First-of-its-kind downtown Manteca business seems too funny to be true — and it’s hiring

What was once a baby shop in downtown Manteca is transforming into a comedy club for adults on weekend nights.

But that’s not all Deaf Puppy Comedy Club owner Chris Teicheira has planned for the Main Street site. During the week and daytime hours of the weekend, the club will have a different vibe as a bar and grill.

“People shouldn’t have to travel to the Bay Area for good entertainment,” Teicheira said. “We have it right here.”

Here’s when the club plans its grand opening, and how to apply for open positions:

When will Manteca’s comedy club open?

While the inside of the comedy club remains under construction, the outside of the building is hard to miss with its myriad of murals.

The city of Manteca paid for the murals, which were painted by San Francisco graffiti artist Cameron Moberg. Some of the murals are designed to be backdrops for selfies.

Teicheira said he’s transforming an area in the back of the building, which now serves as a parking lot, into a fenced-in cocktail patio so guests can enjoy the murals and fresh air.

Manteca is the best location for the club, Teicheira said, because he’s from the town and it’s centralized.

“We’re 15 to 20 minutes from Modesto, Stockton, Tracy,” he said. “ If you do one in Modesto, people from Stockton or Tracy are just as likely to go to the Bay Area or Sacramento.”

Teicheira bought the building about a year and a half ago, but turning a baby store into a restaurant and club has been no easy or quick feat.

The site needed gas lines, air conditioning, new lighting and a lot more work to make it kitchen- and comedy-ready.

“We basically tore the thing apart just to build it back from the ground up,“ Teicheira said. “In a perfect world, I’m trying to have a grand opening on Thanksgiving weekend.”

Stand-up comedians will take the stage Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. On Sundays, the club will host a showcase.

“(A showcase is) not quite an open mic because we’re gonna hand pick who’s going up,” Teicheira said. “I’ll lower the ticket price on a Sunday.”

Comedy shows will be limited to people 18 years and older, but Deaf Puppy otherwise will be a family-friendly place.

When the site is operating as a bar and grill, it will have a more expansive menu. During comedy shows, Teicheira said there will be a quicker service with only 10 to 12 items.

Teicheira has other big ideas for the club, including a partnership with the animal shelter to bring in adoptable pets, daytime weekend art exhibits for high school students, and live music shows.

“I want to make it more than just a comedy club, but it’s definitely rooted in comedy,” he said. “We’re just gonna see what it becomes.”

Teicheira is looking to hire 16 to 20 employees including bartenders, wait staff and kitchen staff. Those interested should email cateicheira@hotmail.com.

Why ‘Deaf Puppy’?

The idea of a Manteca comedy club started with a shadow-boxing kid, a group of funny friends and a deaf Australian cattle dog named Banshee.

At a talent show at Van Allen Elementary School in Escalon, Teicheira realized his love for comedy.

“This little kid went up and he just started shadow boxing,” he said. “I thought it was the funniest thing on earth and nobody was laughing. I think the teacher thought I was laughing at him.”

Fast forward a few years or so, Teicheira was bartending at Banana Joe’s in Modesto during an open-mic night when he had an idea about what he wanted to do. He later met another comedian at a different open-mic night, and the two started building a dream team to travel to open-mic nights together.

“He just started plucking people in comedy, started finding like-minded people,” Teicheira said.

Eventually, the group expanded to five, and Teicheira added a dog to it in 2015.

One of his friends made a T-shirt of Banshee, a San Francisco bar manager referred to Teicheira as “the deaf puppy guy,” and it all “spiraled from there” with all of the group members sporting the deaf puppy logo.

“(Some other comedians) are like, ‘Dude, that’s so lame. You guys gave yourself your own nickname,’” Teicheira said. “And I’m like, ‘No, I bought a dog.’”

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