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Little Mountain Gallery has survived raccoons, sewage smells, demolition, and infamously frustrating permitting, making celebrating a decade as a non-profit feel like an especially hard-earned milestone.
The comedian-run organization officially incorporated in 2016, committing itself entirely to comedy. Since then, it has grown from a scrappy room in Mount Pleasant into a full-time Gastown venue hosting as many as 24 shows a week.
Little Mountain Gallery began as an arts space in 2001 inside a 1930s automotive garage. Artist Ehren Salazar established it as an artist collective in 2006, before comedian Ryan Beil began expanding the comedy programming in 2013.
By the time LMG became a non-profit, the room had become a reliable home for the local independent comedy scene, even if the space itself could be a little rough around the edges. (Author’s note: I distinctly remember attending a show where the place smelled like it had been freshly painted about five minutes earlier, with seemingly nowhere for the fumes to go.)
Audiences kept coming anyway.
The venue hosted thousands of performances and picked up Best Room at the Vancouver Comedy Awards before the building was demolished at the end of 2021 to make way for new housing. Very Vancouver.
After roughly two years of permits, planning, and presumably several deeply unfunny emails, LMG reopened at 110 Water Street in Gastown in April 2024. A few months later, readers named it Best Comedy Club in the Straight’s 2024 Best of Vancouver awards.
The scale has changed considerably since its all-volunteer days. LMG now runs programming Tuesday through Sunday, with up to 24 shows appearing on the calendar in a single week.
More importantly, that growth is putting money into comedians’ pockets. As of the end of August, LMG says it has moved $142,481 to artists in 2026.
“Over the last decade LMG has seen hundreds of comedians across our stage, with many of them going on to become successful here and across the world,” shares executive director Brent Constantine in a release. “We’re excited to continue to grow comedy in the city and across the country with our unique, comedy community focused model.”
Ten years in, LMG remains entirely community-programmed and managed. In a city where arts spaces can disappear seemingly overnight, sticking around this long is no small punchline.