Portland's new Helium Comedy Club

[Embiggen]

True, this might not be the exact right location for this, but since there's no sub-forum for Portland, it'll have to do. (Mods, what do you think about renaming the Seattle forum "Pacific Northwest"?)

Helium's newest location in Portland is opening in just a few weeks now, featuring Portland's own Auggie Smith and Dax Jordan on July 29th, 30th and 31st.

The lineup for the rest of the summer and fall is incredible: Natasha Leggero, Bill Burr, Jimmy Pardo, Norm MacDonald, Greg Proops, Christian Finnegan, Todd Glass, Doug Benson and lots of other AST-approved comics.

All the Helium PDX info you could ask for is here:

http://www.facebook.com/heliumcomedypdx
http://portland.heliumcomedy.com
http://twitter.com/heliumcomedypdx

[AliasRomanian]

True, this might not be the exact right location for this, but since there's no sub-forum for Portland, it'll have to do. (Mods, what do you think about renaming the Seattle forum "Pacific Northwest"?)

Helium's newest location in Portland is opening in just a few weeks now, featuring Portland's own Auggie Smith and Dax Jordan on July 29th, 30th and 31st.

The lineup for the rest of the summer and fall is incredible: Natasha Leggero, Bill Burr, Jimmy Pardo, Norm MacDonald, Greg Proops, Christian Finnegan, Todd Glass, Doug Benson and lots of other AST-approved comics.

All the Helium PDX info you could ask for is here:

http://www.facebook.com/heliumcomedypdx
http://portland.heliumcomedy.com
http://twitter.com/heliumcomedypdx

This is awesome man, being a native Oregonian I'll have to stop by when I'm up there !

[Roadside Phil]

Nice! I hope they do well. Do you know if Harvey's is having a fit about comics doing both places? That could be an ugly territory war.

[Embiggen]

I don't see why there would be a territory war any more than there is in any city with more than one club. I know Helium doesn't care about exclusivity. I guess we'll see what policy Harvey's adopts.

[SM5]

from what the staff has said it could be bad but who knows what the future holds...

[st.raw]

from what i hear the fight among the harvey's staff is who can get a gig at helium.

[ozbug]

Here is a nice article with quotes from some of AST favorites. http://www.portlandmercury.com/portl...nt?oid=2717962

[ACOZ206]

Any more news on the club? Helium (Philly) is such an amazing club, I am super psyched that one is now open so close to my hometown (Seattle).

[raindog]

Just caught Maria Bamford and Jackie Kashian last night and was blown away. I caught Maria at Bridgetown this year (and really missed getting to see Jackie), but it was great to see them get into fuller sets. Both ladies absolutely destroyed the place, of course, but my favorite moment of the night was Jackie laying the room out with a Scarlet Letter joke followed by a Handmaid's Tale one-liner. I love my town.

The room itself is way nicer than I even hoped, with great sound, good views all around and a quiet and unobtrusive waitstaff. Unfortunately, my boyfriend and I both work unpredictable night hours frequently, so I don't know if we'll be able to buy tickets ahead of time as often as we'd like. Does anyone know how common it is for a Thursday show to sell out like last night? We thankfully got two of the last four seats in the house, but if he'd been held up another 10 minutes at work I'm sure we would have been out of luck.

[Embiggen]

Not that I'm impartial, but I'll agree with you that last night's show was incredible. It's hard to say if Thursdays will sell out in the future. I assume they're priced less than weekend shows to try to fill the room on Thursdays, but I think Portlanders are quite fine with going out on weekdays, and would rather save a few bucks. I'm curious to see if this trend continues in future weeks, and if the pricing changes to even out attendance across all shows.

[Matt Braunger]

Update! My parents went to see Natasha Leggero at Helium and loved the place. Also, Natasha. I'll be there the first weekend of October. This is so exciting! Glad Andy is involved despite his drug problem.

[smallhorsestudio]

Wish Seattle had a place like this, there have been multiple shows I would have gone to.

[pg13]

Portland isn't THAT far away (otherwise, they'd get their OWN subforum here instead of being smushed together with Seattle into this beloved "Pacific Northwest" subforum.) I know I'd make the drive to see a show at Helium, if there was someone coming there that definitely wasn't coming to Seattle at some point...

And no one knows if Portland, by itself, can support this strong of a calendar 52 weeks a year...

And...when these performers come to Seattle (or Kirkland, or Bellevue)...it isn't always clear that Seattle will come to see them.

When you're dealing with clubs (or theaters)...you're dealing with a business. Obviously, Helium believes that the Portland market is ready to move forward--that there's enough interest to bring in these types of performers week after week...that there's enough people in Portland willing to pay for them to bring in these types of performers week after week... They're hoping to build on the momentum that the Bridgetown Comedy Festival has provided and take advantage that, until now, Portland only had one dedicated comedy club.

In Seattle, with no Bridgetown (but we do have Bumbershoot) and three (sometimes four) dedicated comedy clubs...these performers often come to The Moore...sometimes to Re-Bar...sometimes to Laughs or Parlor... You have to seek them out--keep your eyes and ears open, rather than simply always go to the same place--but they do come here...

And if their shows are always packed, then the people who bring them in will bring them in more... If those shows are lightly attended, they won't.

pg--Has seen wonderful performers in front of sadly unimpressive audiences in Seattle too often... There ARE comedy nerds here, but they're hard to motivate to actually go out and see comedy sometimes.--mentally still in seattle, physically in Wisconsin

[Embiggen]

Big week at Helium -- Reggie Watts is here Wednesday (tickets here), and Jimmy Pardo's headlining Thursday through Saturday (tickets here). You can also call 888-64-FUNNY to purchase tickets and save a few bucks.

Hope to see a bunch of you at the club this week! Don't forget Todd Glass is here Labor Day weekend, so if you're skipping Bumbershoot there's still plenty of funny down here in Portland.

[Timnob]

Pardo was AMAZING tonight. Long-time Never Not Funny listener, first time seeing him live. I highly recommend everyone go see him.

[heatherm]

thursday night and a pardo show? it's like i'm back in la! i love it!

[suavepebble]

I will be debuting my very unique comedy stylings at this club's open mic night very soon. Tell your friends that the greatest comedic mind of our generation has awoken and has decided to bless Portland with something magical.

I love you all.

[Embiggen]

I thought I'd bump this thread to remind all the Pacific NW ASTers about the ridiculous lineup at Helium for the next five weekends:

Doug Benson - Oct. 14-16
Norm MacDonald - Oct. 21-23
Nick Kroll - Oct. 28-30
Sklar Brothers - Nov. 4-6
Greg Behrendt - Nov. 11-13

Tickets are still available for all of these at http://portland.heliumcomedy.com/

[suavepebble]

Norm is doing a show on my birthday. Who wants to buy me tickets?

[Embiggen]

Helium just posted a poll to get feedback on what comics Portlanders want to see there. If you're in the area (close enough that you would actually come out to a show there) you should weigh in at http://www.facebook.com/heliumcomedypdx