Come for the beer, stay for the punchlines

San Diego has surpassed the 140-brewery mark and seems likely to hit 150 by the end of the year. With that much competition, breweries have found creative ways to attract customers, ranging from hosting donut-beer pairings to yoga classes. Or, in a couple of cases, stand-up comedy.

"When you're off the beaten path you have to have stuff going on," says Mike Trogan, a partner in Midnight Jack Brewing Company. Barely a year in business in an east Oceanside business park, Midnight Jack draws a regular after-work crowd with its beer but routinely schedules activities in the evenings to keep up a crowd, including movie nights, live music, and DJs.

One of those DJs, Johnny Herrera, also books gigs as a stand-up comedian, and approached Midnight Jack about adding a comedy night to the calendar. Since December, he's staged a Hairlarious Comedy night every other Thursday at 7 p.m., booking a lineup of comics, including a recognizable headliner — comedians known from television shows and cable stand-up specials.

"I bring people who have been on Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime, Fox," Herrera says, joking that when the comics find themselves performing on the floor of a warehouse, inside a business park, they wonder, "What the hell? Am I here to perform, or am I here to work?"

However, he adds, "Once they see me warm up the crowd, they warm up to telling jokes inside a brewery…. It's a good crowd."

Midnight Jack wasn't the first to offer comedy nights. Fifty miles south, at the opposite end of the county, Chula Vista's Bay Bridge Brewing has hosted a weekly comedy night every Friday at 8 p.m. for the past year.

"People come for the show, and it's one of our most fun nights," says Bay Bridge co-owner Jim Shirey. His brewery also resides in a business park, and he says comedy has been a big evening draw, bringing in a mix of curious locals and comedy regulars.

The Bay Bridge night is staged by Comedy Heights, which has been producing stand-up comedy events around San Diego for the past six years, including a longtime Saturday-night show at Twiggs coffee shop in University Heights. Jim Shirey caught on to the idea of bringing in Comedy Heights due to a personal relationship.

"My wife used to do stand-up with this production company," he says, “so I hired them to put on the comedy show."

Comedians Al Gavi and Maria Herman produce and host the Comedy Heights shows, bringing fresh material each week to supplement a lineup of local comics, and an established headliner — also career comedians with their own TV stand-up specials, including guys like Mark Christopher Lawrence, Patrick Deguire, and recent winner of the Last Comic Standing television competition, K-von.

"We get a regular, packed audience," says Herman of the Bay Bridge show, noting that, as word has gotten out about the good humor of their no cover, no drink-minimum crowds, comedians throughout Southern California have sought time on the brewery stage.