We are not going to stand here and let someone call Broward County dull and humorless. Someone from Kendall, no less! Where do you get off, Brittany Brave? If that is even your real name and not some contrived superhero alias …
“That is my real name and, I think, by default, my superhero name,” Brave says. “When you’re born with a name like Brittany Brave, you either have to become a superhero or a porn star, and I’m right in the middle. I’m a comedian.”
Performing on Wednesday at a sold-out Dania Improv, the veteran comic is a Kendall native and Hits 97.3 radio personality who is making a documentary film about the burgeoning comedy scene in South Florida. There will be cameras present at the show.
Brave admits to being “excited and scared” about her debut as a headliner at the Dania Improv. Possibly because she’s not sure Broward has a sense of humor.
“We have a very bustling, booming comedy scene in Miami, and we have a very bustling, booming comedy scene in the West Palm-Lake Worth area. I’m afraid to say that Broward kind of falls in between the cracks,” she says, matter-of-factly.
After graduating from the University of Florida a decade ago, Brave moved to New York, working at Columbia Records and Sony Music (with projects involving artists from Barbra Streisand to Beyoncé) while training on a variety of comedy stages, including Upright Citizens Brigade and, in Chicago, with The Second City improv troupe.
A visit to her parents’ house became permanent during the pandemic — “That’s how you know things are bad, when Kendall looks better than New York” — and Brave since has worked comedy rooms all over South Florida. She did guest spots on a variety of local radio stations before joining pop station Hits 97.3 as a host on Fridays from 7 to 11 p.m., and weekends from 2 to 7 p.m.
Brave says pandemic population shifts (residents and performers) have encouraged a “massive” underground comedy scene in Miami that inspired the idea for her documentary. She cites the Villain Theater in Little Haiti and the Comedy Inn, a stage inside a Quality Inn hotel in South Miami, as symbolic of the grassroots scene.
To work out material for Wednesday’s show, last week Brave booked quick guest spots on five different Miami stages on a single night, including the Miami Improv, Lincoln’s Beard Brewing and Aficionados, a Brickell liquor store.
“We have independent shows and mics nightly, multiple,” she says of Miami. “The comedy clubs are great, and they add notoriety and clout, but the reality is there’s not a lot of opportunity for comics to get on that stage. So it’s the breweries, the bars, the restaurants, the hotels …”
Speaking by phone recently, Brave answered a few questions about the South Florida comedy scene. The exchange has been edited for brevity and clarity.
Q: Someone from Kendall calling Broward boring is irony, right?
A: Ha, ha. Shots fired. (Laughs) It’s not surprising that Miami is the most active, because of the population, the activity, the attention, the celebrities, the flashiness. I like to compare Miami, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm like they are three sisters. Miami is like the young, hot party girl and West Palm has money and is out and maybe contemplating divorce. Then Broward is settled, got a good job and maybe about to get engaged.
Q: Maybe Broward just has a boring fiancé. How does she get her groove back?
A: Broward has a scene, there are things that are happening there, but to the question about why it’s not as bustling as Miami or West Palm, it’s hard to answer. There needs to be people based in Broward that give a s–t. As of right now, those people are either living in Miami or they are farther north up in West Palm. I think Broward might lack a little bit of an identity. But I think it’s just a matter of whoever is in Broward and is interested in comedy, doing more.
Q: What is the difference between a New York audience and one in South Florida?
A: I would say they are the two toughest in the nation, but for very different reasons. New York is tough because they’re smug, and they have the best of the best of the best of comedy everywhere around them, so they’re a little bit jaded and they’re stuck up and they’re pretentious. You really have to say something with your comedy, and the joke’s got to be tight, and the writing’s got to be there.
Miami is tough for a completely opposite reason — Miami has no attention span. It’s brutal. (Laughs) They want to get you out of the way so they can go to E11even (nightclub). They don’t want to think. They don’t want to go too deep. But they want to be a part of the show. They just want to be messed with and they just want stuff about Miami and stuff that’s local. That’s really tough, too.
Q: Why does a Miami audience only want to hear about Miami? Is it because they feel inferior or superior to everyone?
A: It’s both. I think they think they feel superior, but all of those God complexes and superiority complexes actually come from a place of inferiority. Not to get too deep. (Laughs) Miami has this weird pride for Miami, especially when it’s challenged. I think a lot of people go very hard for Miami, blindly, because they haven’t experienced anything outside of Miami. Because when it comes to New York, as New Yorkers we represent New York, but New Yorkers also will tell you to your face that New York sucks. Like, we’ll be honest about it. And Miami won’t.
Q: As a joke writer, is South Florida funnier than other parts of the country? Is there fresher material these days?
A: South Florida is overflowing with material for the taking. I think it’s on par with New York, and New York is crazy. I would say Florida, New York, Las Vegas are probably the three places where the joke writes itself. I think there was something to be said about how Florida and South Florida paid no mind to the pandemic, which is a sensitive issue for a lot of people, but there is something to be made fun of there. I think (Florida Gov. Ron) DeSantis, and not to get political, but he has made some pretty extreme political choices for our state. I think Florida is crazy, and it needs comedians to call it out on its s–t and to make sense of it and to tell the truth amidst all of the ridiculousness.
Brittany Brave performs at 8 p.m. Wednesday, June 14, at the Dania Improv, 177 N. Pointe Drive, Dania Beach. Tickets are sold out. Visit DaniaImprov.com.
Staff writer Ben Crandell can be reached at . Follow on Instagram @BenCrandell and Twitter @BenCrandell.
