“A day without sunshine is like . . . night.” — Steve Martin 

“I live on a one-way street that’s also a dead end. I’m not sure how I got here.” — Steven Wright 

“When I was born I was so ugly the doctor slapped my mother.” — Rodney Dangerfield 

 So, a piece of string walks into a bar.

“We don’t serve string in here,” the bartender shouts at him. “Get lost.” 

There’s more to that joke and it’s a real knee-slapper, but I can’t tell it to you because I’m not a comedian. Never going to be, either. Frankly, I don’t believe I could handle the pressure. 

“When you’re up there on the stage,” is how the hilarious Johnny Ater describes it, ” that light is shining on you and everybody’s looking at you thinking, ‘OK. Make us laugh, jerk.’ It’s not for the faint of heart.” 

Fortunately for those who crave good humor, the Twin Cities — and Maine in general — positively teems with talented comedians. It is rare that a single night will go by where you can’t find a comedy show somewhere. 

In Lewiston and Auburn, we are singularly blessed, thanks to the Great Falls Comedy Club, which holds a comedy open mic event every Wednesday night, and live shows on Fridays and Saturdays. 

Launched in November of 2018, the club, located at the back of Craft Brew Underground in Auburn, began when two men, Leonard Kimble and Nick Gordon, began putting their witty heads together. 

Gordon was teaching a comedy writing class at the time and Kimble had a powerful passion for stand-up. The two men were later joined by aspiring comedian Nic Dufault and voila! The Great Falls Comedy Club was born. 

The comics behind the club acknowledge that when they got started, they were already standing on the shoulders of giants. 

“The Lewiston-Auburn area has produced several comics and improv groups,” says Gordon, “but Maine in general has always been known for funny people and character-based, live, spoken-word entertainment. People like Joe Perham, Tim Sample, and Bob Marley cut the path that is followed by today’s comedians in the area, all of which continue to grow the scene here and around the state.” 

Upon request, Gordon can instantly spout a list of nearly a dozen hot Maine comics off the top of his head. The Maine comedy scene, he says, is crammed full of talented comics and some of them, like the vaunted Mark Turcotte, are particularly driven to boost comedy in the area so that others can succeed, too. 

Turcotte’s name is uttered frequently among the comics. He was, after all, the comedian who initially brought comedy to the Craft Brew Underground. He also produced many of the more successful comedy shows and often took responsibility for booking locations. “The thing about Mark,” says Ater, “is that everything he does, he’s really good at it.” 

The more comedians we talked to, the more we learned how drive and ambition are almost as important as talent when it comes to making a splash in the world of local comedy. 

Like with most things, the comics who succeed, it seems, are the ones who work the hardest. Most of these witty men and women aren’t doing comedy full-time, after all. Most have to hold down real jobs by day while working their material by night. 

Gordon himself works in the judicial system, which he describes as “the opposite of comedy.” He also refs hockey on the side. 

Johnny Ater is a painting contractor who somehow found the time to make his name one of the very biggest in Maine comedy. 

Adam Hatch, whom we’ll visit with later, describes himself as a “girl dad by day, stand-up comedian by night.” 

Sara Jean Poulin, a popular comic from Auburn, has a full-time job, a college-age kid and a regular podcast at Lydia Media called Lydia’s Lunch Bunch. 

So, how do they do it? How do they manage to write funny material and then go from club to club trying to make people laugh, all while holding down jobs and maintaining personal lives? 

Commitment, brothers. The names you know in local comedy are known because they put in the work. And, because these hardworking comedians are willing to share what they know with all the aspiring comics out there banging on the club doors, local comedy continues to thrive.

We spoke with just a small sample of the local comedians causing belly laughs in our area in hopes of finding out exactly why comedy is, and has been, so popular in our cold corner of the world.

Adam Hatch: Dad by day, funny man by night 

Comedian and actor Steve Martin once declared that “comedy is not pretty.”

It’s not easy, either, as it turns out.

“When you’re putting yourself out there, trying to do shows and putting time into writing and creating, it’s difficult,” says Hatch. “It’s like anything else. You get out of it what you put in.” 

Hatch got his start in comedy in 2005 at the Comedy Connection in Portland. Over the years, he has performed all over New England, Chicago and Las Vegas, and has worked with comedians such as Eddie Brill, Juston McKinney, Michael Winslow and, of course, Marley. 

By Hatch’s own admission, he wasn’t always willing to put in the work required for a comedian to make it to the next level. 

“The first 10 years I was doing standup,” he says, “I wasn’t putting in very much effort at all. That’s why I was so horrible at it.” 

Eventually, Hatch did develop more drive and a better work ethic, to the point where Gordon describes him as “one of Maine’s hardest working comics.” 

He works hard, Hatch says, because he loves comedy and would like to keep doing it. 

