Meet Ty Colgate | Comedian & Promoter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Ty Colgate and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ty, we’d love to hear more about how you thought about starting your own business?
As a stand-up comedian, stage time is one of the most precious resources you can have. It really determines how fast you build an act and how quickly you learn to be natural and comfortable performing. I worked at The Weather Channel full time and got off late most nights, so it was brutal to get as much stage time as I wanted. My days were usually go in at noon, get off at 8:15, try and do mics until about 1AM, go home, eat fast food in my kitchen while processing the night, then in bed by 2ish. Clearly it was taxing and pretty unsustainable.

That’s why 7 months into comedy I launched Fifth Place Comedy at 5 Paces Inn and right off the bat the show was pretty rough. It was my first time hosting, promoting, and running a comedy show. I brought on my close friend and co-producer Lakan Jude and over the course of nearly a year we built it into a pretty decent bar show. Right when it was starting to make sense and things were looking up, Covid took us and the whole comedy scene out.

November 2020 we came back with a Covid conscious show at Rolecall Theater that was popular and helped bring back a lot of Atl’s best comics; however, we had larger goals than showcases, so we moved on to a bigger space in Grant Park where we flew in our favorite headliners from Los Angeles and New York. We brought in Mike Falzone, Sasheer Zamata, T. Murph, Morgan Jay, and a few more.

As my own comedy career started to pick up steam, it was hard to sustain the amount of work I needed to put in for headliners, so Lakan and I landed at Joystick Gamebar where we got the show we always wanted: a cool, dive bar showcase for audiences that really want to see the best up and coming talent. We’re happy with it and, luckily, so is our often sold out crowd.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 2018 with a fresh Radio-Television degree and a burning desire to finally do stand-up comedy. I had some money saved up from my time in college and thought Atl should be easy enough to break into. I quickly found out how wrong I was. Not only was the film and TV industry pretty saturated here, but the comedy scene was full of killers. To stand out in either field required complete commitment to it. So I picked my childhood dream: comedy.

I started to look for a day job while going out a few times a week to open mics where I would do what every new comic does: bomb and bomb hard. Eventually I was down to a couple hundred dollars in my bank account and stand-up was far from being monetized for me. No jobs were hiring and I was stringing together freelance gigs that didn’t take too much time away from trying to do comedy. Then one day I get a call back for The Weather Channel and the rest is history…

Until I realize the schedule there forces me into 12 hour work days and never seeing my girlfriend. Most weeks I lived like a ghost in my apartment. There were traces of me there, but no one ever really got to see me. Things were pretty bleak. I needed the job, but my personal life suffered brutally over it. The fact that I still even have a girlfriend is a testament to how patient and incredible she is. It’s weird to say, but Covid slowing everything down helped me realign. The pandemic quit raging and I quit Weather Channel as soon as the schedule conflicted with bigger comedy gigs.

I’m far from being considered a successful comedian, but I’m miles ahead of where I used to be. Tired, stressed and never around for people in my life. I’m fortunate for every show and open mic that helped me get better, so I could get to where I’m at today: focusing solely on comedy.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
There’s the Atl staples like Piedmont Park, Ponce City Market, and the Beltline. However, I always like showing people the cool stuff that isn’t gonna be on Thrillist. Drinks at Little Trouble, a show at Star Bar, maybe some late night food at Octopus Bar. I’m also a sucker for cool movie theaters and love showing people Plaza Theater & The Springs Cinema. If they’re trying to get wild, then it’s straight to Edgewood Ave, MJQ, or Revery.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
The biggest shoutouts have to go to Shelby Paige and Lakan Jude for helping me in so many capacities. Shelby is my rock and life partner who helps me in every aspect of my career. Without her, there would be no Fifth Place Comedy and I would certainly be a worse comedian. Lakan is my long time friend who has worked with me in all phases of Fifth Place Comedy. She’s the reason it runs smooth and why I can still work the road while having the best indie comedy show in Atlanta.

Website: www.fifthplacecomedy.com

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ty.colgate/?hl=en

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ty.colgate

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@tycolgate

Image Credits
Lola Scott Art Shelby Paige