Meet Granison Crawford and Cory Ecksten of The League of Comedy in Sherman Oaks

Today we’d like to introduce you to Granison Crawford and Cory Ecksten.

The League of Comedy started on April 20th, 2017 with two friends and a bar that needed a reason for people to be there. Cory Eckstein was the new manager of a mid-city Los Angeles bar called Rivalry. Cory’s vision was to bring in events in order to increase the number of humans in the bar, so comedy seemed like a home run. Naturally, Cory reached out to his comedian friend Granison Crawford. Granison was performing stand comedy fairly regularly and had won the Funniest Comic in LA Competition that same year, but he had zero experience running his own show and suggested they do an open mic night. Granison knew that every mic needed a theme, just like every sword needs a name (because he is a huge nerd). None the less, it was a sports bar and so the theme seemed obvious to Granison, “let’s make it a comedy league.” The bar didn’t last, but it’s like the band Green Day always says, “Every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end,” and although it would eventually be closing time for Rivalry, it was the beginning of Cory and Granison starting a little league of their own.

The League of Comedy started by swinging for the fences. Our open mic was sponsored by Stoli Vodka, we had promo models, and a fancy stage made out of leftover palettes with a board nailed to it. The bases seemed loaded. The only problem was, nobody showed up to play or watch except two comedians, so our first swing was a huge miss. The month’s that followed grew the league into a semi-solid mic, but the bar wasn’t doing well enough to say afloat. Rivalry Bar’s closing forced us to trade up from a small but steady crowd into a huge list of comics regularly showing up to our new home field in Sherman Oaks. It was fun, it was new, but it was working. After the move, both Granison and Cory saw potential to launch a monthly show at their new found field in the back of a restaurant called On The Thirty. Their League of Comedy All-Star show has now been running for over a year and a half with help from longtime host and rising comic Rose Toberman. The crowds and talent have been on point, and in that time Granison and Cory have taken their show on the road for a sold-out three-city tour of Northern California.

In addition to comedy, Granison brought on the talent of singer-songwriter Nina Storey to the roster as their musical director. Nina has performed all over and books the top-notch musical talent for each of the monthly shows. What has truly made this go from idea to reality is the support from the comedy community and the friends and family who believed in The League of Comedy enough to show up.

We’re always bombarded by how great it is to pursue your passion, etc – but we’ve spoken with enough people to know that it’s not always easy. Overall, would you say things have been easy for you?
Life always throws you curve balls (last sports pun we promise). The League has had a bar close down on us, a tour that almost didn’t happen due to lack of funding, mics being canceled last minute, and On The Thirty getting their speakers stolen the day before our show one time. The biggest obstacle is getting the word, so we thank Voyage LA for having us.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into The League of Comedy story. Tell us more about the business.
We’re a live entertainment company, and we specialize in creating events around comedy. Granison does the comedy booking, marketing, and performs on the shows. Cory is the Batman of behind the scenes. He manages our tours, designed and updates the website, and also gets us listed on over 25 calendars across Los Angeles monthly. Nina does quality control and makes sure we have some of the best indie musical talents in the city. One thing we think makes us stand out is the dedication and effort we put into brand consistency on both the performer and marketing side of things. What we’re most proud of and we feel sets us apart is that The League of Comedy is a brand that sets its own standard in promoting a comedy scene with a same team vibe for the talent and fans.

If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I guess we could have started pitching to sponsors sooner for the tour, but we can honestly say that everything that happened was perfectly placed to create who we are as a company and as individuals growing it. Sometimes not knowing what you’re doing can be the greatest gift because you don’t know how hard it will be, and so, you don’t get hung up on how it will get done, you just do it.

Pricing:

• $15 @ the door
• $10 in advance online

Contact Info:

• Website: leagueofcomedy.com
• Email: theleagueofcomedy@gmail.com

Image Credit:
Geordan Baker League of Comedy All-Star Musical Guest League of Comedy Header

Getting in touch: VoyageLA is built on recommendations from the community; it’s how we uncover hidden gems, so if you know someone who deserves recognition please let us know here.