Photo appears via @sprtsdrink Instagram

Toledano Street Gets the Last Laugh, Thanks to SPORTS DRINK and Andrew Stephens

When Andrew Stephens moved to New Orleans five years ago from Baton Rouge, he didn’t anticipate building one of the city’s fastest-growing comedy destinations. But in the wake of COVID-19, as the local comedy scene shifted and venues changed hands or shut down, he saw an opening and took it.

“We envisioned the space to be more heavily reliant on coffee and other ancillary events when building the space out,” Stephens explains. “But New Orleans’ comedy scene was in a bit of a transitional period post-COVID with venues & showrunners closing/changing hands. It left an opportunity to bring in some folks we had known from across the country through other media projects (TV, film, podcasting, etc) to New Orleans for comedy.”

That space became SPORTS DRINK, a café and comedy club located on Toledano Street. It officially opened its brick-and-mortar location in May 2023 and shares its daytime identity with Junk Drawer Coffee. However, after a year of partnership, SPORTS DRINK purchased the coffee operation and rebranded the full experience as SPORTS DRINK: Café & Comedy Club.

Originally a podcast network called Armchair Media, the brand focused on the intersection of sports and comedy before evolving into a live performance venue. Now, the New Orleans iteration runs daytime café service from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. and transforms into a nightly events space after dark.

“We are open everyday from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. as a traditional cafe,” Stephens says. “Then we reopen at 7 p.m. every night for events. Comedy is Thursday through Sunday with local showcases on Thursdays/Sundays and nationally touring headliners on Fridays and Saturdays. Then Monday is BADTV (a reality TV watch party), Tuesday is Community Night (sandwich making for food insecure members of community) and Wednesday is Trivia (scratch off lottery tickets to the winners).”

Just six months after launching weekly comedy shows, SPORTS DRINK was voted “Best Place to See Comedy” by NOLA.com, and 2025 is set to bring more than 300 nighttime events—over 200 of which will be live comedy.

Two weeks ago, Stephens and his team launched the first-ever Toledano Street Festival, a new kind of comedy event that emphasized proximity, community and collaboration. In a city that is steeped in tradition and families that go way back, drawing a crowd for that kind of party might seem daunting.

“Every comedy festival that has been produced in the city has had to rely on venues scattered about town,” Stephens states. “This results in performers not getting to see friends as much, audiences having to choose between shows and venues left with more seats than they’d like because of so many constantly in transit.”

Rather than spread the festival across the city, SPORTS DRINK worked with neighboring businesses to keep everything within a walkable radius. “With the luxury of utilizing our neighbors businesses as venues, we were able to ensure that the priority of the festival was the comedy and the community,” he explains. “For all this city has working against it, its community, its people, and its culture constantly shine through. We wanted to do our best to utilize an underrepresented local art form to bring people together for a weekend.”

The event was a success with patrons spilling out into the streets and staples of New Orleans cultural events, like the Baby Dolls, were on hand to usher in a late spring event much needed in the Central City district. Local comedian Marcus Bond emceed some of the most sought after events, showcasing some of the best humor the city has to offer.

For Stephens, building up New Orleans’ comedy infrastructure is about more than just laughs. It’s about nurturing a cultural ecosystem.

“New Orleans is the funniest city on earth,” he says confidently. “Therefore, New Orleans comedians are the funniest on earth.”

And growing that scene, he believes, requires an audience that shows up and gets involved. “Comedy is a communal artform,” he says, “so the more you’re able to support…the more confidence the performers have, the more communal the laughter feels and the more the scene is able to grow.”

 

SPORTS DRINK operates as a café daily from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. In the evenings, it transforms into an event space with a full weekly lineup. Comedy shows run Thursday through Sunday, featuring local showcases on Thursdays and Sundays, and nationally touring headliners on Fridays and Saturdays. Mondays are reserved for BADTV, a reality TV watch party, while Tuesdays host Community Night, where volunteers make sandwiches for food-insecure neighbors. Wednesdays wrap up the week with Trivia Night, where winners receive scratch-off lottery tickets. For more information, visit their site here.  

Follow Toledano Street Comedy Festival, SPORTS DRINK and Marcus Bond via Instagram.