Lexis Shardé has a lot going on: She hosts several pop-up stand-up comedy shows at different venues in Eugene each month, performs with her Eugene-based improv troupe, Weird Kids at Recess, and tours as a stand-up comedian around the West Coast.
Add to that her day job in real estate, and now Shardé is starting Lexy’s Comedy Club on River Road in Eugene. Of her busy schedule, Shardé reassures Eugene Weekly, “I sleep!”
Lexy’s is the second venue solely dedicated to comedy in Eugene, and the rare spot in Oregon outside Portland that strictly hosts comedy, both improv and standup. Lexy’s will host touring comedians as well as comedians from Eugene and the Pacific Northwest.
Eugene’s first comedy club, Olsen Run Comedy Club & Lounge, opened in 2023. Shardé says she’s encouraged by its success, and her timeline to open is early in 2026. Setting Lexy’s apart, Shardé says, is an educational component to her plan.
She’s taught stand-up comedy classes at places like Oregon Contemporary Theatre in downtown Eugene, and will use Lexy’s as a space for youth and adults to take classes and workshops in the afternoon and early evenings before shows.
After school, Shardé says, Lexy’s will be a hangout spot for kids interested in comedy, “where they can do improv workshops, play games and interact. And then we turn the room to get ready for the first show of the night.”
Hayward’s Kitchen, currently a food truck and catering service based in Springfield, will provide food and drink for the new club, which has a capacity of 75.
One day, Shardé hopes to expand into other areas of the building where Lexy’s is located, creating something like a co-working space for creatives, where creators can record podcasts or make TikTok posts and Instagram Reels and other social media content to promote themselves and their craft.
Once established, Shardé says she also intends to franchise the concept to other cities.
Eugene standup and former Eugene Weekly Best of Eugene Best Comedian winner Seth Milstein supports more spaces for comedy in the area, and says that Lexy’s promises a completely new way for the comedy scene to connect with the public.
“Using comedy as a way to educate and socialize can be a positive way to engage young people,” Milstein says. “I’m optimistic about how this new space will help build and connect locals to our comedy community.”
Shardé was born in Eugene, and after graduating from the University of Oregon, lived in Los Angeles and Phoenix, where she started doing comedy, first improv and then later standup.
While in L.A., she studied sketch writing and standup at Upright Citizens Brigade, a world-renowned comedy troupe and training center founded in part by Amy Poehler, where comedians and comedic actors like Aubrey Plaza, Bowen Yang and Ilana Glazer performed and studied.
Through Lexy’s, Shardé currently hosts well-attended pop-up shows featuring local, regional and touring comics at places like Gratitude Brewing, Arable Brewing, Fathoms Bar near the UO campus and Cowfish in downtown Eugene.
Once her brick-and-mortar spot opens, she says she’ll likely continue producing these shows in other venues to build awareness of her brand.
These performances often have themes. Comic, Interrupted, for example, is a recurring open mic where audience members tip the comics for a chance to heckle them, letting the comedians practice their response.
“With what’s going on in the world, people need this,” Shardé says of the live comedy boom in Eugene and elsewhere. “That’s why I strive to do this. People need healing.”
With a tentative timeline to open in January 2026, Lexy’s Comedy Club is at 2747 River Road. For more information about the club and for a schedule of Lexy’s pop-up events, go to LexysComedyClub.com.