Vermont Comedy Club

Founding (2015)

Nathan Hartswick and Natalie Miller opened Vermont Comedy Club in November 2015 at 101 Main Street in Burlington, filling a gap in the Vermont live comedy market. The venue was designed from the ground up as a dedicated comedy space, combining a performance room with a comedy school and bar.

Programming and Growth

Vermont Comedy Club quickly established itself as the state's premier comedy destination, presenting touring national headliners, regional and local stand-up nights, improv shows, and sketch productions. The club's in-house school offers improv and stand-up workshops for all experience levels, building a local comedy community in Burlington.

Vermont Comedy Club presents professional comedy across stand-up, improv, and sketch formats while developing local talent through its Burlington comedy school.

The Green Mountain Comedy Festival, co-produced by Nathan Hartswick and Natalie Miller since 2011, became a signature annual event for Vermont's comedy community. Vermont's Funniest Comedian Contest, also launched in 2011, provides a competitive showcase for local stand-up and improv talent. The club's March Madness Tournament offers a bracket-style stand-up competition. The 150-seat showroom at 101 Main Street hosts five shows per week, and the nonprofit Vermont Comedy Arts organization runs educational programming and workshops alongside the club's commercial operations.

Nathan Hartswick and Natalie Miller grew Vermont's comedy scene from a dozen performers and a handful of fans in 2010 into a community of hundreds of performers and thousands of audience members. Before the club opened, the couple produced shows in bowling alleys, bars, restaurants, church basements, and living rooms across the state. The founding of Spark Arts in 2011 created Burlington's first dedicated comedy classroom. The club survived an 18-month COVID closure (March 2020 to September 2021), reopening with renovations and an added daytime cafe. Vermont Comedy Club established Burlington as a destination for touring comedians and created a sustainable local training pipeline through Vermont Comedy Arts.