Legendary comedian and former Los Angeles resident Steve Hofstetter now calls Pittsburgh home — and he’s starting his second purchase of a local church.
Hofstetter was the host and executive producer of season one of “Laughs” on FOX and appeared on “The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson.” His previous experience buying churches in Pittsburgh came when he began building one to house the nonprofit Steel City Arts Foundation in Stanton Heights in 2020. In late December of that year, he announced that he would be moving from in Los Angeles to Pittsburgh.
Hofstetter’s latest venture involves turning a former church into a comedy club and film production studio, even though it hasn’t been a house of worship in about 30 years. The commercially zoned building Hofstetter purchased was the former Melwood Party Center located at 3312 Babcock Blvd. in Ross, about five minutes southwest of Ross Park mall. The purchase deal is set to close on March 30 and Hofstetter said he plans to start construction that afternoon.
His plans include turning the former chapel into a 200- to 300-seat performance space for comedy, theater, music and special events. Hoffstetter also plans to use the 20,000 square feet of studio space to produce films.
“I started looking around for places where we could shoot easily. I found this space and it’s great because it allows for live events and filming and it also has a recording studio,” said Hofstetter.
“There’s an area currently being used for storage that we’re going to turn into a workshop, and that’s where the sets will be built,” he said. “And then the sets will be used in the former chapel. The cool part is that the sets are not very three-dimensional. It’s almost a back wall, and so we can move around and when we do shows and live events, you can be sitting there watching from the barber shop or the bar or the living room, etc. . be ever-changing and unique.”
His latest project is a for-profit venture that he believes will benefit his fellow comedians.
“That’s the hope and not just a joke,” Hofstetter said. “That’s the world I specialize in. That’s the world I know. The chapel will be beautiful. It could be spoken word or music or weddings or all kinds of events. It will be a cool vibe and something that people will really enjoy. ”
Hofstetter said he also sees this place as an incubator for performers.
“The way the chapel is set up, the stage itself is so big that it has a curtain to separate it (and) the stage becomes a small performance area,” Hofstetter said. “And so, if you don’t use the whole room, you cover the stage and then that seats 30 to 40 people. And so, we can have open mics, we can have small shows. This like a black box inside a theater.”
Hofstetter said he plans to bring in some big-name comics, which will create opportunities for local comedians to open for them.
In keeping with the humorous motif, he even plans to have a piece called the “Sunken Bus” as part of the decor — a tribute to the public transit bus that fell into a sinkhole in Downtown Pittsburgh during rush hour on Monday. in the morning of 2019.
“The thing I’ve enjoyed the most since I moved here is how proud Pittsburghers are,” Hofstetter said. “Whatever happens here, good or bad, this is our city. That was something I had never experienced before. I grew up in New York. I live in LA You don’t feel there. And so I really want to give a cap tip to that. ”
The target date for the Ross space is to open sometime this summer, according to Hofstetter.
“We want to make it a fun place.”
