Green Bay comedian Kristin Lytie likes when she can see her audience members.
“If I’m at a theater with lights blinding me in the eyes, it feels a little impersonal,” Lytie told WPR’s “Wisconsin Today.”
Standup comedy isn’t one of Wisconsin’s top exports each year, but the state’s collection of smaller comedy clubs import bigger acts than their capacity would suggest. Some local comedians like Lytie say it’s part of the charm of performing here.
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Venues like Comedy on State in Madison or the Skyline Comedy Club in Appleton seat fewer than 300 people but still host comedians like Hannibal Buress or Dan Soder Black who perform in much larger theaters during other tour stops in places like Los Angeles and Chicago.
Lytie said she sees Wisconsin audiences enjoying darker humor than other states she’s performed in, where crowds might not be as open to edgier material.
Comedian Nathan Clemons has noticed something similar. He opened his own comedy club in Janesville last year called the Comedy Cabin.
He said audiences learn to trust comedy producers and venues to bring in performers they’re comfortable with.
“I think even the more rural parts of the state aren’t as far away from ‘civilization’ as maybe they even want to say,” Clemons said. “So they tend to be a little more open to hearing the things they’re not hearing on ‘The Big Bang Theory’ or network television.”
Smaller crowds in Wisconsin can help limit problems like heckling. Comedy clubs often have rules against audience members interrupting the show, and many comedians are skilled at shutting down a rowdy customer who’s had too much to drink.
But in the close quarters of clubs like the Comedy Cabin, the crowd has a culture of its own to maintain.
“We have so many regulars, they kind of start policing the room themselves with just a quick ‘shh,’” Clemons said. “In a room so intimate, it doesn’t take much to realize that, the energy, what you just did, didn’t help.”
Lytie, the Green Bay comedian, worked through the challenges of competing in a male-dominated space on her way up to performing around the country and releasing her debut comedy album “Disassociation Vacation” earlier this year.
“I’ve been showing up for over a decade and doing the work, so I don’t feel I have to elbow quite as hard,” Lytie said. “I feel like comedy is just a microcosm of the world around us, so naturally there is that sexism happening.”
She does her best to mentor young women she sees coming into the Fox Valley comedy scene to help them trust their venues and audiences to support them.
That collaboration and guidance builds up the local industry and shows traveling comedians from across the country why so many keep coming back for more.
