Montgomery County’s Only Full-Time Comedy Club Will Have Exceeded $25K in Donations to Local Non-Profits in 2023

On January 20, 2023 The Give A Hoot Comedy Club opened in Gaithersburg, making it the first full-time comedy club in Montgomery County. It began with a mission “Comedy For the Community”, raising money for non-profit organizations in the county through comedy. The club, which was founded by Irwin Weinstein, Ken Watter and Courtland Shaffer-Kelly, will have raised over $25,000 for local non-profits in 2023. See a video of the experience below.

They started the journey with their first partnership with Comfort Cases- a well established non-profit helping foster children as they are placed with families. They have also partnered with a variety of charities since the opening such as Stepping Stones Shelter, For 3-sisters, The Sandy Spring Volunteer Fire Department, Main Street and many more. In 2023, Give A Hoot has partnered with approximately 40 Montgomery County non-profits. Weinstein said “There are so many organizations we have had the opportunity to work with and learn about, there are so many people in the County doing so much good”

Now as 2023 comes to a close, the club is about to achieve the goal they set out to reach when it started. After the Christmas weekend the club will go over $25,000 given to local non-profit organizations. Shaffer-Kelly, who is also the executive director of The Give A Hoot Charitable Foundation, said “We started the year wanting to make a difference, and we set a goal to reach $20,000. With the overwhelming support of the community, we not only reached the goal, we were able to exceed that goal by $5000.”

Sadly co-founder Ken Watter, who was known as DC’s Funniest tax accountant. did not get to see this achievement realized as he passed away suddenly on December 4^th.  “Ken was such a big part of this, and it is heartbreaking to not get to celebrate this with him” said Weinstein.  “He knew we were close, and he was excited for all we were doing.” The club is looking forward to 2024 and exceeding this year’s numbers.  “We already have the first six months almost booked and we’ll be working with a few returning non-profits as well as a few new ones,” according to Weinstiein.

Give A Hoot comedy club books national touring comics every weekend.  They have had comics such as Chris Monty, who was in Paul Blart Mall Cop 2, and will be the featured comic for the club’s one year anniversary in mid-January. Other comics who have performed include Chris Coccia, who was the club’s headliner their first weekend, Jay Black from The Hallmark Channel, John Knight from Dry Bar, and many others. You can check out all the upcoming shows at www.giveahootcomedy.com

 

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