“It’s great to go out in front of a group of strangers and just hope that you can kind of connect with them in a way that maybe gives them a little break from the reality of everyday life,” he says. “If somebody’s having a bad day and you can go out there and make them laugh for five minutes, they might feel a little better and that’s awesome.” 

Like other comedians we talked to, Hatch agrees that Maine has a red hot comedy scene. And there’s no sign that this will change any time soon — even as comedians like Hatch, Ater and Gordon reach veteran status, there are always new faces making their way into the local comedy rounds. 

And they’re coming in hot. 

“It seems that every year there’s a new batch of comics coming into the scene and they’re really hungry to get out there,” Hatch says. “They’re hungry to put on shows or be a part of shows.” 

Just about all the comics we talked to agreed the comedy scene here is welcoming. There is not an element of fierce competition among the comics. The veterans are always happy to help the newcomers, as long as those noobs have the requisite desire to succeed. 

“We’ve all been in that same place where you just have a ton of questions,” says Hatch. “You just want to get better and you want to know HOW to get better. Hopefully, you can connect with somebody who’s been doing it longer than you have and that person will take you under the wing and say, ‘Listen. This is what got me to the next step.’ 

“There’s definitely no magic answer,” Hatch says. “There’s no shortcut. It’s literally about how much time you want to spend writing and then getting on stage to have people give you real-time feedback. It’s brutally honest when you start. If you can handle that, you just might be able to stick with it.” 

Want to see Adam Hatch in action? On Jan. 17 he’s at the Somerset Pour House in Palmyra with Ian Stuart. On Jan. 25, he’s at the Calumet Club in Augusta at 7:30 p.m. with Stuart. 

Johnny ‘Friggin’ Ater: Booked and feeling good 

Johnny Ater, who’s face alone is among the most recognizable in the local comedy milieu, is a very busy man these days. 

He wouldn’t have it any other way. 

In his bio, Ater is described as a “life-long local and arguably one of Maine’s funniest, down-home comedians. . . . He’s your goofy brother, your dorky dad, your silly grandpa, but after a show with him, he’ll just feel like Johnny, your funny best friend.” 

Ater has been around since 2003 when he got his started at what was then the Comedy Connection in Portland. The clubs, he insists, are crucial for keeping comedy alive and well in the region. 

“It’s a very healthy comedy scene in Maine,” Ater says. “You’ve got Great Falls Comedy Club in Auburn, you’ve got the Empire in Portland and there’s the Comedy Mill down in Biddeford.” 

When we spoke with Ater, he had just finished headlining at McCue’s Comedy Club in Portsmouth, N.H. He has other shows lined up closer to home in coming weeks, including a performance at a church in Bath — which makes him a little bit nervous — and gigs in Durham and Leeds. 

“I’m pretty booked up right now,” he says, “and I’m feeling pretty good about that.” 

Like the others, Johnny ‘Friggin’ Ater, as his fans like to call him, sees Maine comedy as a kind of self-replicating machine. While the veterans are out there keeping comedy vibrant night after night, there are always aspiring comics always looking to enter the fray. 

Not everyone can make it in comedy. You either have natural talent or you work your butt off to develop it. 

“Since I started in 2003, there are a lot more people doing comedy and I would say that 30 or 40 percent of them are very funny — they’re very good comics,” Ater says. “Comedy has a way of weeding out people who just aren’t good at it. But there are also people who really struggle at first; but then they work at it and they get better over the years. You see them later and you’re like, ‘Wow. This guy or that girl is unbelievably good now.'” 

For those who want to try their hand at stand-up comedy, there really are no excuses not to get started. These days, comedy is taught in adult education programs and chances to try out new material are all over the place. 

“There are a lot of great opportunities for comics just coming up,” says Ater. “If you want to do comedy, pretty much every night of the week there’s an open mic somewhere you can go to and try out new stuff.” 

Like Hatch, Ater says the rewards of doing comedy are obvious.

“When somebody is going through a bunch of crap in their lives,” Ater says, “and then they come up to you after a show and say, ‘Thank you so much. I haven’t laughed like that in so long, it was great,’ it just makes me feel like I’m actually helping somebody.” 

Want more Ater? He’ll be performing at AMVETS Post 13 in Durham, Saturday, Jan. 25 at 7 p.m. 

Sara Jean Poulin: So many balls in the air

For Sara Jean Poulin, it began as a New Year’s resolution to have a go at standup comedy. So she took a comedy class through adult ed and then summoned the courage to go live with her act. 

Look at her now. Poulin is performing all over the place and hosting a popular podcast. 

When she first came on the scene, she immediately felt the love from other comics. 

“I found the local scene to be very welcoming,” Poulin says. “During the adult ed comedy class I took I was introduced to other comics who had been doing comedy for a while. This is where I met Mark Turcotte. Mark has been what I would consider to be my mentor in comedy for the last almost 4 years. He’s a trusted friend and support system to me. 

