Ask a typical Torontonian to name you some comedy venues and chances are they'll only be able to come up with two: Yuk Yuk's and Second City. This isn't because they're uninformed or somber, but because aside from these two usual suspects, there just aren't many venues in Toronto specifically focusing comedy, especially not edgy or 'alternative' comedy. And frankly that's a real shame. While Yuk Yuk's, for instance, tends to deliver high quality acts, they tend to all fit a certain "mould". If comedians don't follow the implicit rules of comedy, they'll have a hard time getting booked.

This seems a bit oxymoronic. Isn't comedy supposed to be fun? Comedian Gary Rideout Jr. thinks so. Back in June, along with his friend and partner James Elksnitia, he opened a new grassroots venue and gave it an uninspired but entirely frank and straightforward title: Comedy Bar. While other bars and performance spaces do often book comedy acts, Comedy Bar is wholly devoted to comedy and is nowhere near as discriminatory as the bigger comedy venues.

"Yuk Yuk's is an institution for stand up. Second City is an institution for improv. We're not an institution," Gary explains. "Our space is available for rent, so we're free to book whatever we want. And with two, sometimes three shows a night, we can get some experimental and weird shit." He should know what works and what doesn't; he's in the business himself.

In fact, part of the incentive for opening the Comedy Bar was due to a desire for a regular venue for his own award-winning comedy troupe, The Sketchersons, and their weekly revue, Sunday Night Live. This will headline a small group of regulars, but everything else is undetermined. If there's a guiding principle, it's that there is no guiding principle. You can see anything in the 112 seat theatre from traditional stand-up comedy to avant-garde one man shows involving excrement and crying.

But Comedy Bar is about more than just performance; it's a multi-faceted venue that's intended to deliver the entire comedy experience, including just hanging out and shooting the shit. "There are a ton of cool venues in New York and Chicago where comedy troupes are welcome and people feel comfortable enough just to drop in," Gary says. Comedy Bar is meant to feel like it belongs to comedians and to the comedy community." The re-launch of the bar adds a new separate lounge area with couches and coffee tables, Wi-Fi internet, and a green screen studio for rehearsal and online video (the wave of the future).