Today we’d like to introduce you to Hunter Hill.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Hunter. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
I’ve loved stand up comedy since I was a kid, but it wasn’t until I was 24 that I decided to give it a try. I got hooked and it has been a hustle ever since. Searching for stage time, taking risks & having to face dead silence is exhausting. For years I didn’t have a car and lived in Westlake Village. So getting booked on a show meant taking three busses and a subway one way, then begging a friend to come to the show so I could have a ride home. In the midst of my journey, I decided to start my own comedy show so that I could give myself the opportunity to practice. The idea was simple, give myself stage time, and book comics I looked up to and could learn from. This show was called Super Secret Comedy and it marked the beginning of my obsession with the art of the perfect show. I took what I knew comedy shows to be, added lighting effects, perfectly timed music queues, talented hosts, comfort and unmatchable hospitality. It astounded me how many shows and how many venues approached the comics and their comfort as an afterthought. I was meticulous. I would lay in bed for hours kicking my feet behind me like a teenage girl, looking for the perfect songs to play while the audience was arriving. I’d plan the way that the house lights would dim perfectly on beat. I did everything I could to teach the audience, this is a show, this should be respected. For three years, we packed the house at The Lyric LA with hot crowds and incredible headliners excited for our intimate show experience with meticulous attention to detail.
The Rec Room is this vision in full form. Everything I had learned about great shows, plus a full kitchen, a bar, an arcade, and bowling! When this opportunity arose, I knew it was going to be a challenge
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It has not been a smooth road. We have encountered numerous road blocks, some seeming that they would end the project all together. But somehow, we just kept moving forward. Found a new way, a new idea and made it work.
Aside from the obvious challenges of starting a business, which I certainly am still experiencing, I am also faced with the challenge of keeping momentum in my own career as a comic. It’s easy to fixate on the Rec Room — what headliner should we book next? Do we need a new happy Hour menu? It’s not so easy to drag myself to an open mic after a long weekend of shows at the Rec, or to force myself to write a new joke on my only day off.
Energy and efficiency have been my greatest challenges.
I’ve really pushed myself to find time to write, and get up on stage. I will wake up at 5 am, drive down to Huntington Beach, and work down there until 6 pm. I’ll meet with contractors, chefs, local producers, train bar tenders, servers, place bar orders, meet with vendors… Turns out in running a comedy club, there is a lot of work that has nothing to do with comedy. After a long day working 12 hours in HB, I have to drive up to LA run sets, work in writing groups usually till around 1 am. I try to get up and perform 11 times a week.
This fall I will be going out on tour with my close friend/big sister in comedy, Iliza Shlesinger. We’re doing 5 shows in San Jose, then The Hippodrome Theatre in Baltimore, The Vic Theater in Chicago, Davidson Theater in Columbus, and The Carnegie Music Hall in Pittsburgh. I’ll also be doing a handful of shows in New York. I couldn’t be more excited, and it’s given me a lot of drive. I need to make sure I have new material that excites me, and is dialed in enough to take on the road, AND I need to make sure The Rec Room is dialed in enough to where I can go on tour and have things continue to run smoothly while I am away.
Alright – so let’s talk business. Tell us about The Rec Room – what should we know?
The Rec Room is a place where comics, friends, family and co-workers can come to enjoy each other company and laugh off life’s stresses. Our motto is big names, little room. It won’t be uncommon to see some of LA’s hottest comics at the Rec, working on new jokes for a comfortable crowd!
Our goal is to cultivate and help build the local Orange County comedy community. We aim to give local comics a home club and the opportunity to tell jokes with heavy hitters, and we aim to give heavy hitters a club just outside of LA, where they can run long sets for amazing diverse crowds that closely resemble the audiences that they’ll run into on tour.
Is there a characteristic or quality that you feel is essential to success?
Faith, and a great team.
Out of high school, I worked as a design/merchandising intern at a surf company called Hurley International. Their owner had found out that I wanted to start my own clothing company at the time. He grabbed me one morning, walked me through every department, introduced me to the head of every department, and why they were important and how they helped the whole thing run. He showed me everything, then said “Now go do everything, before you can learn about all of the things that can go wrong.”
That’s always stuck with me.
We had a vision of what a club could be, and how comics should be treated.
I couldn’t be more thankful to be working with my team, and to have people that have faith in me and our vision.
I have an amazing team, Ron Whited, Jason Hughes, Brad Silnutzer, Cassie Dang, Evan Cassidy, Kenny Weber, Erin Earl, Samantha Hickman, Matt McBride, Angelina Escalera. I could keep going. There are so many amazing people working hard to make this place great, and it’s my trust and faith in them that allows me to continue chasing a career as a stand up comic.
Above all, the one thing that keeps me going is Ashton Whited. It’s not easy to find a partner that can understand the work that goes into building something like this, while also chasing a career as unrealistic as stand up comedy. There have been months where our in-person conversations consisted of good night, and good morning. As a person I have been worn thin during this endeavor, and she is the only thing that has kept me from falling apart. Coming home to dinner on the table at 1 am when she went to bed at 10 pm, always striving to make the most of the time we did have together, countless little and big things that made me feel loved, and kept me moving forward.
Contact Info:
- Address: The Rec Room
7227 Edinger Ave.,
Huntington Beach, CA - Website: www.recroomhb.com
- Email: [email protected]
- Instagram: instagram.com/recroomhb
- Facebook: facebook.com/recroomhb
- Twitter: twitter.com/recroomhb
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/the-rec-room-huntington-beach
- Other: http://recroomhb.ticketfly.com/listing
Image Credit:
Matt Misisco
Andrew Pringle
Justin Gill
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