The Farewell Show at 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Sept. 7 is expected to include a lineup of Wiley’s favorites. Tickets for the show will go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Aug. 9 via wileyscomedy.com. Tickets will be $25 and only available online.
Wiley’s is Ohio’s oldest comedy club and Dayton’s first comedy club. Dan “Wiley” Lafferty opened the original club on April 20, 1982 at 970 Patterson Road where the Patterson Pub stands today. The club initially featured comedy on Tuesdays for the first year and a half before eventually expanding to Thursdays and ultimately full-time.
“Comedy was really, really hot and we only had 150 seats,” Lafferty previously said. “Wiley’s had a bigger room and restaurant, so we expanded.”
The club moved to its current location at 101 Pine St. in the Oregon District in 1990.
Lafferty sold Wiley’s to comedian Rob Haney, who operated the club for 14 years until he sold it to Chris Bowers and his five business partners, who owned Morty’s Comedy Joint in Indianapolis and The Laughing Derby in Louisville, in late 2014.
In 2017, the club was sold to Gary Wood, a comedian, writer and former comedy club consultant and operations manager, and his two partners, Eric D. Goodman and Matthew Vollrath.
In 2022, Iron Table Holdings LLC, a real estate holdings company owned by comedian Dave Chappelle, purchased the building the houses Wiley’s Comedy Club.
“...It is safe to say we have been blessed with the very best customers, comedians from all over the world, and I am very proud to say the BEST STAFF to have ever worked a Comedy Club,” the email stated. “Wiley’s has been considered ‘HOME’ to many and it truly is a family in itself.”
Doors to the final show will open at 6:30 p.m. In the meantime, Wiley’s has several shows scheduled for the month of August featuring comedians such as Chris Bowers, Heywood Banks and Mike Armstrong.
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