This is a recorded presentation with Dennis Tooley, with Gutty’s Comedy Club in Greenwood, Indiana. He shares about how Gutty’s came to be in their current location, and what he learned along the way.
Here’s the transcript for this video:
Ryan: With that I’d like to turn it over to our speaker today who is the owner of Gutty’s Comedy Club in Greenwood Indiana, and he is going to share with us some of his journey in building a family friendly entertainment venue.
Ryan: So, Dennis, you have the floor.
Dennis: Well, first of all, thanks for inviting me to be a part of this and share with you just a little bit about the history of Gutty’s Comedy Club here in Central Indiana and, the, Gutty’s actually started back in 2003.
Dennis: Meet my business partner and a good friend, Steve Rivera. Kind of came Up with this dream of having a family friendly entertainment venue because as, as you start to get a little bit older and you have kids and you realize there’s, there are times when you’re like, hey, I’d love to go see a comedy show but most comedy is done in, with either in a traditional comedy club, which is more or less a bar.
Dennis: Oh, or they’re one-off shows that are being produced in bars and, so it’s not something you can take the kids to. And Steve, you know, said he wanted to have a place that the entire family could come and enjoy laughs together.
Dennis: And so, he kind of, started the whole process of developing Gutty’s.
Dennis: And a lot of people will ask the question. So, the name, Gutty’s, where’d that come from? Is that somebody’s name?
Dennis: No, we don’t have a guy named Gutty that comes around and he gets off stage yet, is actually the name came from Steve and a friend of his were talking about what Steve wanted to see in his vision for the, this family friendly comedy place and he said yeah, I want a place where people leave and they, they go home talking about man, my jaw hurts because I laughed so hard, my- my stomach and my sides hurt because I had those gut busting laughs and that’s kind of where they’re from, gut busting laughs.
Dennis: That’s kind of where they came up with the name of Gutty’s and so Steve and I met 15 plus years ago and he was telling me about his dream for this family friendly comedy venue.
Dennis: And, and I tried to encourage him along the way, but because we didn’t live close enough, we never really saw some, some, any consistency in terms of shows.
Dennis: He, Steve was doing shows in a number of different places, he actually had at one point, had a roller rink that he was able to kind of transform into a comedy club when they weren’t doing roller skating.
Dennis: Uh, I will say that’s kind of the rarest form of heckling is to have somebody roll through in. A roller skater, at the middle of your set, which is kind of a, I’ve never been heckled quite that way before.
Dennis: But, we do we do what we can to find spots. And so, Steve was just like I’m gonna do this and you know, roller rink. If I need to, I’ll do it.
Dennis: He had a church that had some space that let him do some shows from time to time and then a few years back Steve and his family moved here to the Indianapolis area and we reconnected and we’re sitting down over coffee.
Dennis: And I said so, what’s going on with Gutty’s? And he said, well, it’s kind of been on the back burner and it’s well, it’s time to get it off the back burner, let’s light this bad boy on fire, or let’s see something happen, and so that’s when we really started putting things together, to finding a location where we could have consistent shows.
Dennis: Regular Friday and Saturday night shows and do an open mic so that young comics can have a stage to come and try their material out, and in the process, that’s when we kind of found the spot in Old Town, Greenwood on Madison. And we opened up a couple years ago, uh, there on, on Madison Ave, just in time to welcome the wonderful pandemic.
Dennis: Let’s all just, and we, we get excited when we talk about hey, we’re going to launch this business. It’s going to go crazy. It’s going to grow and we’re going to, oh, let’s do it in a pandemic. That’s not a good plan, but we didn’t know the pandemic was coming and so we quickly had to adapt.
Dennis: And so, in the process of adapting, we launched into some things with, you know, video production things that we had been talking about doing early on. We had talked about doing that.
Dennis: It was going to be one of those things, we’ll catch up in a little while. And then the pandemic came and said, Nope, we’re not going to wait for you to catch up. You’re gonna have to do it now if you’re going to survive.
