Fagel O’Neal El, the owner of Crown of Comedy, feels everyone needs a good laugh, and Auburn has a new place to find that laughter.
O’Neal El said after years of her and her family traveling around to see different comedy clubs, they wanted to set up a club closer to home.
O’Neal El said before she opened up Crown of Comedy, she was in real estate and ran a staffing company that always kept her on the road between Auburn and Georgia. She decided opening up a comedy club would give her a break from the moving around and provide something new for the community, she said.
“With all that background and knowledge, you work so hard for other people, and it was just time for us to slow down and now put that same effort into ourselves and bring something to life that we could enjoy and share with others in the community,” O’Neal El said.
O’Neal El said she is originally from Illinois, but her husband, Chris O’Neal El, is from Alabama and they raised their two sons in Auburn. Although her sons are in college now, she said she feels her family is connected to Auburn and wanted to give Auburn more variety in evening activities.
O’Neal El said that for her, comedy is like a spiritual experience.
“I just enjoy it because you feel cleansed after a good laughter,” she said.
O’Neal El said comedy gives people a reboot and brings people together. Even if everyone in the audience is different, they all have at least one thing in common—a smile, she said.
O’Neal El said the name Crown of Comedy was something they came up with as a family. O’Neal El said it took a lot of trial and error, but they knew they wanted crown in the name because of the stature comedy can make people feel. After some tweaking, they settled on Crown of Comedy.
“We all had the joy of making that selection, and it just seems to roll off the tongue,” she said.
O’Neal El said she wants the comedy club to offer a variety of styles and genres. They are beginning their soft opening, she said.
On Friday Nov. 29, at 7 p.m., they had four comedians, Eugene, Charles Winston, Michael Statham and Earnie, performing a show. They also served some food to keep the Iron Bowl feel going while people are waiting and preparing for the game on Saturday.
O’Neal El said as they open up the comedy club, they hope to continue making the space a livelier places and for the atmosphere to be enjoyable. She wants it to be a place where people can come in and be loud, be comfortable and have a good laugh.
“We have been working very hard to pull this place together and to give it a different look and feel,” O’Neal El said. “We just hope we can welcome, not only the members of our community, but also our guest that seem to frequent here and provide something good for them to do and see.”
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Abigail Murphy, senior in journalism with minors in history and women and gender studies, is the operations managing editor at The Auburn Plainsman.
