New Fort Collins club, legendary Denver spot bringing comics back to Colorado

By Steve Graham

David Rodriguez could have moved to New York or Los Angeles to take his comedy career to the next level. Instead, he stayed in Fort Collins to take the Colorado comedy scene to the next level.

He recently opened The Comedy Fort, the first dedicated comedy club in northern Colorado since a northern outpost of Comedy Works closed in 1993. Thanks to his new venue and Comedy Works South, the laughs are coming back to the Front Range after a fairly mirthless year in lockdown.

Comedy Works Downtown, one of the nation’s premier comedy clubs, remains closed. However, the southern annex near the Denver Tech Center reopened at reduced capacity in March. Most upcoming weekends are booked with comics, including veteran actor and comedian Michael Rapaport, “The Dork Forest” podcast host Jackie Kashian, and Denver’s own Josh Blue.

In Fort Collins, Rodriguez had been slowly building a scene in Fort Collins throughout his six-year comedy career. He planned monthly comedy shows at the Aggie Theater in Old Town, and a weekly comedy showcase at the Colorado Room near the Colorado State University campus.

He likes to crack jokes about Colorado, but he said he can’t imagine leaving. He doesn’t even want to move out of Fort Collins.

“This scene has always been so supportive and so great that when I started here, I said ‘this is great, how come more people don’t do comedy in Fort Collins,’” Rodriguez said. “They told me ‘you know, you get funny and then you move to Denver. If you want to move up in standup, that’s what you have to do, because that’s where the opportunities are.’ Well, we can just make opportunities here.”

Fort Comedy is in the heart of Old Town Fort Collins, and replaces the former Hodi’s Half Note, which had hosted concerts and events for 13 years. It was also home to the longest-running open mic night for comics in the state.

“We were just about to celebrate the 10-year anniversary of it the week everything shut down in mid-March,” Rodriguez said.

After months with no live music, Hodi’s closed.

“When the opportunity came up to do this project here, I was like ‘It’s perfect. It was like the universe lining up,’” he said. “I tried to keep the best parts of the vibe and stuff that people identify with Hodi’s while still making it its own thing.”

Rodriguez spent much of the lockdown working with his friends to convert a single live music venue into a comedy club divided into a main stage space and a separate lounge and bar that will host open mic nights. The main space will eventually have a 150-person capacity, but the club is currently restricted to 40-percent capacity at socially distanced tables.

He kept working on his jokes and performing as much as possible through the pandemic, but he really missed true comedy venues.

“Zoom shows are fine, but they’re not the same. Outdoor shows are fine but they’re not the same. There’s no substitute for a club,” Rodriguez said.

He said Fort Comedy works well in conjunction with Comedy Works and other Denver venues. On their way into the big city, comedians might spend a night in Fort Collins to do a set.

“My goal for this room is for people to trust me enough to where even if they don’t know who it is, they’ll just go because they know it’s going to be a good comic,” he said.

Upcoming events at the Comedy Fort

Mary Santora 4/30 and 5/1
Carmen Lagala 5/7 and 5/8
Other weekly events include Sunday night trivia, local comedy showcases on Thursdays, and the Joke Gym on Wednesdays, where aspiring comics can work out their own material.
Click here for tickets and full schedule

Upcoming events at Comedy Works South

Chad Daniels 4/29 to 5/1
Michael Rapaport 5/20 to 5/22
Click here for more information