Submitted Photo Clockwise from front: Kyle Erickson, Sinie Beck, Wilbur Stevenson and Steve Brown after a comedy show in Max on Dec. 18. The four are part of the group, Why Not Laugh Comedy, which was founded in March of 2021.

Why Not Laugh Comedy of Minot is a group of comedians who work together to not only promote themselves and their work–as all performers do–but to also bring more live entertainment to North Dakota.

“I feel like Minot is a very music-heavy town, as far as live entertainment, and variety is never a bad thing,” said comedian Kyle Erickson.

“Coming from someone who didn’t live in a small town until I was 28, I don’t see anything to do here, other than go to a bar,” added Sinie Beck, another member of the group.

Why Not Laugh’s name is a spinoff of Minot’s unofficial slogan, “Why not Minot?” They formed in March of 2021 and have put on six comedy shows since then: two at The Drop Zone in Minot, one in Bismarck, one at The Red Light Bar in Max, and two at the Blue Rider in Minot, where they have a show planned for Thursday night.

Erickson and Beck, along with Wilbur Stevenson and Steven Brown, make up the group of four who meet at The Dakota Lounge approximately once a month. Originally, there were five members. The meetings focus on promotion and booking comedy nights more than influencing each other’s individual standup styles.

“We like to keep our individual voices,” said Erickson, who grew up in Ruso. He said he tried out, and fell in love with, standup comedy in the summer of 2020.

“Basically, I like to give permission to people to laugh at my bad luck with me,” said Erickson, who has cerebral palsy and frames his experiences with laughter, something that Brown said he also does.

“I started getting into standup in 2017 and thought to myself, ‘I’ve got some wild stories that I’ve dealt with in life,’ and it went from there,” Brown said.

Beck, a board member at Mouse River Players (MRP), got her first taste of stand-up on Oct. 17, 2020, at a comedy contest held at the MRP theatre that she had spontaneously entered. She said she remembers the date because it was her birthday.

“We were trying to come up with something for 2020/2021 where we could get people in the theatre, but not pack it,” Beck said. “The vice president of the board was like, hey, I really like standup comedy. I’m gonna do a comedy contest. He’s like, you’re funny. Can you be funny for five minutes?”

Beck said that the themes for her content comes from her experience of “being a millennial and not wanting kids.”

It was at that same comedy contest that Stevenson met the other group members, and Why Not Laugh started to form.

“I was on board right away because I thought they were all very funny people,” said Stevenson, who started standup at a talent show in Hazen when he was 16. After performing for two more years at subsequent talent shows, he moved to Minot in 2001.

“There was no platform for standup. I pretty much came to a standstill,” Stevenson said. “I would do a one-off appearance for the band Soulshine in 2017 and then joined Why Not Laugh in 2021.”

In the future, the group hopes to keep offering more shows across North Dakota and in Minot, but they’re figuring things out along the way.

“We’re all just kind of monkeying with stuff and flying blind until we figure out what works,” Erickson said.

Stevenson, Brown, Erickson and Beck will perform at Why Not Laugh’s next show on Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Blue Rider. There is no cover, and attendees must be over 21.