Quezada's Comedy Club marks two years of laughs

SANTA ANA PUEBLO — It’s been two years since Quezada’s Comedy Club opened in the Santa Ana Star Casino Hotel, and the namesake couldn’t be happier with how things are going.

Steven Michael Quezada, the local comedian and actor behind the club, returned to the stage this month to celebrate its two-year anniversary. “I can’t believe it’s been two years,” he said. “I probably could have never dreamed … the lineup just keeps getting bigger and bigger.”

In fact, he said, the club regularly sells out seats to four shows per weekend.

“Most comedy clubs are about 100-150 (seats),” Quezada said. “We’re a 300-seat comedy club, and our slow nights are 150, which are sell-outs at most comedy clubs, but even with the 300, we sell out most of our weekends.”

Even in December, which he said is typically a slow month, the shows were selling out, including the New Year’s Eve show with fellow comedian and actor David Koechner approaching sell-out.

“It was built for comedy, and we put enough seats in it to really draw the bigger names,” Quezada said. “We just thought if we do it right from the get-go, that’ll give us an opportunity to really grow. I can’t tell you how many big-name comedians are calling now. They’re all standing in line to come play at my club.”

Quezada said he’s very involved with the scheduling of acts with full say over who comes in to perform with collaboration and booking being done in house, sometimes using the connections he’s built during his career in show business. But that’s not all there is to getting an act to come.

"If you don’t have the right venue, they’re not going to come,” he said.

That’s not the case at Quezada’s, he said, noting that many times as soon as a comedian completes a weekend showcase “they always call Monday and go, ‘When am I coming back?’"

For those attending shows at Quezada, it’s more than a show — it’s a night out with the club offering food and drinks.

“That’s how comedy shows are supposed to be. It’s supposed to be a night out, and I’m very grateful that we’re able to keep it affordable,” Quezada said. “That really helps us draw people in, because we’re not trying to gouge people. … I want us to have a venue for people who don’t want to go to a bar but still want to go out.”

He also attributed the club’s success to the management and staff at the casino, calling the manager a “kind caring human being.”

“His staff loves working for him, and I love partnering with him,” Quezada said. “When you put a great casino together with such a great staff, you build a beautiful comedy club.”

While the club has garnered big names in the past — including Quezada himself — it’s also about building opportunity for New Mexican comedians.

“We’re not really known as a comedy state,” he said. “When I started out doing comedy, I had to travel a lot because we didn’t really have any opportunities here. … I don’t want to leave out the local comics; they were so crucial to the success of this comedy club.”