Amanda Austin (Photo by Sean McGinty)

Amanda Austin (Photo by Sean McGinty)

Sign up for our newsletter

* indicates required


Unemployment is up, the economy is slumping and bad reality TV shows are dumbing down America. So what’s an educated, witty, young woman looking to earn a living in a brainy, offbeat entertainment industry to do? Just laugh it off.

One of these days, neighborhood resident Amanda Austin, founder of Dallas Comedy House, intends to garner a sustainable salary teaching and performing improvisation and sketch comedy full-time in her very own venue. For now, she’s content to do it for giggles (often following a strenuous regular workday at a local luxury car dealership) out of a temporary spot at the Ozona Grill on Greenville Avenue.

A dramatic-arts fan throughout childhood, Austin put off the pastime until post-college when, on a whim, she enrolled in a class at Ad Libs School of Improv in downtown Dallas. “Twenty minutes into the class, I was hooked,” she says of the art that involves thinking on your feet and a bold willingness to make a donkey of yourself — literally, in some cases. But it’s not all scary: “A big part of it is getting to know each other, and intimating how [fellow troupe members] will react to situations,” Austin says.

After working her way through class levels, she used vacations to travel to cities with strong improv-theater communities, such as LA and Chicago, learning as much as she could about running a comedy school. Armed with knowledge, she returned to Dallas and offered to buy Ad Libs. “They didn’t go for it,” she says. No hard feelings — now she and her troupe Sucker Punch Improv simply plan to offer an alternative, with a mission in mind. “We want to build a good reputation for the [improvisational theater] industry here in Dallas and to make sure there’s something for everyone who wants to be entertained.”

CALL OUT: Looking to laugh and learn? Check out Dallas Comedy House, dallascomedyhouse.com.