By the numbers, Mary Ella Lindsey is one of a handful of black females in the nation to own a comedy club, Jokes and Notes.
Jokes and Notes is now celebrating its fifth anniversary.
“I am a single female doing this in a really male-dominated arena, and I feel really good about that,” Lindsey states. “I don’t think people realize how difficult it is to operate a club five nights a week and keep it interesting and spicy. And I don’t think they think women can do that because it’s hard to find a female comedian.”
Like most entrepreneurs, Lindsey recognized a need for an urban comedy club, and so she built it.
“In 1991, I happened to be dating a guy who moved to Atlanta, and he went to the Comedy Act Theater, which was the first urban comedy club,” Lindsey explains. “And he was there saying there’s nothing like that here in Chicago for urban comedy. Zanie’s won’t book them. Improv won’t book them and, so, he was like, ‘We can do this.’ ”
At that time, Lindsey wasn’t excited about leaving her lucrative career in finance. She was the vice president at the Chicago Board of Options.
“I told him, ‘I’m not quitting my day job, but I’ll help,’ ” Lindsey laughs. Soon enough, Lindsey became a full partner in All Jokes Aside, and the club was booming. All Jokes Aside began in a banquet hall, but soon had its own building. The traveling black comedians had a home in Chicago.
From 1991-1999, Lindsey and her partners, Ray Lambert and James Alexander, launched a few major careers at their club, All Jokes Aside. “Steve Harvey, D.L. Hughley, Dave Chappelle, Tommy Davidson, you name it,” Lindsey shares. “All of the stars today were up-and-coming comics, and we gave them a platform.”
After a full eight-year run, the owners decided to close the comedy club.
But the comics told Lindsey that they needed a place to perform. In 2006, Lindsey, with the blessing of Alderman Dorothy Tillman, opened the Jokes and Notes comedy club in Chicago’s historic district of Bronzeville.
Lindsey’s club hit a rough patch after a popular nearby restaurant, Blu 47, burned down. However, Bernie Mac took the stage a few times, which was a lightning bolt for her business.
Mac wasn’t the first major star to return and show Lindsey some love.
“Mo’Nique was the one person who said, ‘I so appreciate what you guys did for me that I’m going to come and do your grand opening because you deserve that,’ ” Lindsey beams. “That’s when I felt like I had truly been rewarded. Bernie and Mo’Nique set it out for me in a big way.” –zondra hughes
Photos by Bernard Williams.
