On the Town: Burbank business strives to keep comedy alive during the pandemic
Trying to keep a business afloat during the coronavirus pandemic is no laughing matter, and yet, Barbara Holliday, owner and manager of Flappers Comedy Club and Restaurant in Burbank, is determined to do both.
“We have completely reinvented our entire business model — our food service, our shows, our stand-up and comedy-writing classes and workshops, everything we do — just so we can keep paying as many of our 51 employees as possible,” Holliday said.
Determined to “keep the laughter alive,” as she repeatedly said, Holliday has established curbside take-out food service, online classes, comedy shows and a Flappcast, a daily comedy talk show she hosts that will feature club headliners and special drop-in guests, which is available via its Youtube and Facebook channels.
Just prior to going live for a recent Flappcast, the evening’s featured comedienne, Laura Hayden, called Holliday “a sky catcher.”
“Barbara is an amazing person,” Hayden said. “The sky is falling, and she’s running around determined to do everything she can to safely catch it.”
Along with trying to keep people’s spirits up and her business alive, Holliday has also set-up a pantry fully stocked with food, personal items and pet needs that is available at no charge to any of the club’s regular employees and comedians in need.
As she took her place in front of her laptop, prepared to dish out some one-liners and laughs before introducing Hayden, Holliday’s demeanor took on an uncharacteristic sadness for just a few moments.
“I have an employee with two young children whose wife has cancer. I have an employee whose mother was killed in a car accident a few weeks ago, and another who was diagnosed with cancer herself recently,” Holliday said
“We have to do anything and everything we can to help them, and all of our employees and comedians during this time, many [of whom] are really in dire straits,” she added.
Listening to Holliday, Hayden, who has incorporated jokes about the pandemic into her routine, said she thinks that even during this heartbreaking time, any subject is fodder for comedy and that laughter must be kept alive.
“George Bernard Shaw said: ‘Life does not cease to be funny when people die any more than it ceases to be serious when people laugh,’” Hayden said. “Laughter is healing, it improves your attitude — your mental and physical health.”
Paul Moonjean, who conducts comedy classes and workshops for Flappers University, agreed with Hayden.
“By exaggerating and making jokes about what we are going through — calling it the apocalypse — we can laugh at it, and by doing that, we can take away its power and the fear,” Moonjean said.
“It has always been the comedians who have kept things in perspective and given us hope during difficult times. Think of Hamlet. When he finds the skull of the jester, Yorick, he speaks fondly of the admiration he had for him and lauds him for the merriment he brought,” he added.
Moonjean said he will continue to teach all of the university’s classes online via a Zoom link and will also be offering private sessions led by some of Flappers’ top instructors and headliners.
As Holliday sat on the stage in the club’s main showroom, waiting for the countdown to start her show, she looked around the empty room.
“They say comedy clubs are not an essential business,” she said with a shrug. “I say we are — that laughter is essential. There’s no reason to live without laughter, and we have to keep it alive,” she added.
For more information about the services, shows and classes Flappers is offering, visit FlappersComedy.com or FlappersUniversity.com.
