Things were solid until 2008.
In the seven years prior — when Mark Friebe and his wife Sheila Sharma launched The Giggle Dam, a dinner show company in the heart of downtown Port Coquitlam — they packed in the crowds.
During the rise, they would often turn to each other and their marketing partner Brad Lovell to wonder how long their good fortune would last.
Then, the global economy tanked.
People lost their jobs and homes. And, for anyone who had any kind of disposable income, their entertainment budget was the first to disappear.
Slowly, but eventually, the business picked up and their room started to fill again.
But, two years ago, The Giggle Dam was dealt its first of two double whammies.
In late July 2015, during a long weekend, a fire broke out at a neighbour’s building. The couple rushed from their Maple Ridge home to witness the destruction.
“We were standing at the back thinking, ‘This is it. Our lives are over,’” Sharma recalled. “At the very least, we knew it would be thousands of dollars in damage.”
Luckily, a concrete fire wall on the north side of the 69-year-old building — plus a newly installed roof — saved their business from going down. Port Coquitlam fire fighters also turned off their sprinklers to prevent flooding and they ripped open the loading bay doors at the back to flush out the smoke.
When they were cleared for inspection, they expected the place to be in ruins. “There wasn’t even a drop,” Sharma said, shaking her head.
Still, the red-hot real estate market this and last year also has also taken a financial toll, Friebe said.
New homeowners are now stuck with unaffordable mortgages — and tenants have ben pushed out with high rents — which means, like in 2008, no one has leftover cash.
“It’s been a real struggle to make ends meet some days,” Friebe said. “Before 2008, we were asking ourselves, ‘How much longer will this go?’ Now we ask, ‘How much longer can this go?’”
They’ve managed to keep afloat for 16 years, Sharma said, because of their tight-knit “Damily” (as the Giggle Dam family calls itself).
In their 9,000 sq. ft. space, the 40 staff members — actors, servers, chefs, musicians, administrators and a sound technician — have hosted weekend dinner shows and rented out their 200-seat room for corporate and celebratory events. They’ve even employed their show band at festivals throughout the Lower Mainland. “It’s the best marketing tool we have,” Sharma said.
However, they continue to compete with Vancouver.
Vancouver and Burnaby residents don’t want to travel east to see an act, Friebe said, and the lure of big-ticket productions downtown is also hard for many to resist. “I challenge anyone who wants to spend $200 on a Vancouver Canucks game to come to see us instead,” Friebe said. “I guarantee you you’ll have a better time here.”
He added, “Sometimes we get people complaining that our prices are too much but compared to what? Where else can you get a three-course dinner and a show and have the best 4.5 hours?”
In general, they pull their audience from the east: the Fraser Valley. Their guests are mostly in their 40s and 50s, parents with independent children who need a night out and a good laugh, Sharma said.
And because they steer away from political satire and heavy topics, they get plenty of repeat customers. “Our fans are like AC/DC fans. We have them for life,” Lovell joked.
Added Sharma, “We do theatre for people who hate theatre. That’s our motto.”
Sharma is the one who writes and directs the sketch routines. This season is centred on “Hooray for Hollywood: Spoofing the Silver Screen” — with a menu to match from chef Pieter J Van Meenen.
Next month, they’ll have a Men vs Women theme — always a favourite with the stagette parties.
“Victims” are brought on stage every night — audience members handpicked by Friebe, Sharma and Lovell during the meet-and-greet at 6:30 p.m. (they make it a policy not to pull guests on stage who are shy).
And there are plenty of touching moments that follow.
Lovell cited the example of a 93-year-old woman who was escorted to the front for her birthday surprise. Afterward, a 6’8” “biker dude” in the front row with his girlfriend embraced the senior. “It was wonderful and inspiring,” Lovell said. “Where else could you see that happen?”
There have also been countless emails to The Giggle Dam staff, thanking them for lightening their mood in tough times. The positive feedback is what keeps them going, Lovell said. “We are so blessed to do what we do because we have the ability to have that kind of effect on people’s lives.”
Asked where they see the business in five years, the trio fall silent. “That’s more of a question than anything else right now,” Sharma said. “How much longer can we do this?”
“A big part of the business is the attitude from the top down,” Lovell said. “People sense that we care about this place and about each other…. What we do is not a job. It’s a lifestyle that we want to keep for as long as we are able to.”
jcleugh@tricitynews.com
