All good things must come to an end. How else can you charge a premium for reunion tours?
“You have to grow,” says Tuesday Show Comedy co-founder Doug Gillon, explaining why, after three years of showcasing local, regional, and touring comedians on a school night famous for not much going on, he’s calling it quits.
“The idea that I’m going to stop doing productions or stop being around comedy is just silly,” Gillon says. “But the point of Tuesday Show Comedy, initially, was to build up exposure for quality comedy in Memphis on a regular basis. And I think we’ve done that.”
Dusty Slay
Gillon thinks he, former co-host Kyle Kordsmeier, and current co-host Jonny Bratsveen have contributed to building Memphis’ thriving comedy scene. “Now I can look at different avenues to bring things to people and be more adaptable,” he says. “Also, my own performance has improved. I’ve become a much better comedian in three years. Not necessarily any good, but I’m better and I get a lot more opportunities to perform just by myself. I want to be able to take advantage of those as well.”
Gillon has big plans for the last Tuesday Show — a rapid-fire retrospective featuring 20 Tuesday veterans doing just a couple of minutes each followed by headliner Dusty Slay. Memphis band Glorious Abhor provides music and rimshots.
Raised in a trailer park and uncertain as to why they’re called parks, Slay has performed his brand of blue collar comedy on Jimmy Kimmel Live and Last Comic Standing.
Looking back over three years of comedy, Gillion is able to identify several high points, like the time his Tuesday crew worked on Kevin Hart’s Comedy Central series. He’s particularly fond of the night Memphis comic Brandon Sams asked Midtowners if they could identify on a map, “Where the zoo touched you.”
