by Restaurants receive grades from the health department and media alike. Hotels partner up with AAA.
And now Comedy Central is looking to put its unofficial official seal of approval on a comedy club near you with its new “Comedy Central Certified Club” program. CCCC, anyone? 4C?
Mitch Fried, executive vice president of Comedy Central, announced the new initiative today.
It hooks up Comedy Central with comedy clubs in a business partnership that aligns them with the Comedy Central brand for the purposes of promotions, tours, ticket sales, and sanctioned viewing parties for the cable channel’s special events or sneak previews of upcoming series and stand-up hours.
“Comedy Central has established great relationships with comedy clubs through our live touring arm and with the ‘Certified Club’ initiative we will be able to deepen our connection with the top venues and fans of comedy across the country,” Fried said in making the announcement. “Through this new venture local comedy clubs will be able to showcase and market their venues on a national scale via our massive promotional footprint and Comedy Central will be able to extend its brand on-the-ground by directly engaging fans where they live.”
Specific terms of the financial partnership were not immediately disclosed.
Here is a list of the initial charter members of “Comedy Central’s Certified Club,” which includes the Improv chain, a couple of Funny Bone locations, one of the Zanies, Caroline’s in NYC, and the dominant clubs in Boston, Phoenix and San Francisco:
CITY VENUE
Addison, TX Addison Improv
Arlington, TX Arlington Improv
Boston, MA The Wilbur Theatre
Brea, CA Brea Improv
Charlotte, NC The Comedy Zone
Chicago, IL Chicago Improv
Cleveland, OH Cleveland Improv
Denver, CO Denver Improv
Ft. Lauderdale, FL Ft. Lauderdale Improv
Hartford, CT Hartford Funny Bone
Houston, TX Houston Improv
Irvine, CA Irvine Improv
Kansas City, MO Kansas City Improv
Hollywood, CA Hollywood Improv
Miami, FL Miami Improv
Nashville, TN Zanies Comedy Showplace
New York, NY Carolines on Broadway
Ontario, CA Ontario Improv
Orlando, FL Orlando Improv
Phoenix, AZ Stand Up Live
Pittsburgh, PA Pittsburgh Improv
Sacramento, CA Punch Line Sacramento
San Francisco, CA Punch Line San Francisco
San Francisco, CA Cobb’s Comedy Club
San Jose, CA San Jose Improv
Tampa, FL Tampa Improv
Virginia Beach, VA Virginia Beach Funny Bone
West Nyack, NY Levity Live
West Palm Beach, FL Palm Beach Improv
Solid list. Looks like all the major cities made the list of the best comedy clubs over at http://www.bestcomedyshows.net.