Comedy is back at the Santa Clarita Lanes. And Pam McGeary is back in comedy.
“Pam McGeary’s Comedy Alley,” which just began over the summer, is a recurring comedy show with a variety of stand-up headliners and local comics that takes place at 7 p.m. every other Tuesday at Santa Clarita Lanes on Soledad Canyon Road in Saugus.
“Santa Clarita Lanes used to run a comedy program back in the day called ‘Vic Dunlop’s Comedy Alley,’” said Sean McBride, who produces the show alongside McGeary. “It was hugely popular. He was my mentor in comedy but passed away in 2011. SC Lanes hasn’t had a professional comedy show since, until Pam and I resurrected it. As a tip of the cap to Vic, we branded it ‘Pam McGeary’s Comedy Alley.’ He’s there in spirit.”
McGeary, was a stand-up comic and actress in the 1980s and ’90s, even making an appearance in the very first “Comic Relief” special on HBO with Whoopie Goldberg, Robin Williams and Billy Crystal, where she played Princess Diana of Wales. She stopped working in 1996 to raise a family. She’d done a few shows when she first became a mom, but ultimately, she couldn’t be there for her two kids and also work the crazy hours required to succeed.
While at home, she helped her then-husband with his career, and she’d assist friends of hers with interior design projects in their homes. That would eventually prompt her to go to school and get a degree in architectural design. In 2001, she began working out of her own home doing interior design projects part-time.
She did that while her kids were going through school, but she’d go full-time when she could, and she did quite well. But then, in 2016, she and her husband divorced.
It didn’t take long before she got the itch to get back into comedy.
“Right before the pandemic, and it was kind of laughable, I told everybody, I said, ‘You know what, I’m going to go back into stand-up,’” McGeary said. “What a great idea, perfect idea. All of a sudden, bam, God shut the world down. And people were like, ‘Do you think this was because you said you wanted to go back into comedy? Do you think you should take this as a sign?’”
She didn’t. She stayed the course and initially was doing comedy during Zoom videoconferencing shows when that was the only game in town. When clubs started opening back up, she bought an RV and began traveling the country, going from show to show, honing her act as the “newbie” she was.
But other burgeoning comics couldn’t believe she, too, was “new.”
“This one guy — young guy — comes up to me, he goes, ‘Well, you’ve got a really solid 15 minutes right out the gate. How long did that take you?’ And I go, ‘Yeah, 57 years.’ Strangely enough, I’m still talking about the same stuff I was talking about in the ’80s, because now I’m dating again. It’s sad that I’m still talking about how dating sucks. It sucked in my 20s and it sucks in my 60s, too.”
McGeary, who’s now exactly 60 years old, is excited to be back into comedy. And while she lives in an RV, it was just a little over two years ago that she parked it at Valencia Travel Village in Castaic. She’s been there since, but, she said, following the phone call with The Signal earlier this week, she was on her way to put in an offer on a place off Soledad Canyon Road in Santa Clarita.
Even more exciting to her, McGeary said, is being able to perform in what she now calls her hometown.
And while “Pam McGeary’s Comedy Alley” show currently runs every other Tuesday, McBride said that he’s hopeful it’ll become weekly if they can maintain strong momentum and full houses.
So far, he said, the show has been well received, with a variety of different comedians performing at each show. Many of the comics come from late-night TV, he said, or are regulars at places like the Laugh Factory and the Comedy Store.
According to McGeary, each show at Santa Clarita Lanes has been packed and laughing. The comics are loving it, too.
“We’re bringing top headliners that headline all over the country to Santa Clarita, and we’re charging way less than what they charge at the Improv or the Ice House or the Comedy Store,” she said. “It’s a really great comedy venue … and everybody that comes in there, including the headliners, they turn around, they go, ‘When am I coming back?’ My phone is ringing off the hook with people going, ‘Why haven’t I done your room yet?’”
The next show is scheduled for Tuesday, Aug. 27, at Santa Clarita Lanes. For more information or to get tickets, go to SantaClaritaLanes.com or call the bowling alley at 661-254-0540.
