When work proves trying and the world seems bleak, counter the dreariness with a visit to one of Atlanta's best comedy clubs. These entertainment havens provide evenings of laughter and escape, ensuring that patrons walk away with a cheerier outlook and a lighter spirit. Shows can include improv, stand-up, or group comedy, and as seen at venues like Laughing Skull Lounge, they highlight Atlanta's nightlife scene and the lightning-quick wits of local and national comics.
For big laughs at small prices in the Atlanta area, this award-winning comedy club's outrageously hilarious shows simply can't be beat. Inventive original scripts have audience members howling with laughter, while weekly improv shows, including a high-energy TheatreSports competition, an improvised zombie apocalypse soap opera and a hysterically bizarre Japanese game show, offer sidesplitting adult humor that is both tasteful and brilliantly eccentric.
Cheap mix-and-match premium beer buckets are the cherry on top. (404-523-3141)
Among the most refreshingly unusual comedy clubs in Atlanta, this intimate theater offers uproarious adult-humor improv, high-energy improv shows for the entire family (a rarity in the city) and sidesplitting Friday night movie screenings featuring play-by-play commentary from brilliant comedians. While the audience indulges in scrumptious snacks and delectable drinks, including special themed drinks for movie nights, The Basement's impish improvisers provide an informal and affordable evening of laugh-out-loud hilarity. (404-277-3071)
Visitors seeking a laid-back evening of innovative improv and stand-up in the Atlanta area adore this comedy club's unique and fantastically cheap shows. Set in an abandoned church now outfitted with vivid local art and a full bar, Relapse produces such funny favorites as the Unmiked stand-up series, the raw, dirty and wildly popular 2Girls3Eyes improv show and the Mystery Science Theater 3000-esque Cineprov! in which comedians provide witty background mockery during a movie screening. (404-343-0347)
One of the most highly-acclaimed comedy clubs in Atlanta, Laughing Skull claims to be the world's tiniest stand-up venue, but the outstanding talent that regularly takes the stage is anything but small. Within this hip 74-seat setting, the biggest names on both the national and local comedy scenes keep audience members doubled over with laughter. Also, because the lounge is located within The Vortex, visitors can savor one of the joint's famous burgers before showtime. (877-523-3288)
Laura Bear