After a decade, Kansas City area comedy club space is coming back to life
No, says First Amendment Brew Haha owner Steve Kramer, the name of his soon-to-open comedy club isn’t a political dog-whistle to conservative comics who feel like crowds are too easily offended these days.
“I completely reject that notion, and I was surprised when a few people suggested that to me,” Kramer said. “The First Amendment is for everyone — conservative, liberal, whatever. The main thing I’m saying with the name is that we reject censorship of all kinds. We’ll have comics in here that offend people on the left, and comics that offend people on the right. But this is not a place you’re going to get canceled. You’re safe as a comedian here.”
That kind of anti-cancel-culture branding has worked well for Joe Rogan at his successful Comedy Mothership in Austin, and Kramer hopes the same will be true here in his hometown. After spending the better part of the last two decades ping-ponging between coasts and stand-up stages, Kramer is back living in KC and about a month out from opening First Amendment Brew Haha at 1867 Village West Parkway, Suite 201, in KCK’s Legends Outlets.
That deadline isn’t theoretical: Kramer’s already booked shows just about every weekend through October, starting with himself June 18-22. Later in the summer the club will welcome comics Pablo Francisco (July 10-12), Jeff Richards (July 17-19) and Jimmy Shubert (Aug. 28-30).
The location of First Amendment Brew Haha will be familiar to longtime local comedy fans as the second-floor space once occupied by Stanford and Sons. It has been sitting empty since owner Craig Glazer and his brothers closed that comedy club in 2014. (Glazer died in 2018.)
Kramer got his start doing open-mic nights back in the late 1990s at Stanford and Sons’ Westport location, and he sees his new club as an “extension” of what the Glazers did for comedy in Kansas City back in the day.
“There were some negative aspects of Stanford and Sons — they ripped some comics off, people sometimes had their checks bounce — but Craig and I were always good friends, and he always had a real love of Kansas City, and particularly comics from Kansas City,” Kramer said. “So I’m trying to keep the good aspects of what they did and eliminate the more negative stuff.”
Prior to the pandemic, Kramer had planned to open a comedy club in Merriam along with an investor. It fell through, but he held on to the dream.
“I had a business plan and all these ideas I’d gathered from performing in comedy clubs all across the country,” Kramer said. “I wanted to create my own Frankenstein of a club based on everything I’ve seen over the years.”
He eventually met with the Legends Outlets landlords, who informed him that the former Stanford and Sons space was not just available but largely untouched since the days Glazer was running it. It was essentially a turnkey situation for a comedy club, with a bar, a kitchen, and theater seating ready to go. So Kramer sold his house and went all in on the dream.
His plans are grandiose. They include three 85-inch TVs stacked into a wall-sized screen for Chiefs and Royals watch parties, a sidestage for live-band karaoke, and animatronic puppets — think Statler and Waldorf by way of Wyandotte County — controlled by comics in the green room that’ll heckle the crowd before the show.
“If Bill Burr’s backstage and suddenly you hear his voice coming out of a puppet, that’s going to be a moment,” Kramer said.
He also envisions a trap door beneath the stage, rigged to belch smoke and rattle chains if an open mic comic ignores the light and runs long. “Something fun to help young comics learn to get off stage when they’re supposed to.”
The “brew” in the name is a reference to both coffee and beer. Kramer said that in addition to the usual domestics and imports, they’ll be serving their own beer with the help of Woodie Bonds, co-founder of Vine Street Brewing Co. A coffee whiz who Kramer said has developed flavors for Scooter’s and Chick-fil-A will be making proprietary blends for the club as well.
Foodwise, Kramer is hoping to get permitted for a smoker so he can serve barbecue. To start, though, the club will serve a menu centered around bar food.
The Kansas City area is currently home to two other comedy clubs: The Comedy Club of Kansas City in south KC and the Funny Bone in Zona Rosa. But Kramer said his experience is that Kansas City isn’t known as a comedy destination.
“There are some cities in the world where you could host comedy shows in a garage or an airplane hangar and sell the place out no matter who’s performing, because it’s just a place that loves comedy,” Kramer said. “Kansas City, for whatever reason, is just not one of those places.
“But I knew that going in. I’ve been working in comedy for more than 25 years. So instead of running from that challenge, I’m embracing it. A live comedy show is one of the last things left that AI can’t duplicate, and one of the reasons why is because you never know what’s going to happen. So I’m trying to create a space for that here.”
