San Jose Improv gears up to bring back the laughs.

Property owner helped the downtown comedy club with rent during shutdowns

Downtown San Jose’s comedy club is gearing up to deliver laughs again in the wake of coronavirus-linked business shutdowns, a dreadful stretch during which the site’s landlord provided rental assistance.

San Jose Improv on Wednesday listed dates for multiple comedians during April and May, a welcome counterpoint to months of being dark for shows at the downtown venue.

“Please stand by: Improv comedy returning soon!” the San Jose Improv stated in the header of its Twitter page.

Donald Imwalle, a veteran real estate executive and one of the landlords, is delighted that the comedy club is moving towards live performances once again.

“San Jose Improv has comedy acts back on the schedule. They are going to be opening back up,” Imwalle said. “That is exciting for us. It’s great to see.”

In late 2018, Imwalle teamed up with another real estate executive, Gary Dillabough, to purchase the Jose Theatre property at 62 S. First St. where the comedy club operates, paying $2.14 million for the site.

At the time of the purchase, the new owners said they wanted to keep the comedy club as an ongoing tenant.

Starting in November, the Improv attempted to generate some revenue by offering a food and drink menu for curbside pickup or delivery.

“The food and drinks are doing better

than they had thought they would,” Imwalle said.

During the period of restrictions on live performances, San Jose Improv was buoyed by assistance from landlords Imwalle and Dillabough, as well as AMC Networks.

AMC Networks owns a majority stake in Levity Live, the owner of The Improv comedy club chain, including the San Jose Improv.

“We worked with The Improv to help them with their rent, as we did with all of our tenants,” Imwalle said. “And AMC Networks sees The Improv as very important for their content.”

The first burst of shows, according to the San Jose Improv website, will launch in mid-April, according to the venue’s events calendar.

Colin Kane is slated to appear in six shows starting on April 15, Frankie Quinones is due to perform in four shows starting on May 7, and El Norteno is scheduled to appear in four shows starting on May 14, the Improv website shows.

The Improv over the years has been one of the mainstays in the downtown South First Area, or SoFA district.

SoFA is a hip and trendy neighborhood of restaurants, bars, nightspots, theaters, clubs, and live-performance venues. Before the arrival of the coronavirus, SoFA was one of the hottest spots downtown.

Coronavirus-linked restrictions ordered by state and local government agencies have put the clamps on venues nationwide that hosted live events and performances.

Now, restrictions are being slowly eased allowing for operations such as San Jose Improv to gradually restore events.

As for the assistance that Imwalle and Dillabough provided, that’s the sort of approach that property owners should use to help tenants, Imwalle said. That’s especially true during a time of severe economic blows dealt out by the coronavirus.

“The pandemic impacted us all,” Imwalle said. “We want to do all we can to help people make it to the other side.”