Husband and wife team keep ’em laughing at Comedy in Harlem

When stand-up comedians Jamie Roberts and Nicky Sunshine began dating more than a decade ago, they probably never envisioned they would create a comedy club and cultural space that continues to make history in Harlem.

However, their Sugar Hill venue, Comedy in Harlem, one of only five Black-owned comedy venues in the country, has become the premier destination to feature Black comedy in New York. In September, they will be celebrating the club’s fifth anniversary.

“We didn’t have a true outlet for ourselves on any given night,” said Roberts, 49. Now, the club gives the duo “the ability to showcase our talents to our people in our neighborhood … With Harlem being so rich in culture, the destination is the best place to be right now.”

They say there’s also a cathartic impact in having a Black-owned comedy club in Harlem.

“When Jamie and I started Comedy in Harlem, we were very conscious that this is for Black and Brown and marginalized people and women. It’s a place where community lives, where people can feel connected,” said Sunshine, 48. “There’s nothing else like the shared experience of stand-up comedy — an audience coming together to laugh and to alleviate stress and feel like they’re in a safe space.”

Running the venue is a full-time job, between restocking supplies, staffing shows, cleaning, taking and making phone calls, sending emails, and posting on social media. The couple rents out the space for comedy shows and more, and one of the things they are most proud of is how much more accessible their club is compared to venues downtown.

“There is a low barrier to entry if people want to produce a show,” Sunshine said.

Notable guests at the club have included Tracy Morgan, Sherri Shepherd, Tiffany Haddish, Cedric the Entertainer, and Lil Rel Howery.

Getting to funny

Roberts, raised in Amityville on Long Island, said comedy was always present in his family household, similarly to the Wayans family. 

“You basically had to be your own entertainment, because we didn’t have much money, so you had to do what you had to do,” Roberts said. As he got older, being funny was essential for defending himself in school.

“I was a skinny kid with big glasses, so I had to figure out how to not get picked on, and if they picked on me, I had to be funny.” He said he was also fortunate to grow up surrounded by the golden era of comedy and classic TV. “Comedy was always around, and it just became part of my everyday life once I figured out this is what I want to do,” Roberts said. 

Sunshine said comedic storytelling was always part of her upbringing. She recalled being very expressive and acting out stories of things at home to her grandmother and friends at school. 

Both Roberts’s and Sunshine’s trajectories in stand-up were similar, beginning in 2001 and 2002 in New York. Roberts was able to supplement his comedy career with his day job as an accountant, which he would do for 17 years. Sunshine knew she wanted to be in New York because she was passionate about the arts. After college, she moved to the city and began in comedy, as well as being a working actor through mediums off-Broadway and being an extra on shows like “Saturday Night Live.”

Both found themselves interested in the business and promotion side of comedy, and began hosting their own shows. 

“I learned very early in the game that I couldn’t just tell jokes and that be it. I had to learn how to figure out how to make some real money,” Roberts said. He soon began promoting his own show, “Sunday Night Live,” for 10 years at the New York Comedy Club, where he made connections, worked with notable celebrities, and got firsthand experience in promoting and booking shows. 

For Sunshine, as a Black woman comic, the sentiment was clear that she and others like her would not be prioritized by the notable clubs, and that was what encouraged her to start producing.

“They’re not gonna let you in per se, so in a way, you’ve got to create a lane for you and your peers. That was kind of what I did,” Sunshine said. “There was a sentiment that they don’t want you, they don’t need you.” With Julio Rodriguez, Sunshine helped produce shows like Broads of Broadway and worked at the Producer’s Club.

Roberts transitioned to radio and began working with station 103.9 as an account executive and later a sales manager. Today, he is a senior account executive with WQHT-FM (Hot 97) and WBLS-FM. He was initially hesitant but said the interviewer, a fellow HBCU alum, encouraged him, helping him realize that he regularly does sales as a comedy promoter. 

Both Roberts and Sunshine had crossed paths at various comedy venues and had known one another through the years. The couple remembered one instance where Roberts asked Sunshine to host the show for him because he would be at a friend’s wedding. Sunshine later joked to him, “I’ll have you host my wedding when I trap a sucker.”

“I never knew I would be the sucker,” Roberts said jokingly. The two began dating in 2014. In 2018, they got married and now have a son. 

While initially wanting to keep their privacy, the two said they stayed open-minded about opportunities and leveraged themselves as a couple professionally. They took part in a tour titled “Love is a Joke” with other married comic couples and were featured on a reality series, “A Question of Love,” on FYI Network.

Around 2018, Roberts had begun promoting his Harlem-specific shows through his then-website, Comedy in Harlem. At the time, he and a partner hosted popular shows at the National Black Theatre. When the space closed for renovations, they began hosting Comedy in Harlem as an event above Lightshouse on East 117th Street, through a partnership with the owner, Michael Clopton. 

In early 2024, they were shut down by the Department of Buildings for having the wrong license. After creating a GoFundMe, they had the funds to move to their current location on St. Nicholas between West 147th and 148th Streets in May.

The two said being business partners as a couple works because they share a special bond and have been through the fire together. 

“I respect the unique nature of our connection a lot more because we’ve grown together,” Sunshine said. “A diamond has really emerged from the hardship. It’s a very special story that we have.”Sunshine said. “A diamond has really emerged from the hardship. It’s a very special story that we have.”

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