The answer from St. Louis comedian, Jack Wright, will make you chuckle!
The Link Auditorium’s forthcoming Holly Jolly comedy showcase got a sneak preview yesterday on Fox 2. Check out the video below:
The event will take place this Saturday, Dec 21st from 7:30pm at 4504 Westminster Place. Tickets are $20 and the proceeds go to restoring this historic building in the Central West End.
Four Comedians from Missouri and St. Louis
If you can make it, not only will you be helping to restore a piece of St. Louis history, but you’ll also be supporting local homegrown comedy talent. For this holiday themed show, I’m told the comedians are going after Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, and even Festivus.
That’s 4 comedians for 20 bucks! You can’t go wrong. Here’s the lineup:
Restoring The Link Auditorium
Built in 1908 for The Wednesday Club (a women’s education and social club that fought for fought for smoke abatement, better schools, sanitation laws, and a cleaner city in the 1890s), The Link Auditorium was designed by the famous St. Louis architect, Theodore Link, who was also the original architect of Union Station.
I joined the nonprofit board of The Link Auditorium in 2023, after falling in love with the building not because of it’s famous architecture, but for it’s illustrious history in the St. Louis arts and literature scene. It’s been home to three of Tennessee Williams’s full length plays and, T.S. Eliot’s mother, Charlotte, hosted poetry competitions there.
Along with other volunteers, we’ve been working tirelessly to get it ship shape since COVID forced the long-standing board members to put the building into hibernation mode. This comedy event represents a huge milestone for members of the board, as it’s the first comedy show to be hosted in nearly five years.
Since then, and especially over the past two years, the board has successfully executed three major renovation projects. From installing full heating/cooling air conditioning, to creating an exhibition space with full art gallery lighting and delivering high speed wifi throughout the venue, the building has never been so close to realizing its potential as it does now.
Boasting the second best acoustics in the city after the Fox Theatre, this year The Link Auditorium hosted ten Candlelight concerts and three concerts for the Gateway Mens Chorus. These projects brought in significant revenue for the restoration project, whilst also demonstrating it’s role as a community center for innovation in the arts.
Following these successes, the board is readying the launch of a capital campaign in 2025.
If you’re an artist, poet, comedian, event host or performer of any kind —or an entrepreneur who can imagine ways that you could make use of a 500 seat auditorium in 2025— then please consider this an invite for you to come to the Holly Jolly on Saturday and check out the building. I’ll be there, and it’d be my pleasure to connect you with the people who can help you get involved and contribute to this wonderful restoration project.
Finally, if the video left you wondering what would be a less awkward gift, then why not check out EQ’s Holiday Gift Guide from St. Louis based startups? There’s still time to be an angel and buy local!