Boston’s newest comedy club goes sober as young audiences ditch the drinks

When John Tobin started working as a door person at a local comedy club in the early ‘90s, his boss asked him how he liked the work.

“I love being in the comedy business,” Tobin said.

But his boss Dick Doherty, a legend in the city’s comedy scene who drank and drugged his way through the ‘60s, ‘70s, and early ‘80s, was quick to correct him.

“You’re not in the comedy business,” Tobin recalled Doherty saying. “You’re in the alcohol business.”

Over three decades later, that business has started to change. Younger adults are drinking less than they did 10 or 20 years ago and show producers like Tobin and his business partner Norm Laviolette are taking notice.

Last month, they launched SoBar Comedy, the country’s first sober-curious comedy club. The new venue hosts bi-weekly improv and stand-up shows, located in Faneuil Hall.

Tobin and Laviolette own and operate some of the biggest comedy clubs across New England, including Laugh Boston and Improv Asylum. Laviolette said they started noticing the trend at their other comedy clubs, where food and beverage sales form a cornerstone of the business model. The pattern soon became clear — younger audience members were increasingly forgoing beers and cocktails when going out.

“As we started to watch we’re like, ‘Well, geez, maybe there’s an opportunity . . . to do something that speaks directly to that mindful drinking, sober-curious [mindset],’” Laviolette said. “You know, it’s a niche audience. And that’s our job. We follow to a degree what our audiences are doing.”

On opening night at SoBar, some folks were excited to sample the non-alcoholic beers and mocktails on offer, crafted in collaboration with Dray Drinks, Boston’s first non-alcoholic bottle shop. In the front row, a woman sipped on a SoBar Spritzer, a mix of passion fruit puree, lemonade, and soda water. Others like Shekoo Hedayati didn’t catch the show’s clever pun right away. But even when she realized alcohol wasn’t on tap, the comedy was all that mattered.

“I’m also not a heavy drinker. I’ll have probably at most one beer if I go to a show, so for me it really doesn’t make a difference. I guess I can laugh anyway,” Hedayati said.

Performing comedy for an all-sober audience is a daunting task for some comedians, but for Corey Manning, who headlined and hosted SoBar’s inaugural show, having an alcohol-free night of comedy comes with plenty of upside.

“One of the things that’s different about a sober show than the regular comedy show is that I didn’t have to deal with a drunk audience member, which is always a good thing not to have to do,” Manning said.

This December, Manning will celebrate 30 years of sobriety from drugs and alcohol. Now, he helps others as a substance misuse counselor. But in the early years of his sobriety, performing in comedy clubs across the country made that journey challenging.

“When you’re having a good set, and thank God I have those consistently, people want to thank you and the first thing they want to do by thanking you is buying you a drink,” Manning said.

Crowds and performers expect alcohol at comedy clubs like they expect popcorn at a movie theater, Manning said. But for audiences and comedians who want a fun night out without the drinking, that relationship can be far from ideal. Over the years, Manning’s sobriety has helped other comedians as well.

“Because I have been consistently the person that didn’t drink at comedy shows, it actually has inspired other comedians who are having difficulties with drinking and stuff like that to not drink,” Manning said. “And one of the things that I also started trying to do is work that material into my set, because sometimes I hit home with someone in the audience.”