A weirdly located little gem that I hope to visit again and again!
I went to see a comedian by the name of Greg Fitzsimmons. He had been plugging his upcoming date in "Dayton". Well, I kept checking his website and the website of the main comedy club in Dayton, OH, and couldn't find anything. So, I emailed him and asked. And that's when he said, "Sh*t, you're right. It's Dayton, KY. I need to tell people that!"
That's when I learned there was a Dayton, KY and a comedy club in Dayton, KY.
Using Waze, as I do, I set my course for Commonwealth Sanctuary in Dayton, KY. Fairly straight forward....driving along.... Waze says I'm almost there. A few turns later, I'm smack-dab in the middle of a neighborhood. There it was. In the middle of the block, on a residential side street, was what looks to be a former church. A small church, but obviously once a church. Residential houses on each side and across the street. But that was it.
I walked up, confirmed I was in the right place and that was it. Upon entering, you're asked your name to get checked in. Then, someone walks you to your table. It's a small room. Very small room with a small altar....I mean stage, at the front. While walking up, the person seating me pointed out where the restrooms were and the exits, in case I needed either. She then pointed out their menu and order cards. She explained that each item has a number (kind of like ordering sushi) and said just write down the numbers and someone will pick it up. She pointed out they do silent ordering and silent check drops in order to not interrupt the show. THIS IS BRILLIANT! Every comedy club in the world should take note of this and make this the standard. There is nothing more aggravating that getting asked, or hearing the next table get asked, if they're "good" or God forbid order a bunch more drinks or food. Then, there's the dreaded check drops and payment at the table. I cannot think of a worse interruption than the check drop at my table and surrounding tables. Commonwealth Sanctuary does it right.
They had quite a few hot food items, sandwiches, snacks and alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages to choose from. It was actually a nice menu. During this visit, I simply ordered a Snapple Iced Tea.
The club is small and intimate. This is good and bad and I witnessed both. The good - the comic can easily do crowd work and go back and forth with audience members, if they choose. The bad is when you ALWAYS, have the person in the crowd who then sees this as an invite to be part of the rest of the show. The level of severity of these people is always related to their level of intoxication. So, there's that. No comedy club is free from that element.
Would I go back? 100%! Nice little place. Weird location, but a very cool discovery. They have open mics, local comics and national touring comics coming through all the time. It is literally so small and intimate that it feels like you're at someone's house. But, that's not a bad thing. Ticket prices are fair and quite low as are the food and beverage prices. Commonwealth Sanctuary really has it going on. It would have been nice to see more people at this particular show, but you can't blame that on the club. It could be a number of things. My biggest hope is that word gets around about this little gem in our area because their friendly staff really go out of their way to make this a nice and fun place to come and see a good show. Check it out!!! read more