Book Clean Stand-up Comedy for Theatres & Performing Arts Centers

A lot of theatres have older audiences. The Ivy League of Comedy’s shows are great for this demographic, because we’re clean and don’t tend to talk about the stuff that’s the usual material at comedy clubs (the average age of a comedy club patron is in their thirties). Typical comedy club comedians have jokes on topics like marijuana, internet dating, video games. That’s not us. All of us are headliners, and with at least two decades of experience, that makes us all older than forty.

Yes, The Ivy League of Comedy performs all over the world, except in a few countries where it’d be illegal or too dangerous for us.

The Ivy League of Comedy’s clean, smart comedy is better for theatres than the typical comedy club type acts. Theatre audiences often skew older and prefer clean, clever material rather than comedians talking about their Tinder dates. And a line-up of headliners with late-night TV credits will help you with your marketing.

Every show is a fundraiser when you make a profit! Yes, of course, The Ivy League of Comedy would be happy to do a fundraising show for your theatre or performing arts center.

Yes, we do recurring series at theatres, sometimes including our specialty theme shows (ask us for more information about these). We suggest doing it a few times a year to start out.

Tech requirements for a theatre comedy show? We’re way easy to deal with, says The Ivy League of Comedy’s Shaun Eli. We need a hand-held microphone and a sound system. You already have that. A stage and stage lighting are nice, but for a lot of the shows we do, like for corporate or charity events, we don’t even have that. We’re thrilled to work at a professional theatre. Even the ones staffed by high school students are great.

We do suggest having the audience as close as possible to the stage, ideally three feet. So if you have a big empty space upfront, if you can put chairs there, that’s great. Or add tables and chairs and make it premium seating.

Oh, you’re going to love us. Our answer is: Not much. We’re easy- we pretty much just ask for a reasonable meal and a couple of extra bottles of cold water per comedian.

Typically 90 minutes. But we have no opening or feature acts. All of us are headliners with at least two decades of experience. You get a much better show that way. With The Ivy League of Comedy you get 90 minutes plus a post-show Q&A with the audience. If you want longer we can do that, but your audience might need a bathroom break.

Most comedians in the U.S. hate intermissions because it breaks up the flow of the show. But I (Shaun Eli, the founder) have performed overseas where intermissions are standard in comedy shows. I learned how to make them work, and I’m fine with them. Especially if it helps you sell more drinks (I want you to make money!).

The Ivy League of Comedy specializes in post-show audience Q&A. Obviously we didn’t invent it, but we’ve been doing it for over twenty years, starting back when it was very uncommon.

We’re very good at making it entertaining, and most of us really enjoy doing it, as it gives us both an opportunity to demonstrate being spontaneously funny and to tell stories that are fun and funny but don’t exactly fit into a stand-up comedy set.

The Ivy League of Comedy can do shows at pretty much any time of day, any day of the week (although morning comedy shows aren’t ideal).

Of course. The Ivy League of Comedy recorded its comedy special at the 260-seat Emelin Theatre in Mamaroneck, NY. You can watch it right here on this page.

Talk to the comedians before you book, and tell them about any restrictions you have. With The Ivy League of Comedy, you can be confident the material will be clean: we also perform at houses of worship, including some pretty devout congregations.

We're not a booking agency, we're a company run by a stand-up comedian with over two decades of experience. We specialize in clean comedy: that's exactly why The Ivy League of Comedy was founded (and why we chose that name). To provide clean, smart comedy for theatres and performing arts centers, corporate events and charity fundraisers. We take care of booking, give you information to market shows, and take care of our travel arrangements, a complete turnkey system for your theatre or performing arts center.

The Ivy League of Comedy recommends booking your theatre or performing arts center comedy show at least three months in advance, to give you adequate time to market the show, but we’ve done last-minute bookings too.

The Ivy League of Comedy has a lot of marketing strategies specifically geared towards comedy shows. Our founder Shaun Eli majored in marketing at Wharton and he’s been producing stand-up comedy shows at theatres for two decades. Marketing comedy is different from marketing music, and there are some things that make a big difference. He also has some techniques he’s developed, plus, if you sell drinks, a way to sell more drinks at a comedy show.

Oh, we’re also good at working with the press. It’s actually a requirement if you want to be one of our comedians— to be comfortable working with the media. We’re good at it, and reporters like talking to comedians because we’re fun to interview. You can read some of our press here; there's plenty of it.

Shaun Eli, the founder and head of The Ivy League of Comedy, majored in marketing at Wharton, so yes, we will provide the necessary marketing materials, including stuff you probably haven’t thought of. Promoting a comedy show is different from promoting a band or stage play.

That’s a question we get a lot at The Ivy League of Comedy. It’s one thing we’re not experts on, because you know your local market and demographics better than we do. We do suggest that a ticket for live professional entertainment should cost more than a movie ticket. And we also believe that your ticket price is more elastic than you think— people will pay $40+ for entertainment if they’re interested in it. That said, theatres typically set our ticket prices from $30 to $45.

Guarantees and split-fee deals depend on the act's requirements. For us at The Ivy League of Comedy, we’re happy with a flat fee, a fee plus bonus depending on ticket sales, or, quite often, a straight door deal. Contact us and we can discuss some options.

That really depends. If it’s a famous comedian they may draw a crowd, and the audience probably won’t care about any opening acts. But name acts are expensive (which also means a high ticket price). The advantage of a showcase line-up from The Ivy League of Comedy is that it’s all headliners, almost all of us with late-night TV credits and our own comedy specials, which are great selling points, but we’re not expensive.

The cost! To keep our shows affordable we don’t spend $5,000 on marketing in a whole year, let alone on just one event! Almost our entire budget goes to paying talent.