy | Contributing Writer
brandi@dallasvoice.com
Early this year while searching for public speaking classes, I stumbled upon Dallas Comedy House’s class curriculum — storytelling, six levels of improv and standup comedy. Immediately I knew I wanted in, and when I discovered they offered Diversity Scholarships that would cover the cost of classes, I dropped everything I was doing and applied.
A month later, I received an email saying I was awarded a scholarship and signed up for my first class, Storytelling.
When I arrived at DCH, I fully expected to be ushered into the building in which the theater is located. Instead, I learned our classes were being held in DCH’s training center — the gray building right next to the theater.
The moment I stepped foot in the room, I knew this place was special. The training center was full of rooms with names like “Hall” and “Vutam.” There was a family-style room full of couches, and every wall was decorated with pictures of DCH students sprinkled in with Saturday Night Live inspiration.
I could feel the life and laughter in the building, and when I made my way to the other end of the room, I saw they had LGBTQ flyers on the walls and gender-neutral bathrooms. I knew that I would not only be welcomed here as an out loud and proud gay, but celebrated. I felt like I was home — a feeling that was solidified further when my wife and I attended the special scholarship reception the following week.
At the reception, I met the whole DCH family and my mentor Scriven, aka Miracle, who is one of the founding members of DCH’s LGBTQ+ group that produces the improv-turning-variety show “Let’s Get Busy Tonight.” I also met Amanda Austin who, I would later find out, was the owner of this magical space.
Amanda and I chatted about chunky big jewelry, hoop earrings and how said earrings were a part of her uniform staple, a la Steve Jobs’ black turtleneck. I had fallen in love with her and DCH, but what I was most excited about was that this was only the beginning of what I knew was going to be a long and special relationship with this amazing place and these colorful humans.
Only it wasn’t.
Two days after being introduced to a new potential family, I learned through Amanda’s Facebook that the Dallas Comedy House was being threatened with eviction by the new owners of the building, Black Market Investments, the same people that own Terry Black’s BBQ in Austin.
Amanda wrote, “I’m faced with a new landlord, one whose introduction to me wasn’t a phone call or meeting, but a default letter, and I’m staring at a termination of tenancy notice based on trumped up and bogus claims of being in default under my lease.”
She continued, “They effectively bought the building with the knowledge I had two more years on my lease, with an additional option to renew, but told me they wanted me out.”
And just like that, something that was so full of potential became the source of immediate pain.
At first, I was heartbroken at the thought of losing something that I just found, but then I got mad. Mad for myself because I may not get to see where this chapter of my story takes me, and mad for all these people I had just met for whom DCH is home, their reprieve from the outside world’s noise just like how the Gayborhood is mine.
And then I got even angrier as I started thinking about the impending and imminent threat of losing yet another community and cultural collective space AND all the spaces that we’ve already lost.
Because for those of us who love Dallas’ unique local flavor of neighborhoods and businesses what’s happening with DCH is not an isolated incident. We have seen this all too often before — an infamous and historical community favorite being forced to shut it doors because the owner of the land wants to sell out to some corporate giant.
We saw it happen with The Loon on Lemmon when CVS bought the land and kicked out the 22-year old business — and the place the Mavericks went to celebrate their 2011 championship — to build their store.
We saw it happen in our community when BJ’s NXS was forced to close — even after the owner offered to pay the landlord double rent to stay open the remainder of 2017.
While each of these situations may be different, the questions and answers are still the same: Does Dallas really need a CVS right across the street from Walgreens? Does Dallas really need another barbecue joint in Deep Ellum?
Even if you believe the answer is yes and that these conglomerates expansions are the cost of “development” and growth for our city, that’s only part of the problem.
The real issue here is Dallas is losing its charm, personality and culture to the highest bidder — and it just keeps getting worse. Just this week the tycoon and billionaire from Austin, Michael Dell, teamed up with Dallas-based realtor service Retail Connection and bought up a majority of land in another infamous Dallas neighborhood — Knox. And what’s really troublesome is the manner in which these corporate and company giants come after the little people and small businesses they want out.
In that same Facebook post, Amanda described the behind-the-scenes bullying she endured the first week of April: “Last week, at the beginning of our 9th annual Dallas Comedy Festival, when we had comedians from all over the country fly in for performance opportunities, we got a ‘surprise’ visit from representatives from the fire marshal’s office, who said they’d just received a complaint about us. When the fire marshal didn’t shut us down that night, I received another default letter shortly thereafter.”
When I reached out to Boyd Mouse, the lawyers representing Black Market Investments and Terry Black’s BBQ for a statement, they didn’t have one … yet. But I’m not sure we need one, because this is a classic story of David and Goliath, and unfortunately for us and the Dallas cultural landscape, 99 percent of the time Goliath wins.
That was the case for the historic The Elbow Room on Gaston Avenue. Because despite Dallas preservationists trying to save The Elbow Room as an historical site, we (Dallasites who would rather keep Dallas real than pretentious) still lost because Texas A&M played the eminent domain card and seized the building for its new dental school.
What I’m pretty sure Black Market Investments, Terry Black’s BBQ and their lawyers didn’t expect was all-out resistance —from the DCH owner, the media and the community — old and new. From calls of protest to a Change.org petition to DCH members and comedy lovers using the weapon of words and penning articles for the media, the people of Deep Ellum and beyond have DCH’s and Amanda’s back. And she has ours.
They wanted her out by Monday April 16, but DCH is still here. Amanda will not be bullied, and we’ll not budge an inch.
On April 20, DCH will host Let’s Get Busy Tonight at 9 p.m. Tickets available online at DallasComedyHouse.laughstub.com/event.cfm?cart&id=505678.
On June 23 at 11:30 p.m., DCH will host it’s first-ever drag pageant, “Drag Reflex.” Tickets available soon.