Backyard comedy shows in Pacific Beach grow into successful business

The trio of Phil Kunka, Josh Nelson, and Chris Meyer started out doing comedy informally at home in Pacific Beach during the pandemic.

It proved so successful, their hobby over time morphed into a full-blown business.

“We are a stand-up comedy show production company that started in July 2020 by putting on shows in our backyard at the time,” said Kunka, co-founder/producer of PB Backyard Comedy. “Quickly we grew from doing shows in our backyard to moving to safe outdoor spaces so more could enjoy. Our goal was to bring laughter to San Diego during tough times. We began doing stand-up as a hobby right before the pandemic, and everything went into lockdown and there was nowhere to do comedy.”

The notion for their group forming was that comedy does not need to be confined to a traditional comedy club, said Kunka, who pointed out people can laugh anywhere. “Our secondary goal was to provide stand-up comedians a stage when no stages were available and a way to make some money,” he said. “Now, we produce shows all over San Diego, and have even expanded to Nashville.”

Meyer, one of the comedy troupe’s founders, who has since expanded into Nashville, had the foresight to record their group’s journey starting out. “Thanks to that, he was able to put together a little documentary about our journey,” said Kunka noting the six-part documentary at  https://youtu.be/6qxrLnADcz0 offers “a taste of who we are as a company.”

Their trio’s transition into comedy proved surprisingly seamless. “We were just doing it for friends, asking people to wear masks so we could do it,” Kunka said. He added, “There was now stage time and we had a lot of comics. It grew as we found more and more people who wanted to have some fun, get some laughter. So we expanded to doing shows in parks like Kate Sessions, and at beaches like Crown Point.”

Enter Nelson, who’d been doing comedy in PB for a dozen years. “He was a mentor with all three of us working together in doing these shows,” noted attorney-turned-comedian Kunka, who added the pandemic “gave an outlet for comedians, some coming from as far away as Los Angeles.”

At first, PB Backyard Comedy asked patrons for donations so they could pay and entice more comedians to perform. “It was a progression,” said Kunka. “We really started out with no money. Once we expanded, we relied on an honor system, trusting people were going to show up and do the right thing by donating some money so that we could pay the comedians.”

Kunka said PB Backyard Comedy now has 1,000-plus followers on Instagram and plays at local venues like Backyard Kitchen and Tap on Garnet Avenue. They also do corporate shows performing on boats and for companies like Alesmith Brewing Company.

“We’re all proud,” said Kunka adding comedy is supplementing but not supplanting their day jobs. “We’re a real business and we’re starting to dive into the production side of specials for streaming.”

For more information, visit pbbackyardcomedy.com.