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The Big Black Comedy Show has been a resident at the V Theater inside the Miracle Mile Shops at Planet Hollywood since July 2024, and that’s something to celebrate, says headliner Joseph “Smiley Joe” Wiley.
“Las Vegas never had a Black comedy club on the Strip,” Wiley says. “This is an amazing thing. This is history.”
The show, created by theater owner and seminal Vegas producer David Saxe, has an all-Black staff and a multicultural lineup. In a town where most comedians on stage have “already made it,” Wiley says, it’s important to have a space for local comedians to hone their craft.
On January 24, emcee Kirk McHenry hyped up the crowd for local comedians including Penny Prince and Gabe Valezco, who kept the laughs coming.
“It’s something that we want to keep, we want to embrace and we want the city to be proud of us having something out there that we can consider calling a home comedy club. It’s a place we can all go in … and go home at the end of the day saying, ‘What a great night,’” Wiley says.
The comic sat down with the Weekly to talk more about the show, the local comedy scene and the importance of smiling every day.
You’re a Cleveland native and 20-year resident of Las Vegas. What do you think about the comedy scene here?
I’ve been in this business 33 years. … I visited Las Vegas in 1994 [working] in the mortgage business, so we would come out every year and I fell in love with Vegas. I said, this is where I want to be.
We’ll never be able to compare to California, because California has more comedy clubs, more agents that are looking for comics that are pursuing their career in California to make it, versus here in Las Vegas. The Las Vegas comedy scene seems like you’ve already made it. … Vegas is the scene of, this is where you go when your career is over.
I do notice comedy clubs like Brad Garrett’s or Jimmy Kimmel’s have successful comedians like Luenell and Kym Whitley. Would you say The Big Black Comedy Show is open to more up-and-coming and local comedians?
David Saxe is behind this. He gave us the platform and opportunity. He’s booking the comedians. …Right now, we’re set with three locals—Penny Prince, the feature act, Kirk McHenry, the emcee, and me, the headliner.
My goal and hard work on this is to push this to the point where, if you didn’t go to The Big Black Comedy Show, you really didn’t come to Vegas for comedy.
Those bigger clubs on the Strip and Wiseguys don’t always have many Black comics on their lineup, it seems. So that’s another reason to have a platform for Black comedians to perform and feel at home.
I don’t want to throw any shade at all, because I was in that circuit. But they don’t book Black comics. That’s why [Big Black Comedy Show is] so successful. … I’ve done all these rooms, [and] it’s very rare. They only have two or three Black comics on their roster. I used to work it, so I know.
During the pandemic, you created the Best Comedy Show on Wheels, too. It’s been on hiatus for a while. Is it ever coming back?
The Best Comedy Show on Wheels is coming back April 1. We’re going to tack it onto the Big Black Comedy Show … so when the show is over, we’ll meet and greet on the bus [with] complimentary drinks for 90 minutes. You’re hanging with the comedian instead of sitting in the audience. You’re talking back [where] you couldn’t do it if you were at the Big Black Comedy Show.
How does it feel to be doing comedy during a time when the news and the general state of the world is not so funny?
When I close, I tell the audience, there isn’t one person in here who isn’t going through something. … I tell people in the show, we’re all gonna die so you better enjoy this while you can. Every day, smile. That’s important. … If I can spread that word to others, I feel that I can put a big help in what we’re going through right now, all as humans.
English (US) ·