Dennis: And so that’s when we started putting out our quarantine comedy shows on YouTube. And things like that, but, to, and then we partnered up with the Sterling Theater and Event Center and we actually went in with them for several months because, you know, business was difficult for them and for us in the past.
Dennis: And once that started back to where they were getting pretty busy and, and our schedule was kind of starting to get back to into the flow, we decided, well, now we need to go find a new venue and, and we were in conversations with Greenwood Park Mall about the potential of maybe doing some advertising at the mall.
Dennis: And Tommy, the guy that we work with here at the Greenwood Park Mall, basically said, hey, I don’t know where you guys are, but I’d like to show you a potential spot to be interested in and, so, when we first opened, I had checked the, the rent prices here at Greenwood Park Mall and they were kind of on the way up, on the high end of what we would even want to consider at that point.
Dennis: But once again, thanks to the pandemic, if you want to find the positives in things, the one positive that came out of the pandemic was that there were enough stores like Joseph A banks which used to be in our spot where we are now.
Dennis: Those, a lot of those businesses decided that they were either going to go to nothing but online sales or they went out of business altogether. And so, the mall was a little bit more open to having conversations about lease payments that were a little bit more affordable and something that we could all kind of work with and so, about,
Dennis: I guess it was the 1st of May that we moved in here at the spot where we are in Greenwood Park Mall. We’re on the exterior part of the mall so you don’t have to go into the mall to find us, or you can literally see us from County Line Rd. So, we’re on the outside part and north side of the mall.
Dennis: Where we have fantastic parking, easy access and wonderful visibility. And that’s the one thing that we have noticed, probably the best out of out of this move is just the, the walk by traffic and drive by traffic. The visibility where we are.
Dennis: It is just night and day difference from where we were when we first opened down on Madison. That and the parking where we were. The parking lot was kind of small and it was on a bit of a hill. And we shared the parking with the Dollar General next door.
Dennis: And so, it was always kind of a, a guessing game as to whether people are going to be able to find a spot. And here the parking is, is much better and visibility is much better and the space we just have really enjoyed getting into this space.
Dennis: And as we were looking at expanding, we’ve had, we’ve had a number of people talk about, hey, we’d like to see if we could get a place like Gutty’s in our town, in our area, and so we were in conversation with a guy that we’ve actually gone into business with up in the Minneapolis area and we were talking with him about how this has worked out with us at the mall and so we were able to connect with Simon Properties up in Edina, MN which is one of the little towns, suburb set towns of Minneapolis and so, then, about five months ago, four and a half, five months ago we were able to open a new spot up there in Edina, MN at the Southdale Center or mall.
Dennis: And finding that, it, it really is beneficial for us to have a, you know, location in connected to a mall because the traffic that the mall brings gives us a lot of visibility. But then we also are beneficial for the mall because we’re in entertainment. A company that people are going to want to come to and so people will come to a show that may not be going back into the malls yet, but now that they’re coming to a show with us.
Dennis: They’re realizing, hey, I didn’t think about it, but I could get something here at the mall while I’m coming in, so it’s always been a win-win situation and so far, the people here, Greenwood Park Mall, have been happy to have us here and they’ve been very supportive of having us here and we are loving being here in this in this location.
Dennis: So that’s kind of the overview of Gutty’s, where we came from. How we got started.
Dennis: So, so, let me let me ask, do, are there any questions that people might have that I could answer?
Ryan: Dennis, I have a question for you. What’s been one of the biggest challenges from moving your club from downtown Greenwood to the mall?
Dennis: Probably the biggest challenge is any, anytime you are establishing a business, you’re building the brand and the Gutty brand has, has been pretty solid through this. But any time you move to a new location then, uh, people who, people who came to the original location.
Dennis: Uh, we’re literally 4-5 minutes Max, from, from where we were. But people who are they’re, they’re used to having something right next door like, well, now you’ve moved so far away.
