Bobby Mair got big laughs Monday night at WoOopsies Laugh Lounge. He is very animated on stage and the audience loved it.
photo by john evans

Graduate Kaitlin Loftus drew the biggest star yet to her comedy club on Monday when Allyson Smith was the headliner at WoOopsies Laugh Lounge.

“What I like about WoOopsies,” said Smith, who just finished taping a Comedy NOW special for CTV, “is that it is a great stage for me to come and practice stuff. For example, I’m going to practice stuff I’m going to do at the Winnipeg Comedy Festival. I find this audience to be generally a little bit younger, a little bit hipper.”

The club, in the back room at Cervejaria’s bar and grill at the corner of College and Ossington filled up fast – almost reaching its 100 person capacity before the first of seven acts began.

Loftus, who has run WoOopsies for over two years, said the turnout reflected the growing popularity of the club, the low $5 admission and the attraction of a free buffet for the comedians and audience at the intermission of the two-hour show.

“The free food brings a lot of people out. Some comedians will come just for intermission, grab some pizza and stay to watch the second half,” said Loftus, who graduated from Humber’s comedy program last October.

“I would say over 100 Humber students have been on our stage,” she said.  “We have shows twice, sometimes three times a month and every show is mainly Humber students.”

Victor Brun, a 35-year-old waiter from Toronto had a front row seat.

“We kind of stumbled into the show,” Brun said. “The acts have been entertaining. For a small-scale show, the quality has been really good.”

Smith said the club is a great launching point for new acts.

“I’ve seen so many talented people on this stage,” she said.” It’s so lovely to be able to see them now, because you think ‘Oh my God, in three years…’ You know this is where it starts. I’m a former drama teacher so there’s that part of me that’s like ‘Yeah, let’s experiment, let’s have a good time.”