Cornercopia Comedy Club: Owners of Chehalis venue and eatery hope to attract big stand-up names
May 4-Though Chehalis is the smaller of the Twin Cities, like Centralia, Interstate 5 runs through it while connecting Seattle and Portland.
Because of this prime I-5 corridor location, partners Brian Goddard and Noe Vidal decided to open the new Cornercopia Comedy Club earlier this year, located at 289 NW Chehalis Ave. in the Mint City's downtown area.
Goddard and Vidal met with The Chronicle on Friday, May 1, to explain more about the new stand-up venue along with the couple's plans for their new business.
"We love comedy. It's how we met," Goddard said.
An aspiring stand-up comic who has performed himself, Goddard has already been working as a booking agent setting up comedy shows in the region for the past five years.
"Open mics, paid shows, I ran a show in downtown Olympia for a long time. Pop-up shows in Tacoma, Bremerton and stuff," Goddard said.
Because he's established in the comic community, he and Vidal decided to go ahead and open Cornercopia to try to turn Chehalis into another regular stop for big-name comics touring in the Pacific Northwest.
"It's perfect for it. We're right between Portland and Seattle, right on I-5, not even three minutes from the exit," Vidal said.
Or, at least as many big-name comics as they can get. Some more well-known comics charge well over $10,000 for booking fees and have requirements for venue size, ticket prices and other stipulations.
"We're not going to get Nate Bargatze or Dave Chappelle ... but like Anthony Jeselnik, he's on our radar," Goddard said.
Jeselnik is known for his dark comedy and, along with having stand-up specials broadcast on Comedy Central, took part in multiple Comedy Central Roasts and had a show on the network called The Jeselnik Offensive.
Another big name Goddard and Vidal have their eyes on is Craig Robinson, a stand-up comic best known for playing the role of Darryl Philbin on NBC's sitcom The Office.
"We book a lot of ones that work at the Tacoma Comedy Club," Goddard said.
"We had Trent Cotton like two weeks ago, and he's already touring and opening for Nate Jackson," Vidal added.
Jackson is the owner of Nate Jackson's Super Funny Comedy Club in Tacoma.
Cornercopia has a classic stand-up comedy venue set up, with a simple combination of a small stage, a mic and a stool and a brick wall with the venue's name on it.
Currently, the focus is to try to keep regionally touring comics performing in Cornercopia every weekend.
They plan on curating the comics who perform at the venue as well, trying to avoid shock-value comics or ones the community might not be a fan of.
The couple still plans to have show descriptions for each comic they book, so patrons who may not be familiar with a comic's stand-up style know what they're in for still - especially with comics like Jeselnik.
Since opening at the end of February, Goddard stated the Chehalis community has been very receptive and supportive.
"We know there is a void here and there is some comedy that gets booked around here, but it's few and far in between and it's usually kind of expensive," Goddard said.
They hope to change that with Cornercopia with affordable comedy shows every weekend, though they also hope to grow the venue as an eatery too.
Currently, the business is only open Wednesday through Saturday from 3 to 11 p.m., and the couple hopes to both extend business hours and open on more days throughout the week.
Having both also worked previously in restaurants, Vidal and Goddard are now offering sandwiches, smash burgers, pizza rolls and more on the menu, with Vidal making the pizza dough from scratch daily.
For more information, including to find out what comics are performing each weekend, follow the Cornercopia Comedy Club on Facebook at https://tinyurl.com/3xrzdzsx or visit the club's website at https://cornercopiaclub.com/.
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