No more Scandal’s, no more standups

By Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com

When Winthrop alumni, former English-Creative writing major Greg Larson, was still a student, he got an idea to start doing stand ups within the Rock Hill area.

Larson got his friend, senior business major Aaron Kinard, to go to Open Mic nights in Charlotte. Larson found a place during his senior year called Jackelop Jack’s, which he described as “basically a room in a restaurant with speakers.”

Larson said he wanted to go because he could not find a way to deliver his jokes at Winthrop.

“I basically peer-pressured my friends to get on stage and make fools of themselves along with me,” Larson said. “They were nervous at first, which is natural, but they got a taste of the thrill that can accompany a good set.”

Eventually the group of friends noticed classmates coming to the same places in Charlotte.

“Some of the places would have Charlotte locals,” Kinard said, “but we would still run into Winthrop students doing the same thing we were doing.”

What started as a group of friends traveling to Charlotte once a week turned into a way of getting more students together for the same purpose –wanting to give an audience a good laugh.

“We had a bunch of people on Winthrop’s campus that seemed really interested and wanted to do it,” Kinard said. “We were combining with theatre, art and other students, and that was kinda fun.”

In order to band the students together, Kinard said he and his friends started doing an Open Mic Night in the DiGiorgio Student Center’s The Edge for a while but said the situation was somewhat controlling.

“It was kind of PG-ish –not that what we were doing was over the top,” Kinard said. “But for a liberal arts school it wasn’t being very liberal.”

Kinard said he and Larson got support from students who enjoyed that type of comedy (stand ups). They would hand out flyers and also created a Facebook page for the Open Mic Nights, but the best audience he and his friends got came from the nightclub on Cherry Road formerly known as Scandal’s, which owner Butch Bailey closed last April.

Kinard said he and Larson worked with Bailey on what he called a “typical business deal”: Kinard and his friends got into the club for free, and their stand ups brought Scandals more business.

“The main reason he (the owner) allowed us to come and do stand ups was to get people to come to Scandals,” Kinard said. “There was a lack of support.”

Larson said it was such a big hit that 50 people came to the second Open Mic week. However, since so many people had to stand that not many came back the following week.

“We just couldn’t fit everyone,” he said.

The student comedians were taking the stage on Wednesdays before being limited to every other Thursday.

As the weeks progressed, business at Scandal’s began to decrease. Kinard and Larson said the rumor for Scandal’s closing was parked police cars at the Exxon and Walgreens on Cherry Road on weekend nights started to deter customers from going to the nightclub.

“From what I got, that was one of the reasons Scandals closed,” Kinard said.

However, Winthrop Police Chief Frank Zebedis said the rumor is untrue to his knowledge as to why Scandals closed.

“Law Enforcement had nothing to do with Scandal’s closing,” Zebedis said. “I do not know why (Bailey) closed Scandal’s.”

(Bailey said in an interview with the Rock Hill Herald that his business began to slow around 2005, although he was not sure why). 

Nonetheless, Kinard said the benefits of performing at Scandal’s included saving gas and providing more accessibility to Winthrop students.

Larson said he thinks Winthrop should implement stand ups, but the responsibility to get the stage time is ultimately up to the students who want to do it.

“If you go to the comedy club to get on stage in front of 50 strangers and tell jokes to drunk people who only want to heckle you, giving a speech to 30 classmates will be a walk in the park,” Larson said.

Kinard added that doing stand up also benefitted him with his classwork; he said stand ups made him more comfortable speaking in front of an audience.

“Let’s put it this way: if I had a microphone I would talk all day long,” he said. “I would answer every question in class.”

Kinard is the only person he knows that is taking Speech 101 as an elective. 

“Not too many guys are going to take this class because they want to,” he said.

Being behind the mic gave Kinard a lot more confidence, he said. He feels that it is unfortunate that the stand up act is on hiatus with Scandal’s being closed.

“That tradition is gone,” Kinard said. “Many nights of standing there in the line outside Scandal’s for 30 minutes just to say you did it is gone now, and nobody is going to get to see it.”

Larson said the comedy scene continues to flourish in Charlotte, especially with the opening of the new Comedy Zone Charlotte at the Music Factory. He also said he encouraged other restaurant and bar owners to implement the same idea with their businesses.

“It’s a good deal for everyone involved: the owner of the venue gives the customers a draw with cheap entertainment, the customers have something to laugh at and enjoy, and the performers get some money and stage time,” he said. “Not a bad deal for everyone.”