Funny Thing About Minnesota... by Patrick Strait

Author:Patrick Strait
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Minnesota Historical Society Press
Published: 2021-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Scott Hansen, Bill Bauer, Alex Cole, and Louie Anderson at the Comedy Gallery. (Courtesy of Mike Gandolfi)

By September of 1982, Hansen had another idea that would not only secure the Comedy Gallery’s place as the number one comedy club in Minneapolis but put it on the map as one of the most talent-heavy clubs in the entire country. In a circle-of-life moment that brought Hansen back to his roots, he decided to host a comedy contest. But unlike the Mickey Finn’s competition five years earlier, this competition would have much higher stakes.

The first-annual Twin Cities Comedy Invitational brought together comedians from all over the country for a two-week competition featuring a $500 grand prize. “I was the only comic with a good enough credit rating to get some money to put on this thing,” Hansen said in an interview with the Twin Cities Reader leading up to the big throw down.

Another aspect of this contest that was very different from the one at Finn’s was that the talent was screened and narrowed down ahead of time, and contestants were placed into different divisions based on experience. This was similar to how bigger contests were structured in Los Angeles, St. Louis, or Chicago, where some of the original five were beginning to build reputations. Louie Anderson, for example, had taken third place in a contest in St. Louis the year prior, finishing behind a singer and a clown. Jeff Gerbino had recently made it to the finals of the Los Angeles Comedy Contest.

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