Steve Hofstetter Makes a New Home in Charlotte’s Comedy Scene

There’s an old adage in stand-up comedy that claims aspiring comics must have 10  years of experience performing in front of crowds to be any good. Steve Hofstetter, a veteran comic who moved to Charlotte earlier this year, has a more specific, tiered timeline: 7, 10, 15. 

“Seven [years] until it starts to become a solid career, 10 until you’re comfortable, and 15 until you make it,” he insisted. 

Hofstetter, who at 46 years old will mark 24 years since his very first stand-up performance in January, has had a rather impressive career over nearly a quarter-century in the game. He’s made television appearances on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson, E! True Hollywood Story, Comics Unleashed, Comedy All-Stars, Quite Frankly and more. 

He was also the host and executive producer of the first season of Fox’s stand-up show Laughs and is an award-winning writer, having worked as a columnist for Sports Illustrated, the NHL, Maxim, and New York Times. He authored the memoir Ginger Kid: Mostly True Tales from a Former Nerd, which debuted at No. 1 in its category on Amazon, where it remains a top-five. 

But it was behind mics, touring stages across the country, where Hofstetter cut his teeth and still shines. His “7, 10, 15” theory comes from personal experience; he made his first late-night TV appearance six years into his career, waited another five before his videos started going viral, and 14 years in he was able to draw a consistent crowd based on name recognition alone.

Before moving to Charlotte this year, Hofstetter made his mark in Pittsburgh. He opened the comedy club Sunken Bus Studios, but his work as founder of Steel City Arts Foundation, which provides mentorship, resources and support for comics, earned him a nomination for a Nobel Peace Prize.     

He met his wife, Savannah, in Pittsburgh, and the two moved to Charlotte together, where Steve has been working to build a new community for himself. On Dec. 7, he’ll host Steve Hofstetter & Friends at The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s, where he’ll present a lineup of comic friends from the Charlotte area and beyond. 

Why Charlotte?  

If there’s one question Hofstetter has continued to get throughout the year, it’s “Why Charlotte?” We may be a transplant city, with some 150+ people moving to the area every day, but it’s not exactly known as a hub for stand-up comedy. 

Ultimately, it wasn’t fully about comedy, but family … and not any existing family but a future one. Savannah is due with the couple’s first child sometime in December. They looked at Nashville, Raleigh and Charlotte as potential places to raise their kid. 

Comedy did play its part in the decision-making process; it’s Steve’s career, after all. 

“We were looking at major cities that had good comedy scenes and that also, you know, had better weather. Charlotte’s airport was one of the deciding factors because of the amount of direct flights,” said Steve, citing a critical perk for a touring comedian. 

As a touring comedian and entrepreneur, direct flights are critical to make any given week go smoothly. Growth and diversity were also key points for the couple. A native of Queens in New York City, he appreciates that Charlotte carries a similar vibe in that most people came from elsewhere to live here. 

As a hardcore Mets fan and sports columnist, Hofstetter likes Charlotte’s diversity in fandoms (“The idea that I walk around my neighborhood and … one of my neighbors has a Cincinnati Reds flag.”) but also in the more traditional sense — a melting pot (or salad bowl) of races, nationalities and ethnicities.  

He points to the recent raids by Customs & Border Protection in Charlotte as proof that the city is doing something right — and being targeted for it. 

“It’s because there are people from everywhere here. To them, that’s a bad thing. To me, it’s one of the reasons I like living here.” 

Let’s get political

Hofstetter does work politics into his comedy. He recently shared with his 1 million Facebook followers an email exchange with a woman who attended one of his shows in Winston-Salem and was so offended by his “anti police rhetoric” that she emailed him later to voice her disgust.  

“Every now and then someone will say something like, ‘I liked you before you were political,’” he explained. “I’ve been outspoken about my progressive politics since I was in middle school. So did you like me better when I was 9?”

Of his 10 albums, he concludes that all have progressive politics in them, though most should not be considered political but simply human rights issues: “treating women fairly and treating gay people fairly and treating trans people fairly.”

So, consider yourself warned if you attend Sunday’s Steve Hofstetter & Friends event in Uptown, which he plans to host every two to three months and potentially go monthly if it gains a following. 

“One of the great things about Charlotte is there are all these little [venues] that have kind of their own things,” he said. “So we’re doing one at Fort Mill and maybe we’ll do one in Concord or Matthews or somewhere else that is close.”

Sunday’s lineup includes local acts Georgia Warder, Jesse Jones and Pat Brown performing alongside touring comics Jay Hunter, Taylor Reschka and Rahmein Mostafavi. Hofstetter will be headlining.

His New Year’s Eve iteration of the show, scheduled for Dec. 31 at the Fort Mill Community Playhouse just over the state line, will feature Warder, Loic Adjevi and Sean Kett, all of whom are local to the Charlotte area. 

Hofstetter has seen the comedy scene change drastically since getting involved with stand-up in the early aughts, making things easier for folks in cities like Charlotte. He used to urge aspiring comics to move to a city like New York or Los Angeles if they wanted to get attention, but doesn’t believe that’s necessary in this new era of social media making the country smaller. 

“That’s not the case anymore; every city has a scene now,” he said. “Moving to New York, you’re surrounded by great comics all the time, which helps for sure, but if you’re in a city like Charlotte, you’ll be the one opening for touring acts.”

Read more: The Comedy Club at Duckworth’s Fills a Gap in the Local Scene

He pointed to fellow comics like Pat Brown, Shuler King and Shayne Smith who have made the move to Charlotte in recent years, adding to a scene that he said already had a fresh energy and cultivates a positive, welcoming vibe for newcomers.  

For Hofstetter, those vibes and a mic and a stage are all that’s necessary. 

“I have barely done any TV in the last 10 years and I regularly sell out theaters,” he said. “I have a million followers on multiple platforms. Like, you don’t need TV. Who’s watching TV?”