THE HISTORY OF LAFF JAM

The Laff Jam Capital City Black Comedy Competition was started in 1989 by William Hanford Lee Jr. and Scott Charles in an effort to showcase the awesome talents of African American comedians from Northern California. At the time, there was no "HBO Def Comedy Jam", or "In Living Color", and the Black Comedy explosion of the '90s had not begun.

The finals for the comedy competition took place annually at the beautiful Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento, and fast became Sacramento's premiere comedy event. The competition introduced Sacramento to awesome comedic talents such as Mark Curry, J. Anthony Brown, Faizon Love, Wiley Roberts, Clinton Jackson, Reynaldo Rey, Alex Thomas, Laura Hayes, Arnez J., Guy Torry, Pierre, Ricky Harris, Luenell, Hope Flood, and Sheryl Underwood just to name a few

Laff Jam gave comedians from Northern California an opportunity to perform with some of the top talent in the business, and was a huge showcase for their comic abilities. After 1994, Laff Jam disappeared from the local landscape for a few years, lost in a sea of Black comedy events that appeared in its wake, however the competition re-emerged in 2000 as part of The Observer Media Group's Black Expo, and is again becoming one of Sacramento's premiere comedy events.