We were lucky to catch up with Leah Addison recently and have shared our conversation below.

Leah, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Let’s start with a story that highlights an important way in which your brand diverges from the industry standard.

Stand-up comedy is a predominately male industry. Like many things in life, women are offered less opportunities, paid less, and considered not as good, interesting, or in this case, funny. When I entered the comedy scene, it was not a surprise how many people (mostly male) felt entitled to get on stage and make fun of other people, calling them jokes. There is a lot of talk and controversy around being PC in comedy, and I do believe that you can make personal experiences and stories funny, but punching down to make your audience uncomfortable or feel bad about themselves isn’t something I view as entertainment.

I started Snowflake Comedy Club in 2019 with a desire to be more inclusive and welcoming. As a type-A perfectionist and planner, I love getting to curate my own lineups that are diverse in all ways. I want my lineups to look like my audience – not all white, not all men.

Snowflake shows have been successful because there is a need to see people on stage who look like you. Sure, there are still plenty of shows you can catch that will be filled with men telling inappropriate “jokes.” I’m not trying to shut them down – please, go see them! I want to do something different. In running Snowflake shows, it has been most exciting to see all of the new people who thought they weren’t right for comedy start doing stand-up. That’s what Snowflake Comedy Club is about.

Leah, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

My name is Leah Addison, I live in Cleveland, Ohio and run Snowflake Comedy Club. Snowflake is a pop-up comedy show that highlights local businesses as alternative comedy venues. We give space in the local Cleveland comedy scene that is empathetically welcoming and striving for inclusivity. We want to bring light to underrepresented groups, including people of color, women, and people in the queer community.

We’d love to hear about how you met your business partner.

I met my cofounder, Jenna, in a stand-up comedy class in Cleveland. As part of the class, each person would get up to run through their sets and the class would offer feedback. One of the students was working through his set about his (white) children playing at the hotel pool with a group of Black children. He said something about a “pack of monkeys,” referencing the Black children. I do think this was an unconscious bias and Freudian slip, but I felt like I had to say something. He immediately recognized and owned up to his mistake. Jenna texted me “thanks for being the other Snowflake in the room.” We latched onto each other and entered open mics, wrote jokes, and planned our first Snowflake show just months later.

Any advice for growing your clientele? What’s been most effective for you?

Our first show in February 2020 had an audience of 75 people. Really, it was all of our friends and family showing their support. Since re-launching Snowflake Comedy after the pandemic, I wasn’t sure I could rely on just friends showing up to all of the shows. I decided to put most of my capital into Instagram ads to reach a new audience. Being thoughtful about the locations, keywords, and demographic, I started to see people show up to shows who I’d never met before. I still run Instagram ads regularly, but I’ve pivoted toward working closer with community organizations who align with my company values. I’ve never wanted Snowflake to be a solo thing. I’ve always imagined it as a group effort that involves different communities. It’s been more fun to collaborate with other groups, pull from their clientele, share resources, and come up with new ideas.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.snowflakecomedy.com
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/snowflakecomedyclub/
• Facebook: facebook.com/snowflakecomedy
• Other: https://www.tiktok.com/@snowflakecomedyclub