The Velveeta Room Comedy Club
The Velveeta Room has been haunting 6th Street since 1988, when the block was still wild, still run by outlaws and madmen. Dive bars, punk venues, blues joints, and massage parlors lined the street. The hotels nearby rented by the hour. Winos slept in the doorways of empty buildings. Somehow, opening a comedy club in the midst of all this seemed like a good idea.
Owners Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton (also the founders of Esther’s Follies) took over the lease of the old Embassy Room, the last strip club on 6th Street before the city shut it down. The ladies room still had a shower. The stripper pole stayed. The owners let the comedians run it, trusting them to shape the room themselves. The inmates have been running the asylum ever since.
The club is named after Ronnie Velveeta, a sleazy lounge lizard character created by artist and Texas comedy legend Kerry Awn, longtime Esther's Follies cast member and first-ever winner of the prestigious Funniest Person in Austin contest. A joke name for a place that was never supposed to last.
But we're still here.
The early days were raw, loose, and unpredictable, a clubhouse for Austin comics. After official shows ended, the comics would stick around to do secret late-night sets for each other, just for the joy of making their friends laugh. For decades, The Velv had a reputation as one of toughest rooms in the country. Barkers lured in bleary-eyed crowds who often didn’t even know a show was happening. It wasn’t polished, it wasn’t pretty. But it was alive.
The shows were nothing short of madness. Comics either bombed hard or learned how to work a room. Fellow comics heckled each other, especially if someone was pandering, or worse, boring. It was part hazing, part rite of passage. If you could take the heat and give some back, you earned respect. If not, there were easier stages elsewhere.
In 1993, The Velv moved to its current home at 521 e 6th Street, taking over The Sun Theater, a former adult cinema. The strip club mirrors were brought along and still hang in the showroom today. If those mirrors could talk, a lot of people would be in serious trouble.
Some of today’s biggest names cut their teeth on our stage: comics like Saturday Night Live’s Devon Walker & Andrew Dismukes, Martha Kelly, the late, great Lashonda Lester, Howard Kremer, Martin Urbano, David Huntsberger, Brendon Walsh, Matt Bearden, Vanessa Gonzalez, and Nick Mullen. Comedy icons like Ron White, Bill Hicks, Doug Stanhope, and the late Johnny Hardwick (best known as Dale Gribble on King of the Hill) appeared back in the day.
Through it all, one man has remained a constant: Michael Park, our longtime door guy. For over 30 years, he’s stood watch over the place and its ever-shifting cast of comics, crowds, and chaos. Say hello when you come in, you’re talking to a 6th Street legend.
Despite its size, The Velveeta Room has always had an outsized impact on Austin’s comedy scene. We’ve had lean years. We’ve faced closure more than once. But we’re still here. We’re the longest-running comedy club in Austin, a leftover from a grittier, weirder version of the city that most have forgotten. The block lost its teeth. The skyline changed. But the soul of The Velv remains.
We’re still a cornerstone of live comedy in Austin, committed to smart, fearless stand-up and giving the next generation a place to find their voice. Comics and audiences alike know: if you want the real deal, you come to The Velveeta Room.
We're still here.