TORONTO — An eccentric, hole-in-the-wall comedy club in The Junction faced heat on social media this week when the quality of its stand-up, and even the venue itself, was criticized in a viral social-media post.
But the owner isn’t fazed by the mixed reviews.
Instead, he welcomes them.
Kivork Kidanian, whose stage name is KeyEpic, founded Key’s Comedy Club after the COVID-19 pandemic cooled down nearly three years ago.
Since it opened, the club has earned a reputation online for being overly edgy and “anti-woke,” much to do with its lineup of comedians and their apparently raunchy jokes.
Aiding in the upset is the club’s unorthodox venue, which Kidanian, a stand-up comedian himself, runs out of a single, small room in a house on Bloor Street West. The house is located between Dundas and Lansdowne and operates as rented commercial space for a variety of artists.
To reach Key’s Comedy Club, attendees must walk through a narrow alleyway and up a flight of fire escape stairs — which Kidanian calls “the golden stairs” — to enter the locale.
Kidanian said it’s common for comedians to poke fun at the club’s unconventional setup throughout their sets, which are often performed to a room of about 30 audience members at most.
Despite the physically small, confined nature of the establishment, Key’s Comedy Club appears among the top results on Google when searching for “Toronto comedy clubs.”
Six nights a week, Torontonians can purchase tickets to a Key’s Comedy Club show where they can take in the edgy, and often provocative, comedic stylings of a diverse lineup of local performers. Debutants, amateurs and seasoned comics — several of whom have big followings online — aim to evoke some laughs from the small audiences.
Names like Brad Gosse, Matt Puzhitsky and Alex Dewitt have all graced Key’s tiny stage. Kidanian said other guest comics have gone on to perform at Joe Rogan’s Comedy Mothership or at Just For Laughs festivals.
“Our regulars are some of the most legendary comedians,” he told TorontoToday. “These are hand-picked by me. My comedians are trendy, they stay relevant and they get millions of views online.”
While the reception from Key’s Comedy Club goers has been mostly positive — evidenced by a 4.4-star rating on Google — others haven’t been so pleased.
One user on X uploaded screenshots of some poor reviews the club received in previous months. Some of the reviews claimed the club is “a complete scam” and doesn’t have “real comedians.”
In the viral tweet, the venue’s critic called it an “anti-woke comedy club” and slammed the dodgy stairs and entryway, folding chairs and fake brick wall backdrop as oddities.
The post generated more than 1.7 million impressions online and sparked hundreds of opinions regarding the club’s operational standards and the quality of the comedy itself.
Learned today about an anti-woke comedy club in Toronto that's just a room in some guy's house with some folding chairs and a fake brick wall, and due to skillful SEO it's one of the top results when you search "toronto comedy club" pic.twitter.com/KvFU1ZuSBo
— Brooks Otterlake (@i_zzzzzz) December 31, 2024
Kidanian also earned flack online for replying to some of the negative Google reviews. His rebuttals included defence of the club’s “grungy New York vibes” and its many “world renowned" comedians.
But others in the Toronto comedy scene, like Gary Rideout, a co-founder of Comedy Bar in Toronto, remain staunch critics of Kidanian and his club.
“The owner fights with people and tells them the only reason they had a bad time was because their girlfriend liked the comics better than them,” he wrote in an email to TorontoToday. “I think providing stage time to comics is a good thing. I think disenfranchising patrons of comedy is a bad thing.”
However, Kidanian affirms he’s part of something special in Toronto’s west end, even if it doesn’t suit certain tastes — particularly of those who get “too offended” by certain jokes, he said.
“I am not anti-woke,” he said. “But there is a movement where they’re trying to censor freedom of speech. We’re not attacking anyone personally — we’re just doing jokes. Anyone who talks the truth is going to be hated. That’s why comedians are the new politicians.”
“If you’re coming here to censor us comedians, please don’t come,” he said of future audience members. “We’re just doing jokes and trying to make people laugh. I don’t want [comedians] who are saying stupid things, but if it’s funny, it flies.”
One negative review — which resurfaced from months ago — pointed to an incident during a Thursday amateurs night where a comedian at Key’s Comedy Club allegedly directed a racial slur towards a member of the audience who is Asian.
Kidanian said the incident was unacceptable and claimed to ban the individual from performing at his club. He said the venue donated an evening’s worth of proceeds to The Asian American Foundation in response to the amateur's comment.
“We stand for bringing all cultures together with laughter,” he said. “I don’t stand for what [the comedian] did, but I can see the positives of what happened as [the post on X] raised awareness about my comedy club.”
To grasp a better sense of the atmosphere, TorontoToday attended a Friday night show at Key’s Comedy Club. Kidanian made a few jokes about the viral post on X before seven stand-up comedians — most of whom are regulars at Key’s — entertained an audience of roughly 20 people.
Comedians told a range of jokes about homelessness and Toronto lifestyle to jabs about politics and romantic relationships. Edgier topics like race, gender and sexuality were incorporated into many of the sets, while crowd work was a must for each performer.
One comedian made it known at the top of his set that he was going to share a higher volume of “vulgar” jokes than usual in spite of the post on X. The quips — many of which were about racial groups and women — earned a lot of laughter from those in the room.
TorontoToday was even on the receiving end of several cracks throughout the two-hour show. “Are you like BlogTO?” and “I’ve never heard of you guys!” were among the lighthearted digs.
Kidanian moonlights as a comedy club owner in the evenings, but cuts hair at Fresh Fades Barbershop on St. Clair Avenue West during the day. He admitted the comedy club venture hasn’t been a profitable one and pointed to high rent prices on Bloor Street.
Though he once charged attendees up to $60 for tickets, he said prices have dropped between $9.99 and $19.99, depending on the lineup of comedians that night.
Most shows sell out, according to Kidanian.
“I’m just having fun making people laugh,” he said. “As long as I could split even, I am happy. That way, I get to keep the place open.”
Kidanian sees future success for Key’s Comedy Club — a feat he considers a breeze.
“There are only three top comedy clubs in Toronto, mine is one of them,” he said of the club’s popularity. “It is quite easy to become one of the top comedy clubs in Toronto when there are not [many] venues. That is why my comedy club is so prominent and needed."
