Wanting to fill the void left by the mass closure of comedy and music clubs throughout D.C. over the past year, local comedian Martin Amini came up with a plan. Drawing on his decade of doing standup comedy in the D.C. area, the 33-year-old Silver Spring native recently opened Room 808 in Petworth, where he’s leveraging his connections in the comedy and music communities to put together five nights of performances a week.

“It was never something I thought about doing until we were deep into the pandemic,”Amini says. “I felt like I needed to take matters into my own hands and open up a venue where it’s all inclusive, features all D.C. comedians, and we could all have a place to work out [our material] to replace Big Hunt and D.C. Drafthouse.”

Prior to 2020, Amini was flying from coast to coast to perform at the Comedy Store in L.A., then at venues in D.C. like the Kennedy Center’s REACH and the DC Comedy Loft. His comedy show, The Overachievers, was a regular feature at DC Improv. But when long-running venues started shutting down and comedians were struggling to find places to make people laugh, Amini launched a pop-up comedy club in his dad’s backyard in Gaithersburg, Md.

A real estate agent helped him find the Petworth building in March: the intimate, 800-square-foot club is located in the old She Loves Me flower shop location at 808 Upshur St. NW. He curated the walls with works by local artist dieGLO.

The club had a soft launch in June, and Amini says the venue is now running smoothly enough that he’s comfortable marketing it more broadly.

“It’s a smaller venue that can bring comedians and the community of Petworth together,” Amini says. “It’s a place where we can work on jokes and establish that comedy spot that’s been missing for two years now.”

Amini has help booking acts from Underground Comedy’s Sean Joyce, who hosted comedy nights at Big Hunt. The lineup so far has featured familiar faces in the D.C. comedy scene, like Tommy Taylor Jr., Shelley Kim, Benjy Himmelfarb, and Sahib Singh. Other comics, like Matt Rife, travel from L.A. and New York to test out their material at the living-room-like club.

Wednesdays are a free comedy show called the Speakeasy Comedy Showcase, a collective of budding comics who graduated from a class Amini taught over the past year. On Thursdays, Amini hosts his own comedy and jazz show called “Martin Amini and Friends,” with tickets starting at $5. He says the musical guests will rotate, and the lineup so far has included Brent Birckhead, Manny Phantom, and Erika Reign. Fridays and Saturdays are booked by Underground Comedy. Tuesdays are reserved for up-and-coming comics to showcase their new material, and tickets are free. Masks are now required at the indoor shows, in accordance with D.C.’s mandate.

“Nothing can replace Big Hunt,” Amini says. “But we’re just trying to give people something in a time when it’s so hard to laugh. In a time like this, it can really help a lot of people. I’m just proud to have a place where people can come five nights a week and leave happier in 2021.”

In a video from arts and culture brand Noize, Amini showed off the club while discussing his approach to comedy:

Room 808, 808 Upshur St. NW; Monday through Thursday, 12–10 p.m.; Fridays and Saturdays, 1–11:30pm; Free – $20. BYOB.