Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Will Pfaffenberger is closing his hometown comedy venue in Avon, but Red Curb Comedy will live on as a monthly production in downtown Indianapolis.
Pfaffenberger, known to radio listeners for his work as a cast member of “The Smiley Morning Show” on WZPL-FM 99.5, specializes in long-form improvisational comedy.
In 2018, he opened Red Curb Theatre in a retail center along Rockville Road in Avon as an experiment in live entertainment in Hendricks County.
Pfaffenberger said there’s enough of an audience to continue staging shows every weekend in Avon, but Dec. 28 will be the final night for the Red Curb venue because he wants fatherhood to play a bigger role in his life.
He and his wife, Adrienne, are parents to children who are 9 and 5.
“As my family gets older, my kids have never known a weekend where I haven’t had to split focus on either performing every Friday or Saturday or making sure the space was running right,” Pfaffenberger said. “I felt like I needed to rededicate some energy to have some weekends where I could do spontaneous things.”
Beginning Feb. 1, Red Curb Comedy will be a resident troupe at IF Theatre—the venue in the Mass Ave cultural district previously known as IndyFringe Theatre. Pfaffenberger and members of his cast of 20 improv comedians will perform on the first Saturday of each month.
IndyFringe Theatre rebranded as IF Theatre in September. IF Theatre operates throughout the year, and its signature production is the 11-day IndyFringe Festival made up of dozens of shows at multiple venues.
The IF Theatre space includes IF’s Basile Theatre and the Blackbox. Red Curb shows will be presented in either room, Pfaffenberger said, depending on other events on the venue’s schedule.
Paul Daily, who was hired as IF Theatre’s executive director in June, said Red Curb joins fellow comedy groups Betty Rage Productions and Defiance Comedy as IF partners.
“Adding Red Curb Comedy to our lineup brings fresh energy and new perspectives to our stage,” Daily said. “We now have even more opportunities for laughter and connection, ensuring there’s always something new and exciting for our audiences to enjoy.”
The IF Theatre, 719 E. St. Clair St., is near the Bottleworks District, which Pfaffenberger said he appreciates as a gathering place for people out for an evening of entertainment.
“In Avon, some audience members said, ‘What do we do now? We came and saw a show, and now what?’ It was, ‘Go home, I guess? We are behind an auto shop and a barbershop,’” Pfaffenberger said.
At the same time, the Avon native who continues to live in the suburb was purposeful when he placed the Red Curb venue in the community.
“I did it because it was convenient for me,” he said. “I thought, ‘If I’m going to be doing radio as my career and I want to do improv, why not have a theater around the corner from where I live and see if we can make it work?’ And we did. Coming out of the gate for the first six months of 2018, we sold out every show.”
Audiences responded positively to live comedy that was something other than a stand-up presentation, Pfaffenberger said. A Red Curb show is made up of three parts: short improv games followed by a long-form set and capped by an improvised musical.
Eventually, attendance patterns emerged at the Avon venue, with bigger crowds during cold-weather months and smaller crowds during warm-weather months. It was rare, Pfaffenberger said, to see audience members who traveled from the northern suburbs or the east side of Indianapolis for a show.
“You’re never going to build an immersive culture that’s there every weekend and clamoring for it,” he said. “There’s not a passionate and invested twentysomething or late teen crowd that wants to be out every weekend.”
Pfaffenberger and Jon Colby, who are partners in a two-man improv show known as “Dudesical,” recruited members of the original Red Curb company from 2018 to reunite for the venue’s final night on Dec. 28.
“That will be pretty spectacular,” Pfaffenberger said.
For ticket information about the 7 p.m. all-ages show and the 9:30 p.m. “Rated R” show, visit redcurbcomedy.com.
Please enable JavaScript to view this content.