The Stress Factory is a
stand-up comedy club chain owned by comedian
Vinnie Brand
Vincent S. Brand III (born July 6, 1963) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian from Middletown, New Jersey, Middletown, NJ. He is best known for being the owner of The Stress Factory Comedy club, Comedy Clubs located in New Brunswick, ...
. The clubs are in
New Brunswick, New Jersey
New Brunswick is a city (New Jersey), city in and the county seat, seat of government of Middlesex County, New Jersey, Middlesex County, in the U.S. state of New Jersey.[Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the List of municipalities in Connecticut, most populous city and a major port in the U.S. state of Connecticut. With a population of 148,654 in 2020, it is also the List of cities by population in New England, fifth-most populous ...]
.
Incidents
Greg Giraldo's final performance
On September 24, 2010,
Greg Giraldo performed his last comedy stand-up routine at the New Brunswick club, and was scheduled to perform the following Saturday and Sunday as well. However, the next day, Giraldo
overdosed on prescription pills in his
New Jersey hotel room, and then, all the other shows were cancelled. Although there are over 700 videos of recorded past events and shows from the Stress Factory on YouTube, the Stress Factory had removed any footage of Greg Giraldo's previous shows that happened before the incident.
On October 3, 2010,
TMZ.com
TMZ is a tabloid news website owned by Fox Corporation. It made its debut on November 8, 2005, originally as a collaboration between AOL and Telepictures, a division of Warner Bros., until Time Warner divested AOL in 2009. On September 13, 202 ...
posted a video on their web site of his final performance at the Stress Factory.
Pete Davidson walkout
On April 29, 2019,
Saturday Night Live comedian
Pete Davidson walked out of a scheduled performance for the Bridgeport club after Davidson claimed the owner,
Vinnie Brand
Vincent S. Brand III (born July 6, 1963) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian from Middletown, New Jersey, Middletown, NJ. He is best known for being the owner of The Stress Factory Comedy club, Comedy Clubs located in New Brunswick, ...
, "disrespected" him for mentioning
Ariana Grande
Ariana Grande-Butera ( ; born June 26, 1993) is an American singer, songwriter, and actress. Her four-octave vocal range has received critical acclaim, and her personal life has been the subject of widespread media attention. She has received ...
and
Kate Beckinsale on stage before his scheduled time slot. However, Brand claimed that he was only accommodating what Davidson's security guard told him to do by telling the audience to not call out those names while Davidson would have been on stage.
Technical difficulties during Eddie Griffin performance
On August 30, 2019, comedian
Eddie Griffin was scheduled to perform at the New Brunswick location. However, as Griffin took the stage, the club's circuit breaker went down causing the lighting and microphones to not work during his set. Griffin became frustrated with the technical malfunctions that he accused the owner,
Vinnie Brand
Vincent S. Brand III (born July 6, 1963) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian from Middletown, New Jersey, Middletown, NJ. He is best known for being the owner of The Stress Factory Comedy club, Comedy Clubs located in New Brunswick, ...
, and the venue's management of racism to which reportedly Brand had dismissed those claims. Griffin was also scheduled to perform the following night, August 31, 2019, but cancelled the performances due to the technical difficulties even though Brand stated the circuit breaker would be fixed in time. Comedian Drew Fraser became the replacement for the Saturday shows and the patrons for Griffin's shows had their ticket money refunded.
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stress Factory
Comedy clubs in the United States
Buildings and structures in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Tourist attractions in New Brunswick, New Jersey