“I was always into creative writing and especially writing song lyrics,” Speyrer said. “I don’t really have rhythm though.”
While in college Speyrer took a small group communications class and had his first exposure to making people laugh.
“It went really well I thought,” Speyrer said.
After he started to feel more comfortable presenting in front of audiences, he applied for an internship with the American Red Cross and travelled around to local schools, pitching the organization’s summer programming.
“Public speaking is one of the biggest fears people have,” Speyrer said. “I have it too.”
After he took his last exam in college, Speyrer was given a ticket to attend an open mic night at Joker’s Comedy Club in Dayton. It was 1989 and he was already thinking about doing comedy himself.
“I was of course afraid I’d be horrible,” Speyrer said. “But I watched that first open mic and then signed up for the following week.”
After that, he “hung out” at local comedy clubs, including Joker’s, and other “funny people” who turned out to be some of the most famous comics in the world.
Speyrer’s father, Jim, and his family owned six Instaprint locations in Dayton and so no matter what happened, he always had a job with the family business. But eventually, he had a strong urge to try to take his comedy on the road.
But that didn’t come without a few false starts.
“I remember the first time I performed at Wright State at the Rathskeller,” Speyrer said. “I wore my suit and tie, and I was so nervous that I fell apart. It can be a very humbling experience.”
Between performing at both Joker’s and Wiley’s, Speyrer’s comedy got a great start. And within five hours from Dayton, there were many small towns that had comedy clubs.
Eventually Speyrer met an agent in Louisville who booked him regularly, giving him work about 15-20 weeks annually. He travelled to college towns, worked every day, and then went back to comedy clubs on the weekends. The stage time gave him the confidence he needed to continue to improve his act.
“One blessing was hanging out at the clubs when I wasn’t working,” Speyrer said. “I got to work at Funny Bones all over the place. At my peak, I was doing about 40 weeks a year on the road.”
Speyrer continued his “road comic” life from 1992-2003. Then he met another comedian named John “Dr. Gonzo” Means who was from a small town in Illinois called Mason City. Means and Speyrer had already worked together for years and with Mason City just five hours drive from Dayton, it was easy for Speyrer to make the trip.
“I was in the town and Gonzo was building several restaurants to make a difference in the downtown area of his hometown,” Speyrer said.
Means asked Speyrer if he was interested in buying the abandoned building next to the steak restaurant and turning it into a comedy club. Speyrer knew it would take a lot of work to fix up this 1870 era building.
“He was getting a really good crowd at the steak house and some people were driving an hour or more,” Speyrer said. “I figured ‘why not?’”
Speyrer opened his club — Mason City Limits — in 2006. His reputation of being involved with some of the biggest names in comedy over the years including Dave Chappelle, Ron White, Elaine Boosler, Jim Gaffigan and Jeff Foxworth, helped promote his club.
“Between Gonzo and I, we knew most of the Midwest and the West comics,” Speyrer said. “And Gonzo marketed the club by handing out flyers to his dinner guests.”
His club did very well until Means decided to close the restaurant after the prices of beef skyrocketed. Speyrer also suffered like many businesses during the COVID 19 pandemic shutdown.
“We had to build the business back up and there were no more restaurants beside me,” Speyrer said. “I survived because I didn’t have a mortgage payment nor employees to pay.”
Today Speyrer lives above his club in the same location in Mason City, still working at building the business. He returns home to Dayton several times a year and even performs at Wiley’s from time to time.
“It’s amazing that Dayton had so many full-time comedy clubs for a town its size,” Speyrer said. “It was a great time to start when I did and easier to get on stage more. I can’t say I’ve ever gotten over my nervousness about getting on stage. I just walk around a lot before I do it.”
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