Snapshots: Josh Sneed remembers his time at the Punchline in Atlanta

Earlier this month, Josh Sneed headlined The Punchline Comedy Club in Atlanta. He took a selfie backstage and posted it a few days ago to Instagram, as we all are wont to do in 2015.

But as you can see by reading the small print next to Sneed’s face, he goes way back with this club, having scrawled each of the many dates he performed there over the years. Fifteen in all.

And that’s all, folks.

The Punchline is closing up shop in the location it’s maintained in Atlanta since 1982, moving to a new spot in the city.

As Jamie Bendall, who co-owns the club with Chris DiPetta, told the Atlanta Business Journal two months ago in a statement: “A variety of things lined up with redevelopment coming in Sandy Springs and some exciting things happening around metro Atlanta. It’s hard not to love your original showroom and all of the memories from over the years. Nevertheless, we’re excited for the opportunity a new location offers that will incorporate the best aspects of the current club with some new features.”

Sneed summed up his own feelings about The Punchline with the caption he wrote for his photo above:

“Last show for me in the historic Punchline Comedy Club tonight. It was my 15th time there. Coming up, I never had a week that wasn’t headlined by a comedy icon. Mitch Hedberg, Dave Attell, Greg Giraldo, Patrice O’Neal, Craig Robinson, Lewis Black, Tom Rhodes, Jim Norton, and Robert Hawkins. It’s been an honor to have performed there at every level of the business and it was an honor to headline this magnificent room in its final month before relocating. I still feel the same way tonight the way I did when I wrote on that green room wall the first time 13 years ago, “This is why you become a comic.”

Sean L. McCarthy

Editor and publisher since 2007, when he was named New York's Funniest Reporter. Former newspaper reporter at the New York Daily News, Boston Herald and smaller dailies and community papers across America. Loves comedy so much he founded this site.

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