Stand Up! Comedy in Rome

An Englishman, a Canadian and an Italian walk into a bar......sounds like the beginning of a joke right? In fact it's the beginning of many. In a small street just behind Campo de Fiori on the last Friday of every month 'Rome's Comedy Club' springs into life as amateur Rome based stand-up comedians from all over the world perform in English to a mixture of locals, expats and tourists alike. The brainchild of Ohio born Marsha De Salvatore, Rome's Comedy Club has been running since 2008 and from it's humble beginnings in the attic of a local pub where a handful of audience members were treated to a mixture of comedy sketches and stand up, it has now established itself as a regular and not to be missed part of Rome's nightlife. Of course, comedy has always been a part of Roman life, Plautus and Ennius were writing comic plays in the 3rd century BC, years before the first 'knock knock' joke was told and in 2009 an ancient Roman joke book was unearthed dating from around the 3rd century containing over 260 jokes. 

Thanks to a little more modern day comic actors such as Alberto Sordi, Totò and Roberto Benigni, Italian cinema has never been short of comic genius. There are a few TV shows dedicated to Italian stand up comedians, but there is nothing like getting up close and personal in a proper comedy club and thanks to those few funny, dedicated and downright ballsy amateurs at Rome's Comedy Club you too can enjoy a night out unlike any other Rome event. 

If you're visiting Rome and fancy an alternative night out in the centro storico after a day or two of sightseeing and perhaps a Vatican tour too, check out Rome Comedy Club! 

It would be rude not to finish with a joke taken straight from that Roman joke book (rotten tomatoes at the ready)........a patient tells a doctor “whenever I get up after a sleep, I feel dizzy for half an hour, then I’m all right.” The doctor replies” ‘Then wait half an hour before getting up.”