NO LAUGHING MATTER
The Comic Strip owner Rick Bronson said Friday he is considering legal action after health officials shut him down Wednesday 90 minutes before the doors were to open at his club. Officials say the club is an entertainment facility, but Bronson argues his restaurant licence — and the precautions he has taken — should allow him to open.
A local comedy club operator is threatening legal action if Alberta Health Services (AHS) doesn’t respond to his request to be allowed to reopen after officials shut down his show Wednesday night.
“I tried to give AHS the opportunity to do the right thing,” said Rick Bronson, owner of The Comic Strip — a small chain of comedy clubs that serves food and drinks; it has outlets in Edmonton and in two U.S. cities.
The Comic Strip’s business licence from the city of Edmonton lists the establishment as a “restaurant or food service” and a “spectator entertainment establishment.” When the province said restaurants could open at half-capacity, Bronson readied his club for the public. For extra safety, he launched at 25 per cent capacity, placing tables six feet apart. The single performer on stage is 10 feet from the first table. All performers use their own microphones to decrease the risk of COVID-19 transmission.
The club opened to the public over the long weekend. But on Wednesday, 90 minutes before theatre doors opened, an AHS official came to the club, located at West Edmonton Mall, with an order to close it down. The only explanation he received, says Bronson, is that they were an entertainment venue. He says his lawyer has approached AHS to try to resolve the problem, with no luck.
At a press briefing Thursday, Dr. Deena Hinshaw said that comedy clubs feature laughter, and laughter has the potential to carry droplets that could contain the COVID-19 virus.
“If it’s a comedy club or some kind of performance where you’re going to have an entire room of people laughing or cheering at the same time, there is some increased risk to those activities,” said Hinshaw.
She said that restaurants didn’t carry the same risks because people aren’t necessarily laughing or cheering as a group in restaurants. Bronson counters that people watching an Oilers game from 1985 in local restaurants with televisions are cheering and nobody is shutting them down.
“The doctor pointed out the negative aspects of laughter and
I would argue it decreases stress hormones, increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, thus improving your resistance to disease,” he said.
In a written statement sent to the Journal Friday morning, AHS said The Comic Strip is an entertainment company and is not permitted to open during the first stage of the provincial relaunch. Bronson says the AHS should not be taking a “one size fits all” approach.
“We have a restaurant licence and that’s why I opened,” said Bronson.
Over at Spotlight Cabaret, co-owner Aimee Beaudoin has also struggled to figure out AHS rules. Last week, AHS stopped the business, located on Whyte Ave. and licensed as both a restaurant and an entertainment facility, from running a promoted event set to launch over the long weekend that featured a standup comic, a solo singer and an improv act. She says AHS told her there had been a complaint about the restaurant opening.
In a written statement, AHS said it can close a business based on a public complaint, and can “follow up on non-compliance activities where there is a risk of COVID-19 transmission or burden to the health system.”
But further problems arose after the initial interaction between AHS and Spotlight Cabaret. The business has a performance space that serves food and also a separate rooftop patio that was open for diners last week. But shortly after an online news report about Spotlight Cabaret on Friday, AHS shut the business entirely, including its patio.
In a statement about the closure, AHS said “a business offering or providing access to an entertainment facility, such as a theatre or nightclub or a concert venue, must be closed to the public during phase one of the reopening.”
The statement continued: “AHS has been working closely with Spotlight Cabaret over the past week to ensure compliance with phase one of relaunch and to make certain they are doing the right thing for the safety of the province. We are currently reviewing a proposal for food service only on the Spotlight patio.”