Dennis: Hold my word, you know, and so it’s, it’s almost like you’re building a whole new following, a new constituency of people that come to the club. We still have a handful of those regulars that started when we were at the place on Madison that come over here now. But it’s a process of, of almost starting again to rebuilding your audience at the new location and getting people aware of who we are and the schedule of shows and all of that.
Dennis: So that’s it’s just that that process of getting people to know where we are and know that we are here for every show, Friday and Saturday nights, unless it’s a holiday like this year with Christmas fell on. You know, Christmas Eve fell on Friday and Christmas Day on Saturday. That kind of kicked us in the in the side of the head a little bit, ’cause people didn’t want to come out to a show for some reason. I don’t know why, but you know, other than that? Like I said, the move has been great. It’s just getting people to, to know. OK, let’s, let’s know we’ve got shows on a regular basis, and it’s at the mall, it’s an easy access and getting them used to coming here. Any other any other questions?
Bill: No, I just I’ve been there a couple of times, Dennis and I think it’s a great, great location. I’m glad to hear that the mall has worked for worked with you, because I think, I think I was worried about it, ’cause I knew how expensive the mall is.
Bill: But the the parking is great. It’s easy to get into. Don’t have to worry about going, you know, sliding down.
Dennis: Especially, especially if we get the weather that they’re asking or they’re telling us we’re supposed to get.
Bill: Yeah, any time of the year for me. Going, you know, on the hill I could go sliding down very easily. But no, it’s been, I think they’ve been a great location and now you’re just doing Friday and Saturday nights right now? Or do you have other opportunities?
Dennis: Yeah, right now we have our primetime shows on Friday nights and Saturday nights. Showtime is at 7:30. Doors open at 6:30.
Dennis: We have our open mic on Monday nights and basically, I, for people who may not be familiar with what an open mic, is it when it comes to a comedy club, see any comics it’s trying to work out new material.
Dennis: They’re trying to write material they want to try it out on stage and open mic is kind of that. I often refer to it as, as it’s like going to the gym for comedians, because you gotta go in, you gotta work the muscles, you gotta get those reps in. You gotta get used to the routine of it, and so that’s what we do on Monday nights and again that shows a 7:30 show and, and then we also have improv comedy that we do on Tuesday nights.
Dennis: We have our improv jams where people come in and just try, try out improv and to get up on stage and get involved in the games and, and get involved and have a little bit of fun with it. And then we, from that group or we, we do a monthly Thursday night show. In fact, this Thursday night, this coming Thursday, night weather permitting, we will have an improv show at 7:30 followed by some karaoke at the, the end of the Improv show. So, you run around 9:00 o’clock.
Dennis: Even the karaoke kicks in, so anybody wants to come out, vocalize and, uh, show everybody how wonderful they can sing or how poorly they can sing. We don’t. We don’t really judge.
Dennis: So come out and have some fun. Uh, and then we’ve also started, in fact, I’ve, I’ve got the, the logo kind of behind me in with the, the digital things. Uh, but we’ve got the Gutty School for the Arts, which is the, the nonprofit side of the business that we’ve started to have classes where we teach the basics of stand up.
Dennis: In fact, this Wednesday night is the first of six weeks each Wednesday night for six weeks. We have of Improv 101 class where we teach people the foundations of, where do you find material? How do you take a premise and turn it into a bit? How do you take that joke and turn it into an entire set and put together? And so, you have at least a 5-minute set of material that you can share.
Dennis: And then at the end of the six weeks of class we do a, a showcase show of the, the students that come through the, the class.
Dennis: We also have improv class, Improv 101 class, kind of the foundations. The basics of understanding improv comedy and how do you turn something into something that is fun to do occasionally, but how do you turn in something you could do more often and actually do shows and, and so we do that as well.
