Bridgeport comedy club seeks to survive and thrive
BRIDGEPORT — Vinnie Brand is in the funny business, and the downtown comedy club owner takes that business very seriously.
More than seven months into the COVID-19 pandemic, Brand said he is intensely focused on not just keeping his downtown Stress Factory establishment successful, but on ensuring the rest of the neighborhood re-emerges from the worldwide health crisis and resultant economic collapse.
“We survived,” Brand said. “Now we have to thrive.”
When the coronavirus struck Connecticut in midMarch, the public was urged to stay home for several weeks to stop the illness’ spread and many so-called non-essential businesses like the Stress Factory were shuttered for months, with restaurants restricted to selling takeout and delivery only.
Beginning in May, the
state gradually re-opened the economy, but with strict rules in place that included mask requirements and capacity limits to prevent another outbreak. Brand’s club, for example, was only able to again host live comedy in August.
“It’s a little more challenging,” said Brand, whose venue across from McLevy Green opened in spring 2018 and quickly became a crucial anchor destination for a downtown that has been idling on the verge of success for several years.
Brand said he has had some very successful shows these past couple of months but the pandemic can make finding available comedians a challenge: “Some comics still just don’t want to travel. ... They have not gone out. Some of the comics are just more reluctant to be inside.”
Still, he said, the Stress Factory in Bridgeport has garnered a reputation as a safe spot. For example, the dressing room is secluded and has its own restroom, so “you’re not by the audience at all.”
“It’s all starting to become easier to get people to say, ‘Yeah, I’ll go,’ ” Brand said.
But getting audiences to do the same has also proven more difficult.
“It seems like we’re still in a moment where people feel like, ‘I’ll go out, but it’s got to be for a reason,’ ” Brand said. “It’s still not, ‘I just got to get out of the house.’ They’re still watching ‘Tiger King’ (Netflix’s true crime documentary series) instead of just going out.”
So Brand is, with the Downtown Special Services District that promotes the neighborhood, organizing a meeting of stakeholders to explore how to tackle quality of life issues — aesthetics, parking, public safety — around the green to help further convince people to spend an evening and their disposable income in the heart of Bridgeport.
A representative of the DSSD could not be reached for comment.
Besides his club and a next door restaurant opened with his wife Vicki earlier this year, Brand said downtown boasts plenty of offerings that could be promoted to people as alternatives to the nights out they used to spend in other destinations like New York pre-coronavirus. He specifically cited Joseph’s Steakhouse and Italian restaurants Ralph n Rich’s and Trattoria ‘A Vucchella.
“The entire downtown (as of last winter) was beginning to feel the effect of the last six years of dedication by the Stress Factory and every other business down there that put it on the line. ... All of the momentum was positive and strong,” Brand said. “COVID, in vacating every office and creating an environment where people were reluctant to go out, was a major hurdle. And in the absence of business and that continued positive effort, I feel like McLevy Green slipped backward a bit.”
In a detailed letter circulated by the Downtown Special Services District, Brand offered specific concerns.
He cited a stabbing that occurred downtown earlier this month, as well as “people openly using the park (McLevy) to loiter, drink, do drugs, sleep and harass customers.”
“The park needs to be permanently and significantly policed and cleaned,” Brand said.
Danny Roach, an aide to Mayor Joe Ganim, whose offices are near McLevy Green and the Stress Factory, said he is aware of Brand’s concerns.
“Of course we do what we can to help his business and the others in the district,” Roach said. “It’s important that the Stress Factory is successful. It’s a big part of downtown.”
Brand also called for better enforcement of parking rules and a crackdown on the illegal dirt bike street racing that for years has plagued some Bridgeport neighborhoods.
Brand also suggested aesthetic improvements to a nearby parking deck and vacant building.
“Everybody, me included, has had to focus on surviving before we could thrive, and staying safe and creating practices that ensure the safety of other people and creating an environment where people feel good to come out again,” Brand told The Connecticut Post. “So we were all faced with and forced into a non-collaborative moment because we were all trying to first survive.”
Brand continued: “Like they tell you on a plane, put your (air) mask on first. My mask is on. Now I’m going to turn to the infant next to me — McLevy Green — and put their mask on is what this meeting’s about.”