'Fear City' Comedy Club to Open on Essex Below Hester on August 1st
The former boxing gym space at 17 Essex is set to become Fear City Comedy Club, the Lower East Side's newest killbox comedy club.
The space has not been vacant for long - its last tenant departed fall of last year - but its tight space likely posed a challenge for any new commercial tenant.
That was no problem for founder and owner Jonezy Karona, who after touring several venues in the area that were either severely decrepit or laughingly expensive (or both), found this small basement space facing Seward Park.
These 400 square feet of retail space were not enough to fulfill Jonezy's original plan to have a bar attached to the comedy club space, but he was satisfied with finding an intimate underground venue featuring low ceilings and tight spaces that are typical of comedy clubs in Lower Manhattan.
Still, the space needed renovation - Jonezy added air conditioning and blanketed the walls in black paint - but this turned out to be the least frustrating part of opening his business.
The fire department made him remove one of two emergency exit signs because they believed the stairs leading to the back door were too steep. Then, the basic beer & wine liquor license he requested and secured CB3 approval for was deemed unusable unless he fulfill a very specific SLA requirement that the venue have a sink - big problem for a space with no plumbing apart from its bathroom.
The initial renovation headaches snowballed into these regulatory hurdles that ultimately delayed Fear City's opening by a couple months.
Now, however, Fear City is ready.
Jonezy made it very clear that his promise is to offer a pure, uncomplicated comedy club experience. No waiters, no distractions. The drink and menu options are short and simple.
Once up and running, Fear City Comedy Club is meant to be open 7 days a week for 3 shows a night, 62 seats per show.
What about the name? Some old timers might recall a fear mongering campaign mounted by an association of police unions a short 50 years ago in 1975, when the city was in financial ruin and was on the verge of cop layoffs. Pamphlets titled "WELCOME TO FEAR CITY" were spread in protest by union members in airports to tourists warned of a brutal, violent, and lawless New York City.
Jonezy, who is Swedish, first did stand up in the US (Durango, CO) in 2007 - moving to New York three years later.Â
For a longer version of this article, be sure to check out the Substack link in my bio. The whole story doesn't fit within Instagram limits.
Pictured
Side view of Fear City's façade, featuring a new mural on the storefront shutters
Small inscription from when the space was used as a Buddhist temple serving the Chinatown community