Dennis: We’re getting ready to launch a Sketch Comedy 101. So it’s kind of, how do you take the, the concepts of and put together a sketch much like you see on Saturday Night Live or Mad TV or something, but everything that we do, whether it’s stand up improv, sketch all has to kind of fall into that Gutty’s brand of being clean, family friendly comedies.
Dennis: And so we’re, kind of, you know the, the Gutty School for the Arts is that place where we’re teaching people how do you, how do you start and where can you take this? And, and how can you turn this into something that may actually make a little bit of cash on the sides as well.
Bill: Is this, is this calendar on your phone app, Dennis?
Dennis: Yeah, they, this, all of the events that we have, is on our app. It’s also on our website so you can. You can download the Gutty’s Comedy Club app and that’s available both in Android and IPhone and then if you go to guttyscomedyclub.com, all the events are on there as well. You can buy tickets from the app. You can buy tickets from the website, either way.
Ruth: Yes, I have a question. Can you repeat what night the, the karaoke is? ’cause that’s something that I particularly like so yeah, and I’m definitely interested in coming with my voice to check you out.
Dennis: The first Thursday of, of every month is when we have karaoke. And, uh.
Ruth: At, at what time?
Dennis: Usually it’s after like we, we have the improv show at 7:30 that runs 7:30 to 8:30 Ish, usually the it’s, it’s usually about an hour long show and then then karaoke kicks in.
Ruth: Oh, it’s late.
Dennis: Right after that, so 8:30-9 o’clock is when, typically, when we’re getting into the karaoke part of the evening. And, and so we run, usually, typically, we run from like, I’m gonna say 9:00 o’clock till about 11:00 o’clock. Running karaoke.
Dennis: So come on out and sing, bring, bring the kids, let them get up and sing and let’s have some fun, you know?
Ruth: Sounds good.
Dennis: Any other questions?
Ryan: Dennis, one last, one last question. I’d like to make sure we ask what piece of advice would you have to offer to anyone in your position today thinking about opening their own entertainment venue? What advice would you offer them?
Dennis: Get a job at McDonald’s. No, I’m just kidding. No, no. Here my, my advice. Uh, hey, it, make sure you, you have something that you’re passionate about. Uh, if you’re doing something just for the money, it’s going to take a long time to see any money.
Dennis: You’re doing it because you love it. Then the money shows up. It’s, it’s kind of a crazy thing that happens. I didn’t realize years ago, I, I should have never gone to school and paid all that money ’cause I don’t use that ever.
Dennis: But I do use what I’m passionate about. What I love, I, I could have saved a whole lot of time. But no, what my recommendation would be, build your network of people you trust, they trust you, and they’re willing to lend their name and their influence to help you.
Dennis: Establish and make connections, the building your network is, is probably the most important thing any business can do. Because your network will determine your net worth.
Dennis: And so, if you’re not spending time building solid relationships with the businesses that you’re going to do business with, or the people that you want to you want to be associated with, you’re going to leave yourself a lot of extra effort that you don’t necessarily want to spend time and energy messing with.
Dennis: So, uh, if I were starting a brand new business today, the first thing I would be doing, was, would be to find, uh, somebody like, like Ryan’s group? And, and just say, how can I get involved and how can I get connected so that people know who I am, and I know who other people are?
Dennis: And from that foundation of building a network, then I know that my net worth will, will advance because I have, I have those trusted connections and, uh, and then I’ve, I’ve built my, my entire business. My entire adult career has been kind of built around that premise of that.
Dennis: It’s in giving that you gain, it’s, it’s how do I get involved in supporting what? How do I help Ryan, see his effort grow, because as I’m lifting him up, I can’t help but go to a higher place because I’m helping lift him up and so it’s that it’s that connection to a network and building that network of people that will really have a profound impact in the outcome of your business.
Ryan: Does anyone have other questions or comments for Dennis? All right, well, let’s give Dennis a hand for his presentation today.
Dennis: Thanks.
