How much would a joint Dave Chappelle and Ellen DeGeneres comedy show cost? For the DC Improv, it was a bargain.
Those two, plus Brian Regan, formed the triumvirate of stand-up performers for the venue’s opening night in July 1992. Chappelle was an 18-year-old up-and-comer, while DeGeneres was certainly popular but nowhere near her subsequent levels of stardom.
With a main theater boasting 270 seats, the DC Improv has hosted some of the biggest names in the business during its three decades. The subterranean venue (located 19 steps below ground) has seen it all.
“We’ve even had marriage proposals on stage, including one this past year,” says director of creative marketing Chris White. In October, comedy podcast All Fantasy Everything taped a live episode, featuring an audience member’s prearranged onstage proposal.
Current owner Allyson Jaffe worked her way up after first waiting tables as a student at American University in 1998. Under the leadership of both Jaffe and her predecessor, the late Mark Anderson, the club has hosted these legends.
Jerry Seinfeld
2002’s documentary Comedian chronicled Seinfeld’s return to stand-up following his iconic sitcom’s finale, including several unannounced performances at smaller venues to test new material before making his “official” grand return at a sold-out New York City show. The film includes a moment from the DC Improv’s green room in which Seinfeld tells the club’s sound guy to get out.
Wanda Sykes
Long before co-hosting last year’s Academy Awards, Sykes dropped by the DC Improv unannounced to test material for her 2009 White House Correspondents’ Dinner hosting set. One of her best jokes critiqued President Barack Obama’s positive media coverage: “They’ve never caught you smoking, but they somehow always catch you with your shirt off.”
Robin Williams
Williams was booked for a 1996 fundraiser in DC featuring President Bill Clinton. The event cost $3,000 to attend, but Improv patrons saw his unannounced set the night before for far less. “I’ve been to Australia; I’ve seen the hole in the ozone,” Williams joked at the fundraiser. “This isn’t like a little bald patch that you can just comb the Northern Hemisphere over.”
Kevin Hart
In 2015, Hart became the first comedian to ever sell out an entire NFL stadium. His set at Lincoln Financial Field, home of the Philadelphia Eagles, was released as 2016’s stand-up special What Now? So it was a big deal when he stopped by the DC Improv in November 2021 to test new material before his arena tour Reality Check.
Adam Sandler
He returned to DC this March to receive the Kennedy Center’s annual Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. In 1992 or 1993, the exact date uncertain, an on-the-rise Sandler performed stand-up during the DC Improv’s first year. Then a new member of the Saturday Night Live cast, Sandler achieved Hollywood A-list status later that decade.
This story originally ran in our March issue. For more stories like this, subscribe to Northern Virginia Magazine.
