Today we’d like to introduce you to Roy Bufis.
Roy, please share your story with us. How did you get to where you are today?
I used to be in movie theater management. After a few years of running movie theaters, I decided that I didn’t want to run them anymore… I wanted to own them. I raised enough money for a down payment on a renovated historic single-screen theater in Belton, TX near Fort Hood.
Unfortunately once I got into my new theater things started going wrong. One of these things was that I was unable to get the digital projector as soon as I had thought… essential for a movie theater. So there I was with a movie theater that could not show movies and a mortgage that had to be paid. I had to do something and since the theater had a stage in front of the screen, and as I have always loved making people laugh (even if I wasn’t directly doing it), I decided to open the theater up as a comedy club instead.
As there were no other comedy clubs anywhere near Belton (the closest ones being over an hour away in DFW and Austin) I thought I had a gold mine on my hands. I quickly made contacts with people in the comedy business, learned the ropes as quickly as I could from them and opened Belton’s first ever comedy club on Black Friday 2012. As I was learning from those already in the biz, I found myself operating a traditional adults-only stand-up comedy club, with all that that entails. I loved the laughter, but was not crazy about all the vulgarity… open mic night was the WORST with that.
Unfortunately, even though I got the business off the ground, things never improved. Everything that could go wrong, kept going wrong, including not being able to secure my liquor license (something essential in running a traditional stand-up comedy club). By the time I finally got the projector (offering movies during the week and weekend matinees and stand-up comedy weekend evenings) it was too little, too late. The doors closed within a few months of opening.
My traditional comedy club now closed and bankruptcy on the horizon, I tried to move on and find a job at home in Arlington. After two years of being unable to secure meaningful work I decided that if I could not be hired into a career, I would take another crack at making one myself. I still loved making people laugh and always enjoyed improv comedy, religiously watching “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” whenever it was on, so I thought I would try to make it in the comedy biz again.
This time I was going to do it differently. My new comedy show would be family-friendly, serve movie theater style concessions instead of alcohol, rent performance space from other small businesses to reduce overhead costs and perform improv comedy instead of stand-up. So with less than $1,000 to invest in a new venture, I held auditions and put together Zingerz Comedy Club’s first troupe of improv performers, most of whom are still with me today!
I have been bootstrapping Zingerz Comedy Club from day one, which has outlasted my first comedy club by 2 years now… even though my first club’s investment was 300 times larger. I know that I have been truly blessed, not only with a growing business that I love but with a wonderful wife who supports me and an amazing cast of improv performers who have all stuck it out with me!
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
Uh, no, things did not run smoothly. In addition to all the struggles I already mentioned in Belton, Zingerz has had quite a few bumps as well. I have had to change locations three times in the past two and a half years. My first location was a partnership with a new cafe who utilized my club as their main attraction on weekends. Unfortunately, they closed within nine months forcing me to find a new location, which I had to do in less than two weeks. Within eleven months of performing in that location, I was forced to move again to our current location.
Even though the constant change of location has been difficult in growing our audience, I still consider myself blessed in never missing a show, despite the forced last-minute location changes, and for finding the great location we currently perform in. They are very supportive of our show. The biggest struggle has been financial. With Zingerz Comedy Club being bootstrapped, most weeks get paid by the income earned the week before. There have been many times over the past two years that I thought Zingerz would have to close due to a lack of funds, but then something would always happen to keep us going. Like I said… blessed.
Please tell us about Zingerz Comedy Club.
Zingerz Comedy Club is one of the only family-friendly comedy clubs in Texas. We perform clean interactive improv comedy shows every Saturday, specializing in short-form improv comedy similar to TV’s “Whose Line Is It Anyway?”. Our Clean Improv Comedy Show can also be booked for outside events and parties. We have also begun specializing in fundraisers, including our new FUNdraiZING program, that has the potential to raise up to $5,000 to $15,000 or more! Zingerz’ FUNdraiZING program is my brainchild and therefore completely unique to, and only available at, Zingerz Comedy Club.
I am proud of the fact that our shows are family-friendly and funny for all ages, providing the community with live entertainment that EVERYONE can enjoy. I am also proud of the fact that Zingerz Comedy Club is a company that helps people. From our efforts to help tornado and hurricane victims to our 60% Profit fundraisers (one of the highest in the fundraising industry), it is our mission to help others through laughter. Plus I am proud of the fact that we are able to make people laugh without the use of alcohol or vulgar language.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would not have gone to Belton. I would have started Zingerz Comedy Club here in Arlington back then with the financing I had available at that time. I would not have had to bootstrap my business and I would have had more money available to help us grow much faster.
Pricing:
- Weekly Shows: General Admission – $10 / Children – $7 / Students, Seniors, Military, Veterans, Police, Fire – $8
Contact Info:
- Address: 3301 West Pioneer Parkway
Arlington (Pantego) TX. 76013 - Website:www.ZingerZComedyClub.com
- Phone:817-609-1715
- Email:Laugh@ZingerZComedyClub.com
- Facebook:www.facebook.com/ZingerzComedyClub
- Twitter:www.twitter.com/Zingerz_Comedy
- Yelp:www.yelp.com/biz/zingerz-comedy-club-arlington
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