Laughing Skull Lounge

Laughing Skull Lounge is small on purpose. With about 74 seats, it's intimate enough that the energy never leaks out the way it can in bigger clubs, and every seat puts you close to the action. It runs both emerging local comics and touring national acts, so on any given night you might be watching someone's first real road set or someone who's about to blow up.

Shows go most nights of the week, with the strongest national bookings usually landing on weekends. This is the room for catching comedians on their way up, before the prices climb and the venues get cavernous. Come for the lineup, stay for the proximity.

The best part: the lounge lives inside The Vortex on Peachtree Street in Midtown, the burger joint that's won best-in-Atlanta arguments since 1992 and got the Man v. Food treatment for its over-the-top burgers. Eat first, laugh second. That's the recipe. Get a burger, grab a drink, then file into the little room and watch someone test brand-new material a few feet from your table. On a good night you'll catch a comic right before everyone else figures out who they are. See the upcoming lineup on Evil Tickets and grab your tickets.