Local man starts business to bring stand-up comedians to eastern Idaho
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REXBURG — A Rexburg entrepreneur is trying something new by bringing tried and true comedians to town and hoping locals and the university community will take the opportunity to “laugh out loud.”
LOL! Rexburg is a new venture by Aaron Perkins, who has already lined up three well-known comedians to perform at the Romance Theater in Rexburg.
Comedian Nick Hoff will take the stage this Saturday, Oct. 22, at 7 p.m., just one day after he’ll record his first special for Dry Bar Comedy in Provo.
Hoff has been featured in Netflix’s Comedy Festival and on MTV and is a co-host for a weekly show on SiriusXM radio, according to the event website.
Perkins says Hoff was personally selected by comedians Jeff Foxworthy and Larry the Cable Guy as an opener for their “We’ve Been Thinking” tour.
“If you’ve got an A-list comedian like Jeff Foxworthy or Larry the Cable Guy and they’re handpicking Nick Hoff to open for them, then you know you’ve got a good quality comic,” Perkins says.
Brigham Young University-Idaho’s improv comedy troupe, Unscripted, will open the show.
According to Perkins, Hoff is looking forward to his Rexburg debut.
“He is so down to earth,” Perkins says. “He is excited about this.”
Tickets are available online until the show starts.
Hoff’s show will be followed up a few weeks later on Nov. 12 by comedian Brad Bonar, who combines comedy with magic, and is known for his astute observations on family life. According to his LOL! Rexburg bio, Bonar has been featured on Dry Bar Comedy, Amazon, Comedy Central and NBC.
Tickets to Bonar’s show are available online and must be purchased in advance.
Comedian Allan Goodwin will join the comedy lineup with a show on Saturday, Dec. 10, at 7 p.m. at the Romance Theater. According to his bio, Goodwin has been featured on HBO and FOX, among other networks, and has opened for Jim Gaffigan and Dave Chappelle.
Perkins is thrilled to bring these shows to his new community of Rexburg after moving across the country from Kentucky. A former Ricks College (now BYU-Idaho) student, Perkins never expected to find his way back to eastern Idaho, but life has a funny way of not going as planned. He says he and his wife woke up one day and decided they needed to move their family to Rexburg.
After closing a mattress business and quitting a job with Amazon, Perkins packed up his family and headed to Rexburg with no job but with a lot of faith that it was the right move.
Perkins says that about a week after the move, he attended a Dry Bar Comedy show in Utah — an experience that left him feeling inspired.
“I had a lot of stress on my shoulders,” he says. “I came out of the show just feeling completely refreshed and so relaxed, and feeling like everything was going to be fine and I could handle everything that was on my plate.”
Perkins had no prior personal connection to the comedy industry but felt a strong desire to bring that same experience to east Idaho.
“I am an entrepreneur at heart,” he says. “I love building ideas from scratch, and that’s what this was.”
Perkins is already busy lining up more shows and says that if the community comes out and supports the shows, he’ll keep them coming. He believes in providing opportunities that will benefit and build the community.
“I wanted to build something that served the community, that provided something for the community, that the community could really benefit from,” he says. “I didn’t just want to start a business that would feed off the community, but I wanted to start a business that would help feed the community and help the community grow. In talking to friends, this is it. Bringing in stand-up comics.”