DENVER | The bankers agreed that Wende Curtis had to find a way to spread the risk, because it seemed like there was plenty to go around.
Curtis, the owner of the storied Comedy Works club in downtown Denver, was talking about investing millions of dollars into a new facility in Greenwood Village. Her plans were ambitious: the club would fit an audience of more than 400 in its glitzy, two-story theater, and that was only part of the plan. The three-story complex would also include an upscale restaurant and plenty of rentable space for events.
That ambitious vision made Curtis’ financial advisors balk long before the Comedy Works South opened its doors in the Tech Center off I-25 and Belleview in 2008. They told her she needed to find fellow investors, they insisted she needed to pick up new partners in a venture they warned might be too much for one person.
“I said, ‘No, I need new bankers, you idiots,’” Curtis said. “I didn’t really need partners. I vowed I would never do partners again, and I will never break that vow.”
More than five years after the club opened its doors, the risk — and Curtis’ fierce independence —has paid off. It didn’t take long for Comedy Works South in the Landmark Place development to become an ideal complement to the flagship club in downtown Denver. In its first weeks of operation, the new club drew George Lopez, Kevin Nealon, Kathleen Madigan and other national comics. That pattern has persisted. Like its counterpart in downtown Denver, Comedy Works South has turned into a destination for national performers and an aspiration for local comics looking to climb the ladder.
The success didn’t come as a surprise for Curtis, who’s learned to trust her intuition after years on the job.
“In my own market research, I did know that I needed to come south,” Curtis said, seated at the bar at the Lucy Restaurant, the chic upstairs eatery above the Comedy Works South showroom. “I knew that I needed to come in a centrally south location where I will get people from Aurora, where I do get people from Colorado Springs and Castle Rock. I can’t tell you how many people will say, ‘We hadn’t been to Comedy Works since before we had kids.’”
That crowd has become a vital part of Curtis’ business model. What’s more, the difference between downtown and suburban audiences has affected how Curtis and her team approach booking and hiring talent. It’s allowed them to cater content to audiences.
“My gut instinct and our collective gut instinct as an organization has been to have cleaner acts out here and leaving our edgier acts out there … I’m not going to put Mr. Edgy from Comedy Central at this club. I wouldn’t want to put Mr. Super Clean Shiny Squeaky downtown,” Curtis said. “But the first part is they’ve got to be funny.”
The different dynamic at Comedy Works South hasn’t kept local or national acts away. For comics like Chuck Roy, a Denver-based performer who’s had plenty of time on both Comedy Works stages, the different types of crowds offer a testing grounds for different kinds of material. Roy, a Boston native, compares the size and scope of the Greenwood Village club to Fenway Park.
“To me, the people at the Landmark, when they were dating, before they had their children, they were living in Capitol Hill and coming to Comedy Works downtown. Now, they’re on the other side of life,” Roy said. “Their standard is a little bit higher … They’re there to relax and enjoy your joke, but I like doing a joke I get from reading the Wall Street Journal down at the Landmark.”
Curtis isn’t really surprised that her intuition about the new club turned out to be trustworthy. She’s learned self-confidence after more than 20 years in the industry. A Hinkley High School grad who moved to Colorado from western Kansas at 11 years old, Curtis studied drama at Colorado State University and initially contemplated a career in the spotlight. But a gig waiting tables at the Denver Comedy Works club in the 1980s rapidly progressed — she moved on to posts managing the club and other high-profile rooms around town and across the country.
Curtis and a group of partners bought the Denver club from its original owners in 2001. It didn’t take long for her to buy out her partners.
“I’m way too headstrong to negotiate about things that I’ve been doing 26 years,” Curtis said. “It’s just common sense and hard work and never taking no for an answer. I didn’t realize those were my attributes back then.”
She’s learned to prize those qualities, and the trademark work ethic and determination has had a big impact on the local comedy scene. It’s drawn performers like Roy, who worked as a comedian and an actor in L.A. before moving to Denver about 10 years ago. Roy, whose credits include appearances on sitcoms like “3rd Rock from the Sun” and “Will and Grace,” said Curtis’ knack for booking up-and-coming talent and treating them fairly played a role in his decision to move to Colorado.
“She makes the smartest purchases. She gives you absolute confidence the moment she buys into your act, and she gave me confidence when she booked me,” Roy said before comparing her to another mentor, legendary director and “Cheers” co-creator Jim Burrows. “This is a business that used to be run by a boys’ club. The fact that the boys’ club and the corporate clubs got crushed by one independent lady in Denver, I think it makes for a better quality of comedy.”
Reach reporter Adam Goldstein at 720-449-9707 or agoldstein@aurorasentinel.com