Kickstand Comedy Is Moving into the Shuttered Brody Theater

The planned remodel would transform an abandoned walk-in freezer into a podcast recording studio.

By Andi Prewitt
There will be a second act for the Brody Theater.
The Northwest Portland performing arts venue, which closed in late November, is being resurrected by comedy nonprofit Kickstand Comedy. The organizers are launching a crowdfunding campaign to help with renovations.

"After years of hosting classes and shows first out of the Velo Cult bike shop basement," Kickstand co-founder Dylan Reiff stated in an email, "and then out of a makeshift 'attic' home above the Siren Theater, this is a huge opportunity for us to establish a long-term home on the ground floor of Broadway and Burnside."

When the Brody Theater opened in 1996, Portland wasn't yet home to the numerous clubs and theaters that now regularly host everything from standup to sketch comedy. With the theater, founder and owner Tom Johnson helped introduce the city to long-form improv, which is now ubiquitous. But last year, Johnson chose not to renew the lease on the Old Town building, citing personal reasons.

Kickstand plans to continue the tradition Johnson built with a series of monthly shows featuring some of Portland's best-known comics. (They will also provide American Sign Language interpretation of those performances.) The remodel would also transform an abandoned walk-in freezer into a podcast recording studio as well as improve sightlines to the stage.

The crowdfunding campaign will go live Monday, April 15.

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