Photo illustration: Tess Brzycki
Matt Kemple, Greg Bach and Kaitlin McCarthy, co-owners of Milwaukee’s newest comedy venue—The Laughing Tap (706B S. Fifth St.)—are slumped together on a couch, exhausted. As they should be because, in addition to working their day jobs and producing several monthly shows for Milwaukee Comedy (where Kemple is the founder and creative director, and Bach and McCarthy are show producers), they’ve also been working at night to get The Laughing Tap ready for a soft opening show, just a couple of days away. There’s still a lot of finishing touches. The stage, which will feature dozens of comedians in the next couple months, needs to be painted. Chairs need to be moved into the room, and the bar needs to be stocked.
“Yeah, we’re real tired,” Kemple admits.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not excited!” McCarthy adds.
“The reason we’re so tired is there’s a lot of passion we’re putting into this. We didn’t sit on top of a golden throne and pay people to build our dream, we’re building it ourselves,” Kemple explains.
Milwaukee Comedy produces shows all over the city (as well as the annual Milwaukee Comedy Festival), but, as Bach notes, for years “there hasn’t really been a dedicated spot for stand-up in the city.” It’s something that’s been sorely missed by “producers, comedians and, most importantly, the audience. It was always in our plans to do something down the road, and we were given this amazing opportunity and decided to go with it,” Bach says.
“We really lucked out.” Kemple agrees. “We looked at a lot of spaces, but for me, this checked all the boxes.”
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With the space secured, the trio dove into the project, with Milwaukee Comedy financing the new business. Fortunately, they had a good structure in place to work with. The bar area is left over from when the space was Brenner Brewing Company. Their location in Walker’s Point is hot with development, and the co-owners say they are looking forward to becoming part of the neighborhood. Dinner and drinks before or after a show are easy to find with neighbors like Fuel Café 5th Street, Hamburger Mary’s and other nearby options.
‘Everyone’s in on the Joke’
Nowadays, the comedy biz is not without its challenges. The last couple years have seen controversies with comedians Louis C.K. (for offstage sexual harassment), Kevin Hart (homophobic tweets) and Shane Gillis (who was going to join “Saturday Night Live” until racist material surfaced) blow up. So how does The Laughing Tap tread the line between good comedy and material that will offend and possibly turn away their audience?
“We just don’t hire people like that, we’re not interested,” Kemple explains, talking about comedians who have racist or homophobic sets. “Occasionally, someone like that will come through and we typically won’t work with them again. It doesn’t matter what someone’s political affiliation is, but it does matter how they treat fellow human beings.”
“Comedy is better when everyone is in on the joke. Punching down is something we frown upon and a lot of comedy fans frown upon,” McCarthy says.
“We want this to be a place where people are coming to have a good time, a worst-case scenario for us is for someone to leave one of our shows upset that something was said that hurt them,” Bach adds, noting they put a lot of work into carefully curating their line-ups. “You’re talking to three really big fans of comedy, so the screening process for us isn’t a grind.”
The Laughing Tap opened the weekend of Jan. 10 with headliner Sam Tallent (from Denver) and locals AJ Grill and Dana Ehrmann opening. Upcoming headliners include Whitney Chitwood (Jan. 24-25) and Chris Fairbanks (Jan. 31-Feb. 1). The Laughing Tap plans to be open Wednesday through Sunday, with weekly open mics, showcases and weekend comedy shows.
An exciting feature of The Laughing Tap’s building space is the possibility to expand. The back part of the building currently has dismantled brewing equipment, and the plan is to create a second stage venue in this area that can seat a couple hundred people. That’ll happen in a year or so, depending on how things go, the co-owners say. But let’s not talk too much about that, right now—these comedians are tired, and the floor still needs to be swept.
Find out more about upcoming shows at laughingtap.com.
