In the late 80s and early 90s, Chicago was in the midst of a comedy-club turf war. Zanies, the Funny Firm, Catch a Rising Star, the Improv, and All Jokes Aside, to name only a few, fought dirty. “Sources say that since that tidal wave of openings, club managers have increasingly been forced to turn to free passes (‘papering’) to fill their many seats, while counting on drink tabs to cover operating costs,” wrote the Reader’s Lewis Lazare in 1990. Bert Haas, the executive vice president of Zanies, was quoted as saying, “Pretty soon I predict every Chicagoan will receive a free pass to a comedy club.” Around that time, a Funny Firm employee called Zanies itself and offered Haas six complimentary tickets.
They can afford it partially because of the two-item minimum, which is a head-scratcher of a policy. Why not do away with it and raise ticket prices? After all these years, Zanies remains committed to the Spirit Airlines business model: many tiny charges on top of ostensibly reasonable basic ticket prices. As evidenced over 40 years, Zanies will do what it can to avoid papering Chicago.
