The Comedy Cove finds a new home less than a year after opening

Less than a year after it opened in Dartmouth, the Comedy Cove will be moving to a brand new location on August 26.

The stand-up comedy club that only threw its doors open at the Doubletree by Hilton on Wyse Road in January has relocated to a new home at the Best Western Dartmouth on Spectacle Lake Drive.

“I guess I always knew that the Doubletree wasn’t always going to be the long term home for the club,” admits Comedy Cove owner and stand-up performer Marc Sauvé. “I don’t believe the management at the hotel had the same vision for the club and/or the same stomach for the work that needed to be done to make the club as successful as I had hoped to make it.”

While the Comedy Cove quickly gained a solid reputation as the first stand-up club to open in HRM during the pandemic, and provided a stage for such impressive comedians as former This Hour Has 22 Minutes star Cathy Jones, Sauvé set out in search of a new location after the Doubletree ended the relationship near the end of April.

Lucky for Sauvé, he didn’t have to wait long to find new partners.

“The new home was surprisingly easy to find,” says Sauvé, adding he quickly forged a relationship with Best Western management. “I believe that they automatically saw the potential and saw the results that we put together in the wintertime before the pandemic and it didn’t take that long for them to get on board once we got through the summer.”

Located at Trendz Gastro Pub within the Best Western hotel, the Comedy Cove will be feature shows Thursday through Saturday nights, offering a great selection of drink and food including braised beef poutine, nachos and other items, in addition to top-notch local stand-up acts like the aforementioned iconic Cathy Jones and Jamie Hutchinson — who Sauvé says is a powerhouse performer that can be described as “Muhammad Ali meets Anne Murray.”

“Amateur night is a big component to a comedy club and we’re looking forward to bringing that in so that this winter there will be some good stage time for people to cut their chops,” explains Sauvé. He feels before adding an open-mic night, the club first needs to, “get into the fall and get our feet wet (and) get the kinks ironed out.”

With plenty of experience behind him, getting “the kinks ironed out” should not take very long. A stand-up comedian with nearly 30 years stage experience, Sauvé has acquired plenty of familiarity running a club even before he opened the Comedy Cove at Doubletree.

After all, Sauvé previously owned and ran the Yuk Yuk’s Comedy Club that was housed within the Westin Hotel until 2009, and established Funny Fundraisers — an organization that raised almost $1.5 million for charity through approximately 600 stand-up events throughout Atlantic Canada.

“I’m a big advocate of stand-up comedy (and) it really is the last bastion of entertainment freedom of speech — there’s no seven second delay, there’s no director, there’s nothing,” says Sauvé about what drives him to keep offering audiences and entertainers opportunities to enjoy stand-up comedy. “It’s you and the audience, and your audience is the one who’s going to tell you if you’re being successful.”

Sauvé is excited to finally reveal his new home for the Comedy Cove and anticipates local audiences will appreciate the new venue. While other similar comedy clubs have opened since pandemic restrictions have loosened, Sauvé insists there is still plenty of talent and audiences hungry for stand-up comedy in HRM.

“I think people will always enjoy watching comics on the tightrope, and besides, I convert people,” adds Sauvé. “People who have never been to the club, they come (and) I ask them after the show whether they’d come again and wholeheartedly they say yes — it’s a great art form.”

For more information, visit the Comedy Cove's Facebook page.