San Francisco’s newest comedy club The Function comes to us after 18 years of planning and hoping. It’s co-owned by Stroy Moyd of HellaFunny, Johnny Hayes and Ludo Racinet. “It’s really been Stroy’s dream to build this club and to create a new comedy hub for the city,” says Hughes.
The Function, a dynamic Black-owned club, is already packed with guests most nights, inside a long, narrow space that culminates in a brick-walled comedy stage at one end. Right now, during the club’s soft opening period, you can attend a show for free! Just note that you must have a ticket in advance by preregistering at Eventbrite.
The details? There are two shows a night with top-notch talent, at 7pm and 8:45pm, limited to 60 people. Once the free tickets “sell out,” you can buy an early-bird ticket for $15, and the prices go up (to about $25) from there. You can even pay $100 for a special shout-out from the stage (birthday, anniversary, anyone?).
Show up a little early for happy hour, which runs Saturday through Monday from 5 to 6pm and Tuesday through Friday from 3 to 6pm. The full bar has retro cocktail classics, an extensive wine list and plenty of non-alcoholic drinks. Best of all, perhaps, for those who remember the Hotspot Bar that was here previously, you can order a Hotspot Combo: a beer, pony shot and a lottery scratcher! Back in the day, that was a $7 steal—but back then you could also buy a house in the city that didn’t cost a million dollars. Today the combo is $12 and is limited to just 20 people a day, so you’ll want to arrive early to grab that coveted deal.
Moyd is the man behind HellaFunny, which produces live comedy shows at bars and secret locations all around the Bay Area. Racinet used to own Bar Fluxus in the Hotel Des Arts, while Hayes is the Johnny behind Johnny Funcheap, the beloved events listing site. “I started Funcheap kind of accidentally,” says Hayes. “When I moved to San Francisco, I was unemployed and didn’t have any friends in a new city, so I just started putting together lists of free and cheap things to do—and then decided to share the list each week—and then voila!”
The Function is located at 1414 Market Street at 10th and Fell, and the venue and all shows are 21-plus.