Photo by pamelaspunch

The Riot Act Comedy Theater, which opened last year at 801 E Street NW, is shutting down next Friday, with its general manager citing the venue’s inability to make enough money to keep pace with the high overhead cost of operating an entertainment space in downtown D.C.

Peter Bayne, Riot Act’s general manager, says in a phone interview that the price tag that came with operating a two-level, 13,000-square-foot establishment in Penn Quarter was too high for a comedy club to satisfy.

“The business model hasn’t been working and we’ve had to make some changes,” he says.

In a press release yesterday, Riot Act announced that on July 9, it will transform into Penn Social, a bar and restaurant that will use the 300-capacity room currently used for standup comedy into a game room. The final comedian to perform there will be Rachel Feinstein.

Much as Bayne says Riot Act made serious inroads in the comedy scene—yes, it played host to funny people far more accomplished than, say, certain local journalists—the laughs just weren’t paying off. “Doing comedy every night wasn’t viable, even though we had a street-level bar,” he says. “No one was coming in for drinks after work. It didn’t really work. We felt like we were really limiting ourselves with comedy.”

Bayne says Riot Act’s ownership is staying intact, but instead of jokes, it’ll offer games. Penn Social is partnering with United Social Sports, the adult recreational sports league, to offer a lineup including shuffleboard, bocce and corn hole (beanbag tossing).

Thing is, 801 E Street is zoned as an arts venue, a condition that was satisfied by having regular comedy performances. Without regular shows to become a thing of the past, Bayne says that he and his team are figuring out how to maintain that requirement.

“We still want to utilize our stage as much as possible,” he says.

Penn Social might book bands for weekend performers, with the occasional open-mic and karaoke night, but the main business now is going to be all about the bar. In addition to introducing indoor bocce pitches and shuffleboard decks into their expansive theater space, the management also plans to install a bar with 30 draught lines.

Bayne says no layoffs are planned as Riot Act turns into Penn Social. The club has a staff of about 30, some of whom he says will be “transitioning” into new positions at the revamped venue.

When Riot Act opened last August, some wondered if D.C.’s comedy scene could sustain another large comedy club on the scale of D.C. Improv. It appears that’s been solved.

“What we had was unsustainable,” Bayne says.