Portland host steps up at Astoria’s North Coast Comedy Night

Published 9:00 am Tuesday, August 13, 2024

The North Coast is getting funnier and funnier thanks to a man with a dream.

California transplant and longtime Portland resident Drew Wilson-McGrath has been hosting comedy shows at the Liberty Theatre since 2022. This week, he’ll also keep the crowd entertained at a block party outside the theater on 12th Street.

Six years ago, Wilson-McGrath saw a bad show at a comedy club and thought to himself, “If they can do it, I can do it. That’s when the idea of being a comic started cooking in my head.”

As all aspiring fun guys do, the perpetual jokester would try his material at home.

“My fiance, Rachel, was tired of being the only outlet for my humor,” he said. “One night she told me, ‘You should go try doing stand-up instead of talking about it.’”

In December 2018, Wilson-McGrath went to the remotest open mic night he could find, filled his allotted time with a story about yelling at a baby on a plane — and bombed.

“It was the best seven minutes of my life,” he said. “And I got why people do this: It feels good, even when it feels bad.”

A communication and journalism major at Oregon State University with a day job at a telecoms company, Wilson-McGrath did his first group show, with two other comic friends, at a jam-packed bar in Seaside the month before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown.

“It was a smash and it felt so freaking good,” Wilson-McGrath said.

Once restrictions eased, he returned to the coast, including to the bar’s new location in Astoria. Walking by the Liberty, he’d say to himself, “One day I’m going to be doing comedy shows here.”

One email later, Wilson-McGrath was on his way to host comedy shows at the theater.

“Drew pitched the idea of being a booker and host for comedy shows,” said Jennifer Crockett, the theater’s executive director. “We took a chance on it and it worked out great.”

Wilson-McGrath hosts North Coast Comedy Night several times a year, more often outside the summer months, featuring at least two guest comedians. The next show is on Aug. 23, a rare Friday date, with Derek Sheen, from Seattle, and Jordan Cerminara, from Portland.

“Comedy is one of the only performing arts mediums that’s growing right now. You don’t need a ton of lighting, a huge sound system, or a big staff,” Crockett said. The theater keeps the ticket price at $10, drawing audiences from farther out in the county as well as a lot of weekend walk-ups. “We’re happy with it. It’s been really popular for us. It’s a win-win show all around.”

Wilson-McGrath agrees.

“I’m a pretty harsh critic of my own work but I don’t think we’ve ever had a bad show at the Liberty,” he said. “We’ve had some incredible shows and I think we’ve sold out or almost sold out the theater three times. I never expected that I’d be selling out a 600-seat theater with comics, most of whom are my friends. I feel like Astoria really loves what we’re doing. We’re building something.”

Wilson-McGrath is also stepping into another role at the theater. On Saturday, he will be hosting the theater’s “Summer Soundwaves” block party, including local trivia, a prize wheel featuring tickets to future Liberty shows.

“When they came to me and asked if I’d be willing to represent them in a non-comedy capacity, that felt like a full circle,” Wilson-McGrath said.

Wilson-McGrath loves the Oregon Coast. ”People are a big part of the reason,” he said, then jumped into a joke. “And it seems like there are two types of people that live on the coast: there’s people that have a lot of money and a summer home so they don’t have to live there year-round, and then there’s people that live there year-round because they legally cannot leave the county.”