Underground Comedy

Great place to watch some great comics.I'll definitely be going back to another show.

They have free and paid shows Wednesday - Sunday. Every time I've visited it's been packed and a stellar show. They have the best comedy in the area. Consistently quality comics at the free shows and a fun audience.

They lost their main spaces due to covid, but they are doing a wonderful job finding new venues. We went to a show at 808 Upshur which was a converted art studio, and every comic was fantastic and the bits were different from one another so there was a variety of things to laugh about. The host is awesome -- thought he was one of the acts when it started. A great show for a cheap cost.

Good stand up for $20 a ticket. Can buy on the spot. Comedians are good, host is funny too. A decent length too for the price. 5 stars for the comedy, 1 star for the venue, leaves you at 3 stars.

I love the Big Hunt. Great dive bar with good beer selection, hot crispy wings and quality bar tenders. Comedy venue in the basement is a different story. It should strive for equally divey but it's honestly just sh*tty. Three packed rows of folding chairs. All seats are a good seat... if you get a seat. If you don't, you can sit in a part of the bar where you can't see the comedian or you can stand in the back and get hit by the back door every five minutes. There's a bar down there, but because of how the seats and stage are, no one wants to get up during the show to get a drink. Or even when you first get down. It's just too packed to do so. I didn't see a single person get food, and only one gentleman got up to get a beer.

Honestly, with Big Hunt having two great bars upstairs, Underground should remove the downstairs bar and reconfigure the stage and seating.

Until then, lesson learned. Get there 20 minutes before the show and line up to get in. Only way you're getting a seat.

Being in the mood to hear some comedy, I found this place online. I asked the hotel concierge about it and she had never heard of it. So either it was going to be a real find or a big miss. It landed somewhere in between.

It starts upstairs in a divey bar where you have to get in line. Next, you check in and allowed to go into the basement (underground- get it?) to the club.
If you are claustrophobic this may not be for you. A low ceiling and lots of metal folding stairs packed in. I am not sure if there was another exit out of the basement other than the stairs we came down, but it could be an issue if everyone had to get of there fast.

We listened to three comics that night and they ranged from bad, to ok, to good-which is nice.

The name is fitting. Not the greatest venue in the world--a dark, dank, basement where climate control is often an issue--but the acts booked for their Friday and Saturday night 'professional' shows are consistently solid. They get a good mix of legit headliners (Michael Che, Michelle Wolf, and Louis CK, to name a few), hilarious NYC comedy writers (people you've likely never heard of, but whose work you've probably seen) and up-and-coming DC talent. The host, Sean, is routinely funny. (He's big on crowd work, so best to avoid the front row if you're shy.)

My one gripe is that you have to purchase a ticket in advance to be treated like a paying customer here. Anyone purchasing at the door is presumed riffraff and relegated to a special line that is arbitrarily held up. Advance purchasers are allowed to get their seats first and the separate line is forced to wait, even if there are no advance purchasers waiting to be seated. Finally, right before the show is set to start, walk-ins are allowed to buy tickets and be seated.

Prices are in line with the nearby, better-known comedy club--the big difference being that this place doesn't require the standard two-drink minimum. If all you care about is the funny and have the foresight to get your tickets in advance, this is not a bad way to spend a weekend night.

Underground Comedy is a rather appropriate name for this production. The talent, if it can be called that, would definitely be well-served directing their career aspirations towards underground pursuits, like digging ditches or robbing suburban basements. Then again, maybe it's our own fault seeing "comedy" in the title and expecting to have a few laughs over drinks; it is DC after all, hard to expect truth in advertising, but still.

Friendly tip: political speech can be entertaining, but only when the audience makes the actual choice to be entertained that way, cable news being a prime example. You tell people it's a comedy show at a dive bar, and then piss in their ear about your political opinion for 25 minutes, they're gonna want their money back.

Watched last night's line-up at The Big Hunt. Flat and largely humorless, with irritating amount of idiotic crowd work that left exactly no one laughing as we watched the cringey flailing failures stumble from one dumb none-joke to the next. One girl was decent. The rest, including the Malcolm X-lite headliner who spent the bulk of his slot reminiscing about the glory days of the previous administration, were worthless.

Could've saved the drive to DC and replicated the experience by watching my dog screw a slipper to the sound of MSNBC's any show ever. Save your cash and go to a proper comedy club instead of this "To Catch a Rising Fart" trainwreck.

First time here. Beer and wings not bad. Comedy hit or miss. Some of the comics on the line up were really funny and others...(well they bombed). Great time out nonetheless. The atmosphere was relaxing. The service was what is to be expected from a bar. This is really a spot where comedians test their material. Still I found it quite entertaining.

When Tammy and I go out for date night, we look for quality entertainment for a good price. The basement venue feels casual, but don't be fooled... Underground Comedy is here to deliver. For those weekend night shows, you're watching some up-and-coming talent. Comedians on the rise. Five-star recruits, right on the brink of stardom. It's something special.

What makes an establishment great is how they treat their people. Not every business remembers how important customer service is. From the door people taking our tickets, to the bar staff, to the comedians themselves, our whole night was one well-executed game plan. You only get execution like that if everyone in the team believes in what they're doing. And that "everyone" includes your audience and patrons. We'll be back soon.

Clear eyes, Five stars, Can't lose.
- Coach Taylor

The Big Hunt place has grown over time from being a trendy dive bar to a full blown legit spot in Washington, DC for standup comedy because of the Underground Comedy establishment. They're no stranger to special national headlining acts like Rory Scovel, Patton Oswalt or Louis CK stopping through.

While it's understandable that this setting is not everyone's cup of tea, upon knowing that this is the type of scene it is, they should be mentally prepared for all that it encompasses. Two weeks ago, I happened to be attending the show mentioned a few Yelp posts back where one of the most raucous group of Jersey Shore casting rejects would not stop for a second to consider anyone else in the room. A good chunk of this group was incredibly rude to the female comic on stage, the promoter and some of the waitstaff.

Keeping in line with any decent spot for comedy in the nation, be it the Laugh Factory, The Comedy Cellar, Helium, etc. they bounced those idiots right out. As they should have. In fact, if these patrons from Hell were allowed to stay, The Big Hunt probably *should* be getting a 1-star review. This place has definitely earned some respect with taking a hardline stance on ejecting people who are clearly self serving and have blatant disregard for how they affect the enjoyment or atmosphere of others.