Joe Hafkey Starts it Up

Hail­ing from Rich­mond, Vir­ginia, Joe Hafkey orig­i­nal­ly found his home­town lack­ing when try­ing to sat­is­fy his comedic desires. 

Hafkey grew up with sketch shows like Mad TV & SNL, and was a fan of heavy hit­ters like George Car­lin and Jer­ry Sein­feld. At first he wasn’t sure that com­e­dy was going to be a focal point in his life. But when a job at the local (and real­ly only) venue in Rich­mond even­tu­al­ly led to a guest spot on its estab­lished show, the hook was set. Not sat­is­fied with the oppor­tu­ni­ties in the local scene, Hafkey did what many comics have done — cre­at­ed his own. Run­ning 2 years, the show he cre­at­ed pro­vid­ed a more open and inclu­sive space for com­e­dy in Richmond. 

Com­ing off the suc­cess of that endeav­or, Hafkey found his way to Austin and became immersed in the Austin com­e­dy open mic shows and scene. When he land­ed here rough­ly 5 years ago, the now famil­iar con­cept of duo-com­ic-run shows was still grow­ing, so once again he took the reins and co-launched his own, Jazz Cig­a­rette, with anoth­er big Austin name, Mac Blake.

COM­E­DY WHAM PRESENTS: JOE HAFKEY

Hafkey soon also uncov­ered some hid­den act­ing tal­ents (like sneez­ing on cue) and start­ed appear­ing in videos, some of which you can find on his web­site. He’s also land­ed some stel­lar oppor­tu­ni­ties, like open­ing for Kyle Kinane, host­ing his own show­case at Cap City, and per­form­ing at Moon­tow­er Com­e­dy Fes­ti­val. He’s set his sights on expand­ing his writ­ing chops, and I def­i­nite­ly look for­ward to see­ing more of his con­tri­bu­tions soon.

Catch Hafkey at his next Cap City appear­ances March 8^th to 11^th open­ing for Raul Sanchez. Keep up with Hafkey on his web­site, Twit­ter, and Face­book.