COMEDY
Ben Creed. 8 p.m. Nov. 12; 8 p.m., 10 p.m. Nov. 13; 6 p.m., 8 p.m., 10 p.m. Nov. 14; 7 p.m. Nov. 15. All shows $20. The Punchline Comedy Club, 3652 Roswell Road N.E., Atlanta. 404-252-5233, punchline.com.
The Punchline Comedy Club, which shut down more than seven months ago after 33 years in Sandy Springs, has found a new home in Buckhead at the Landmark Diner on Roswell Road.
It officially will open Nov. 10 with an amateur night, presenting its first headliner, Ben Creed, the following weekend, followed by Debra Digiovanni the next weekend.
The Punchline, which was the longest-running comedy club in metro Atlanta, has played host to comedy legends ranging from Jay Leno to Jerry Seinfeld to Louis CK. It left its original home in Sandy Springs in April.
» Check out our gallery of some of the famous comedians who have appeared at the Punchline
In a room in the Landmark Diner that has been used for entertainment for many years, the Punchline will seat about 200 people, smaller than the original site, which seated around 270. This may make it more difficult to draw bigger names.
“It’s gorgeous,” said Jerry Farber, a veteran Atlanta comic who ran his Jerry Farber’s Side Bar at Landmark for five years until September and has seen the upgraded space. “It’s going to be the hippest thing ever. I’m knocked out.”
Jamie Bendall, the majority owner, didn’t respond to a text and call.
In August, when the Punchline was in talks with the diner, former Punchline manager Chris DiPetta, Bendall’s business partner, said he would have preferred a larger space, but they were unable to find a suitable one in a timely fashion.
The new Punchline is less than a mile from a rival, the Atlanta Improv, which opened in 2012 in the Buckhead area and seats about 300. The Improv's upcoming comics include "Saturday Night Live" alums Norm MacDonald and Kevin Nealon, plus veteran comic George Wallace.
DiPetta said in August he was fine with the close proximity of the two clubs. “I don’t care,” he said. “They encroached on my territory first. They didn’t care being 3 miles from us. It won’t bother me to be four blocks from them.”
A new comedy club called the Atlanta Comedy Theater also opened last month in Norcross, operated by Gary Abdo, who opened the Uptown Comedy Corner in Buckhead in the 1990s.
“All the Atlanta clubs have different business models,” Abdo said. “Having a club inside someone else’s space is not an easy model to run. I certainly wish them the best. Getting an audience to come out five nights a week is never easy. It’s a lot of work, whether you are just the comedy portion or the club and restaurant.”
