Code Red Comedy Puts Charlotte Comics to the Test

If there’s one thing that most comedians can agree on, it’s that there are a number of landmines to maneuver when on stage. It doesn’t matter if it’s stand-up or improv, comics have to be quick on their feet.

Most comics have to figure out how to navigate that landscape on their own, but here in Charlotte, they’ve got Code Red Comedy, a monthly comedy showcase and competition show.

What makes Code Red Comedy different from your average competition is that the landmines are guaranteed. 

“In the most basic form, it’s a stand-up comedy show, but it’s different because it’s a competition,” said Carlos Valencia, co-host of the show. “The way that we make it original is that the comics have to deal with adversities during their sets. The concept behind that is that we’re trying to put them through realistic obstacles or interruptions.”

Participants can expect anything from loud noises and sound effects to hecklers planted in the crowd — they might even have to deal with technical difficulties like the mic cutting in and out. Whichever comedian handles their situation the best while performing their set, wins the show. 

These interruptions pose challenges for the competing comedians while adding to the fun atmosphere for those in the audience, who can be sure that Code Red will not be like any other comedy show they’ve attended.  

Valencia hosts the show alongside fellow Charlotte comics Kaleigh Cutright and Jordan Centry. The hosting trio engages with the comedians after their set for about a minute or so, helping them to connect further with the audience. 

“The comics also have a chance to riff and engage on a more personal level outside of their actual stand-up sets,” Valencia said.

Joe Kuhlmann, co-owner of Evening Muse in NoDa, where the Code Red Comedy shows take place, approached Valencia in 2023 about hosting a show that could help engage the Charlotte comedy scene.

From there, Valencia worked with his team to come up with the best idea for a comedy show. They took aspects of known competitions like Last Comic Standing and mixed them with pieces of popular comedy stage show Kill Tony to come up with Code Red Comedy, a competitive comedic bootcamp.

Read more: Local Artists and Advocates Ask, ‘R U OK, CLT?’ (2019)

According to Valencia, the interruptions aren’t meant to make a fool of the participating comics but to serve as an academy of sorts for fledgling performers.    

“It’s an obstacle course to prep you for what it’s like to actually do stand-up comedy on the road in venues that are basically less than ideal,” he said. “When you’re starting out, you’re doing a lot of shows in bars and coffee shops and places that just aren’t made for performances. So you have to deal with a lot of this stuff.”

“It’s a training course for upcoming stand-ups,” he added.

The winner each month gets $100 and a chance to come back to headline a future show. 

The beginnings of Code Red

As a comedian who’s been doing comedy for 19 years, Valencia wasn’t interested in organizing a new show when Kuhlmann first approached him. He’d rather stick to the stage and stay away from all the marketing aspects that go with hosting and organizing shows. 

“I just don’t like promoting shows,” he said. “I’ve been doing stand-up for a long time, but I just have never liked promoting because it’s a pain in the ass with the whole advertising and everything else that comes with producing a show.”

Kuhlman was persistent, however, and Valencia was eventually persuaded once he understood the idea. 

“[Kuhlmann] just wanted to do something that was a little bit more curated, so it was more of a showcase,” Valencia said. “Also just partially to unite the comedy scene — have one show at least that is geared towards getting everybody together or trying to help each other out. That’s what appealed to me at the beginning.”

Valencia also appreciated the fact that, for one of the first times in his nearly 20-year career, a venue was approaching him to do a show rather than the other way around. 

“Part of the reason I agreed to do it is because Joe approached me about it, which is not the usual dynamic with a lot of independent comedy shows,” Valencia said. “Usually, it’s the comic approaching the venue and trying to convince the venue to like, ‘Hey, please let me do this.’ So having the venue on our side is a big plus.”

Kuhlmann plays an integral part of the show; as the ever-present soundman of the Muse, he’s in charge of implementing many of the interruptions that comics face during Code Red Comedy shows. 

The three hosts and Kuhlman now operate as a team, meaning Valencia doesn’t plan on taking the show anywhere else. 

“Since [Kuhlmann’s] on board and he’s on the ball about it, we can’t really do the show anywhere else unless it was a place that was willing to put the work into it,” he said. “Most places are just not going to want to bother with all that.”

The difference between stand-up and improv

The Code Red Comedy shows were originally launched as Red Flag Comedy, though a conflict of interest with another comedy group in Indiana operating under the same name forced Valencia and the team to change the name.

Each show features seven comics who take the stage, and six of the seven deal with interruptions. 

“The reason we have that is because part of dealing with the show is also the anxiety of, ‘I wonder what’s going to happen when I go out there,’” Valencia said. “So one person might not get anything at all.”

The setup works multiple ways: It prepares the comics for random interruptions but also forces them to come prepared since they never know which comic will get the interruptions. 

“Some comics might come in with the attitude of, ‘I’m not going to even write material. I’m just going to go up there. Whatever my interruption is, I’m just going to rip off of that,’” he said. “But if you have no interruption, then you end up not doing anything. Then you’re just shit out of luck. 

“I genuinely do want the comics to do their material,” Valencia continued. “The principal thing about stand-up, at least to me, is to write material and write jokes and be a writer, because otherwise it’s just improv.”

Valencia clarifies that there’s nothing wrong with improv, but that’s a different medium altogether, so coming to Code Red to perform improvisationally defeats the purpose of what they’re trying to do with the show. 

The next Code Red Comedy show is scheduled for July 28 and will consist solely of the show’s past winners. Though the show is new, operating for just under a year, Valencia said he hopes they can do a show featuring past winners each year. 

In the meantime, the team has a lot of ideas on how to grow their audience and help contribute to the Charlotte comedy scene as a whole.

For now, however, the goal remains simple.

“The whole concept of the show is to give comics a chance,” Valencia said. “I think if we can get a consistent audience, I think it could definitely help the scene because I think people will see that it’s a quality show.”

A quality show with a consistent audience benefits everyone—one more thing most comedians can agree on.