We always love hearing about stand-up comedy striving in areas where there is little to no mainstream scene to speak of. The Buffalo News ran a cover piece following the story of eight year veteran Kristen Becker and her group of comedy underlings: Mark Walton, Rick Matthews and Chet Wild. While Buffalo has only one comedy club in town, Rob’s Comedy Playhouse (a club ran out of  the back banquet room of a restaurant and only runs shows on Saturday nights), local comics have to work together and think creatively if they want to survive.

“We’re just going into bars and saying, ‘Hey, this is what we do and if you give us a shot, we think you’ll like it,’ ” Kristen Becker told the Bufalo News.

Becker hosts the area’s longest running comedy room, “The Doin’ Time Comedy Showcase” at Nietzsche’s in Allentown and since Buffalo has been lacking a free open mic room for up-and-comers to work on comedy, the previously mentioned comics are starting “Rust Belt Comedy Presents: Open Mic Comedy Night at Merge” to offer free stage time for Buffalo comics to work on their craft. Wild, who got his start after taking a comedy class Becker advertised on Craigslist, started the Rust Belt Comedy troupe, which caters to college audiences and tours campuses along the Rust Belt during the school year.

“We did four shows this spring.” said Wild. “I’d like to do six to eight college shows this fall, and then if we can do more next spring, the better.”

For information about this striving local stand-up scene, visit buffalocomedy.com, a site created by both Becker and Wild.