Photo: Johnny Nunez/WireImage/Getty Images
Hannibal Buress is opening up a new venue called Isola Brooklyn in the former home of the Knitting Factory on Metropolitan Avenue in Williamsburg. The Knitting Factory, where Buress used to regularly perform, closed in 2022 after facing a 75 percent rent increase. “Good luck to whoever wants to take the space,” Morgan Margolis, the Knitting Factory’s CEO said at the time. (They relocated to Manhattan, occupying what was once the Pyramid Club on Avenue A in a collaboration with Baby’s All Right called Night Club 101.)
Maybe Buress got a deal on the rent, or maybe he’s just that flush, but it’s nice that the old Knitting Factory will remain a performance space rather than becoming like a second Aesop or something. The opening is scheduled for March 9, with a performance from Buress (makes sense) and “surprise special guests.”
Perhaps like Pete Davidson and Colin Jost before him, he thought opening a venue would be easier. “Getting this venue open took way longer than I thought and it was more expensive than I imagined,” Buress told Brooklyn Vegan. “I’m excited to move past the construction phase and get to putting on events.” (At least this one is on land.)
What to expect from Isola? There’s not too much information out there yet but there will be weekly comedy nights. Buress teased Isola over the summer in an Instagram post where he scrolled through the website, making fun of his own copy. “Echoes of the past, sounds of the future — I think we got that from ChatGPT.”