Forget basketball or football, Lexington is a comedy town. Just catch the Netflix special.

It isn’t your imagination, Lexington is definitely getting funnier.

In the past year, Jo Koy, Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias and Katt Williams played Rupp Arena, with Bert “The Machine” Kreischer and Jeff Dunham coming in 2023.

Meanwhile, Heather McMahan and Leanne Morgan both taped specials for online streaming services at the Lexington Opera House, which is also hosting Fortune Feimster, Nikki Glaser and Drew Lynch in February and Lewis Black in May.

We’re becoming a major comedy town and it wasn’t an accident.

“We’ve definitely made it a priority to step up the comedy shows,” said Brian Sipe, general manager of downtown Lexington’s Central Bank Center, which runs Rupp Arena and the Opera House.

Sipe said that when the Lexington Center Corp. board hired the Oak View Group to manage the facilities last year they gave them a mission: Bring in more national comedy acts to round out the schedule.

Kicking of post-lockdown with comedy shows

The first event in Rupp after pandemic restrictions were lifted in August of 2021 was Jim Gaffigan. And they kept it rolling with Iglesias, Katt and Koy in 2022, all major comedians capable of filling arenas.

But the real growth, Sipe said, has been at the 950-seat Lexington Opera House. Sipe said comedians love it and the shows are a “natural fit” around the touring Broadway shows, local arts productions and intimate concerts that fill the downtown theater regularly.

McMahan played there in January then came back to tape a special in October, a first for the venue.

“We were very ecstatic to be able to do that,” Sipe said. “We love to show off the Opera House.”

Morgan taped a special for Netflix over five nights in early December. Five sold-out shows, he said. “That’s huge, almost 5,000 tickets,” he said.

The venue is staffed with pros and the boxes on the side are perfect to set up cameras, he said. Word is getting around.

“Other managers and agents say what’s going on in Lexington? And that’s what I’m most excited about. It’s definitely happening,” Sipe said.

The venue has announced two or three comedians a month, most recently Nikki Glaser, and he expects that will continue.

Comedy Off Broadway set the stage

Sipe was quick to give a tip of the hat to Comedy Off Broadway, the local club in Lexington Green that has hosted some of the biggest names in stand up since 1987.

Comedy Off Broadway owner Jordan Hawley, did not respond to requests to comment for this story.

The club, which began as on North Broadway before moving to its current spot in 1994, built an appetite for stand up in the market by quietly maintaining a reputation on the circuit as a good spot for up-and-coming comedians to get their sea legs.

Acts like Kreischer, who appeared at Comedy Off Broadway several times, could draw an audience to the 250-seat club before moving on to Netflix specials and arenas.

Some of the comedians who came through Comedy Off Broadway over the decades include Jerry Seinfeld, George Carlin, Jeff Foxworthy, Tracy Morgan, Daniel Tosh and Gilbert Gottfried.

That, Sipe said, laid the groundwork. “I really do want to credit Comedy Off Broadway. They’ve been here for years doing a fantastic job,” he said. Now acts like John Crist and Dusty Slay are finding that they can “graduate” to the bigger venue because the fans are ready.

“The market is growing for comedy,” Sipe said. “They’re still having successful weekends every weekend, and we’ve done what we’ve done at the Opera House and it’s working in both places. Our market is a great comedy market. Success breeds success.”

Take Lewis Black, for instance. He’s toured for years, Sipe said, but 2023 will be his first time in Lexington. And he’ll be at the Opera House.

Comedy acts bring new audiences

The Lyric Theater also has added comedy acts to its calendar and the University of Kentucky’s Singletary Center hosted Nate Bargatze last year.

And last week the Kentucky Theatre hosted Lexington native Ariel Elias, fresh off her appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” Elias gained viral attention in October for drinking a hard seltzer that was thrown at her by a heckler while she was on stage during a show in New Jersey.

Sipe said that a big goal has been to diversify the Opera House programming.

“We’re bringing in people who have never stepped foot in the Opera House before. It’s such a special venue and they’re being exposed to the history of it and it’s a fantastic story,” Sipe said. “Fortune Feimster, for example. A major group of her fans are LGBTQ fans.”

In the end, all the fans are after one thing: A laugh.

“I think right now there’s a heightened sense of tension, and division and what’s great about all entertainment, especially comedians, is it’s a joyous time,” Sipe said. “You’re all there to celebrate and enjoy the same thing with other humans.”