Helium Comedy Club is a venue for stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy

Stand-up comedy is a comedic art form. Usually, a comedian performs in front of a live audience, speaking directly to them. Their performances are sometimes filmed for later release via DVD, the internet, and television...

 in Center City

Center City, Philadelphia

Center City, or Downtown Philadelphia includes the central business district and central neighborhoods of the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. As of 2005, its population of over 88,000 made it the third most populous downtown in the United States, after New York City's and Chicago's...

 Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Philadelphia is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the county seat of Philadelphia County, with which it is coterminous. The city is located in the Northeastern United States along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It is the fifth-most-populous city in the United States,...

. The club offers a three-act show which consists of an opener

Opening act

An opening act or warm-up act is an entertainer or entertainment act that performs at a concert before the featured entertainer...

, feature and a headliner

Headliner

A headliner is a composite material that is adhered to the inside roof of automobiles or yachts. It typically consists of a face fabric with nonwoven or foam backing. Headliners consist of multilayered composite materials that bring together multiple functionalities, including the requested look,...

. Like many comedy clubs, the house has a 'two item minimum' for each audience member. Throughout the years many notable comics have been on the stage.

Comics include: Bill Burr

Bill Burr

William "Bill" Burr is an American stand-up comedian, radio host and actor.-Life and career:Burr was born in Canton, Massachusetts. His father was a dentist, and Bill worked as a hygienist for a short time. He began stand-up at age 23 after attending Emerson College. In 1995, he moved to New...

, Christopher Titus

Christopher Titus

Christopher Todd Titus is an American comedian and actor. He grew up in Newark, California. Titus came to national attention with the eponymous FOX show Titus, of which he was the star, executive producer and co-creator...

, Adam Ferrara

Adam Ferrara

Adam Ferrara is an American actor and comedian who is currently playing the role of Chief "Needles" Nelson on the critically acclaimed FX series Rescue Me and is also a co-host on the U.S. version of Top Gear...

, Russ Meneve

Russ Meneve

Russ Meneve is a stand-up comedian from Hawthorne, New Jersey who has appeared on multiple shows on NBC and Comedy Central.-Biography:Meneve was born in Hawthorne, New Jersey. He first tried out as a comedian at 17 in his high school and in 1993, he started as a comedian.After school, he received a...

, Andy Kindler

Andy Kindler

Andy Kindler is an American stand-up comedian from New York City who now resides in Los Angeles.-Stand up:His material often covers the comedy industry itself, criticizing other comedians for being too predictable. One of his more notable criticisms was that of Dane Cook where he compared the...

, Louis Ramey

Louis Ramey

Louis Ramey is an American stand-up comedian from Atlanta, Georgia. He started performing comedy while in college.He was featured in his own episode of Comedy Central Presents in 2001. It was filmed at the Hudson Theatre, in New York City. In 2008, he was a finalist on Last Comic Standing 6. On...

, Kevin Nealon

Kevin Nealon

Kevin Nealon is an American actor and comedian, best known as a cast member on Saturday Night Live from 1986 to 1995, acting in several of the Happy Madison films, for playing Doug Wilson on the Showtime series Weeds, and providing the voice of the title character, Glenn Martin on Glenn Martin,...

, Patrice Oneal

Patrice Oneal

Patrice Lumumba Malcolm Oneal , usually credited as Patrice O'Neal, was an American stand-up comedian, radio personality, and actor. He was known for his cutting, often confrontational crowd work during which he often played couples against each other...

, DL Hughley, Rich Vos

Rich Vos

Richard Ira "Rich" Vos is an American comedian. Originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, Vos has been a working stand-up for decades. Colin Quinn described Vos in his early days as a "Jersey Hack"....

, Gary Gulman

Gary Gulman

Gary Lewis Gulman is a stand-up comedian. He was a finalist on the NBC reality-talent show Last Comic Standing . In season 2, he finished in third place behind John Heffron and Alonzo Bodden...

, Jim Florentine

Jim Florentine

James "Jim" Florentine is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, comedian, voice artist, and performer...

, Emo Philips

Emo Philips

Emo Philips is an American entertainer and comedian born in the Chicago suburb of Downers Grove. Much of his standup comedy stems from the use of paraprosdokians and garden path sentences spoken in a wandering falsetto tone of voice and a confused, childlike delivery of his material to produce the...

 and Mark Curry

Mark Curry (actor)

Mark G. Curry is an American actor and comedian. He is best known as the star of the ABC sitcom Hangin' with Mr. Cooper, and as one of the various hosts of the syndicated series It's Showtime at the Apollo.-Early life and education:...

Since 2006, Helium has sponsored an annual tournament called "Philly's Phunniest". The contest welcomes local comedians to compete against each other in timed sets which the audience (and judges) vote on.

The club also hosts a weekly open mic night that features around 20 local enthusiasts. Newcomers are given the chance to sign up for beginner sets ranging between 3-7 minutes.