The crowd of about 110 people sat in the banquet room Saturday evening at the Friendly Buffalo in Big Lake, waiting to laugh.

 

They weren’t disappointed.

 

At about 7:30, a lone figure took the stage. Five minutes later, when the microphone problem was corrected, Lance Lindberg started telling one-liners to the delight of the crowd.

 

It is something Lindberg, a real estate agent for more than 30 years, has been doing for the past seven years.

 

Lindberg, who grew up in Elk River, is the host of Comedy in the Buff, an event that happens a few times a year at the Friendly Buffalo.

 

“This is a great venue,” he says. “I’m comfortable here. It’s a great set up.”

 

Last Saturday’s comedy night was the 18th show put on by Lindberg. He usually warms up the crowd with one-liners before a feature comedian comes on stage, followed by the headliner.

 

It’s been that way since 2010 when a friend, comedian Nicholas Anthony, asked Lindberg to host three shows.

 

Anthony is a successful comedian who is now a TV screenwriter in Los Angeles. He came back to do some “homecoming” comedy. Lindberg agreed to host the shows and also worked on his own comedy routine. 

 

At that point, Lindberg was still developing. He was attending stand-up workshops put on by Scott Hansen, a well-know Minnesota comedian.

 

“We’d get together once or twice a week. He gave us tips on writing and performing,” says Lindberg. “We put on a performance at the Maple Grove Theatre for the Arts and he had a club in Arden Hills where we could perform on weekends.”

 

Before that, Lindberg didn’t have much training.

 

He always liked humor, and had started publishing a comedy newsletter back in 1997. The Old Thompson Club Quarterly was a compilation of humerous short stories and snippets about local people and events.

 

“Back in the 1970s, National Lampoon had a fake Sunday newspaper. It’s the funniest thing ever. I still read it,” says Lindberg. “That was my inspiration.”

 

He sent out about 300 copies of the first one. That later grew to over 4,000.

 

There was definitely comedy talent there, and as the “class clown” of the Elk River Chamber Leadership Program, he was asked to perform. 

 

“Everyone wanted me to give the graduation address, so I came up with something,” he says. “It went over well.”

 

He did comedy at the company Christmas party and was asked to perform  at a baby shower. A standup routine at the Rotary Club followed that.

 

“I must have done 50 or 60 events - graduation parties, fundraisers, wedding receptions,” he said, “with mixed results.”

 

He kept at it, and those three comedy nights at the Friendly Buffalo gave him a new idea.

 

“I started thinking, maybe I can host shows. I knew some comedians. It became a word of mouth thing,” he says.

 

He had a pipeline of comedians he knew from doing his own stand-up. So he went about booking acts for the show.

 

His main focus is the headliner, and so far, it’s been successful. Many of his headliners are known across the country. Some have been on the David Letterman, Jimmy Kimmel and Conan O’Brien shows.    

 

Saturday’s headliner was Michael Thorne, who has shared the stage with such comic legends as the late Bill Hicks, Steven Wright and the late Mitch Hedberg.

 

Lindberg says many of the comedians he’s booked are just as funny as the famous ones.

 

“It’s amazed me how funny the comedians we’ve had are,” he says. “I can compare them to comedians on TV.  They’ve just never been big time. They say you need an element of luck to be discovered.”

 

As for Lindberg’s routine, he says he was inspired by comedians like Rodney Dangerfield, Henny Youngman, and his all-time favorite, Groucho Marx.

 

“I’ve seen those same films over and over,” he says. “Groucho is my comedic hero.”

 

Lindberg doesn’t always get the laughs Groucho did, but it doesn’t stop him from doing his short stand-up routine as host.

 

“They say stand-up is the hardest type of performing because you’re always aiming to get feedback,” he says. “People can be laughing at your jokes, then you hit a dry spell. It can be very awkward.”

 

But he’s always looking to polish his craft - watching old episodes of Saturday Night Live or looking at other comedians.

 

“Sometimes a Far Side cartoon will inspire a new joke,” he says. 

 

And sometimes, he’ll pull out one of his vintage lines.

 

“I was a star halfback for Elk River. Then I went to college and became a hunchback for Notre Dame.”

 

“That’s a joke I’ve been telling for 30 years.” he says.

 

It still gets laughs.