“The other comics I’ve met have been very supportive as well,” she says. “They haven’t gate-kept or held trade secrets. I’ve found the comics from southern Maine and New Hampshire to be just as kind.” 

Like all the other comics, Poulin stresses the hard work that goes into it. When she first got started, it was downright terror. 

“Most people are surprised when I say that stand-up comedy was scary for me, especially knowing that I sing and do theater,” Poulin said in a recent interview. “The difference though is that standup is done all alone. There isn’t anyone there to look to if you forget a line or a song lyric. You are your only lifeline and if your jokes aren’t authentic and truthful to who you are, people can tell and it becomes less funny. There is a lot of pressure there to get it right.” 

Apparently, she gets it right, because when you have a conversation with just about any comic in the area, Sara Jean’s name is invoked. She isn’t going away any time soon, either, because now comedy is in her soul. 

“Comedy,” Poulin says, “is a great way to express yourself and share things about your life with your own spin on it. Entertaining people can be very rewarding and fulfilling especially when the rest of the world can be so dark and kind of sad. It brings joy in a very simple way. Almost therapeutic.

“From the audience’s perspective,” she says, “being able to escape even briefly from reality and hearing someone else’s struggles and being able to relate to it and see the humor in life is such an appealing thing.” 

Poulin will perform at the Great Falls Comedy Club on Jan. 17. She’ll be at City Winery in Boston a day later and at Waterview Grill in Portsmouth on Jan. 31. She’ll also be performing in a fundraiser for Phoenix No Limits Karate in Auburn on March 8. The fundraiser will be held at Burnt Ends Barbecue.

Dawn Bach: A class act

Dawn Bach, according to those who know her, has always been funny.

It was just a matter of letting the world in on that secret. 

Bach took her first improv class in 2014 and that’s where the magic happened. Simply by pursuing the craft she was drawn to, she came to realize she might actually make it as a by-god comedian. 

“I found that my quick wit made people laugh,” she recalls. “Then, I took a standup comedy class in 2016 through Lewiston Adult Ed and won my first comedy competition at the Strand Theatre in Rockland.” 

By 2018, Bach wasn’t just performing comedy, she was teaching it — specifically a class called “Standup Comedy” at Lewiston Adult Ed. This coming March, she’ll be teaching an “Intro to Improv” class as well. 

Bach started performing her own comedy “because my kids were all growing up and they didn’t really need me as much as they did when they were younger.”

Back then, she was performing in places like House of Bacon and Bull Feeney’s, businesses that later closed.

“Those venues gave me lots of opportunities to host and perform comedy,” Bach said. 

She isn’t performing as much these days as she used to, it’s true. But Bach does acknowledge that comedy in the area is as big as ever. And she has some theories on why that might be. 

“Well, if you don’t ski or ice fish, there ain’t a whole lot to do in Maine in the winter,” she says. “So, the audiences are welcoming and people just want to laugh. Plus, Maine just offers so much material!” 

Lucas Salisbury: A comedy empire 

In 2020, Lucas Salisbury transformed a music venue in Portland into Empire Comedy Club. 

This was big news for anybody interested in local comedy. The famed Comedy Connection in Portland — where many of the comics listed here got their starts — had closed in 2012, leaving much smaller venues to keep comedy alive in Portland. 

With Salisbury on board as general manager, the Empire became the city’s first dedicated comedy club in nearly a decade. 

Lots of people credit Salisbury with keeping comedy alive, not just in Portland but throughout Maine and states to the south. 

Salisbury himself has a lot to say about local comedy, and about the men and women who brave the stage and microphone to keep audiences entertained. 

“The comedy scene here in Maine is small, but has an immense amount of potential,” Salisbury says. “I think the scene is going to continue to grow and thrive as more opportunities for stage time become available. Comedians need a place to practice. It’s not like an instrument where you can work at it at home; you have to try it in front of people and see if it works. 

“I’m a big fan of comedy, and I really love watching a comedian find their voice and figure it out on stage,” he says. “When you see it click, it’s almost like you see them level up in real time in a sense and it’s pretty magical. I’m looking forward to the future for the comics up here, and seeing where they go.” 

Find out more about the Empire Club and its calendar of events at empirecomedyme.com.

The punchline

Yeah, so anyway, this piece of string, irate that the bartender won’t serve him, steps outside where he twists himself into an elaborate knot and musses his hair up so that it’s sticking up all over the place.

The string goes back to the bar and sits down.

“Hey,” growls the bartender. “Aren’t you that string that I kicked out of here earlier?”

“No,” says the string. “I’m a frayed knot.”

It would no doubt sound funnier coming from one of the professionals listed above.

But trust me, that joke is HILARIOUS!