Nightlife in Colonial Heights

At ComedySportz Improv Theatre, audience suggestions keep a family-friendly and fast-paced vortex of scenes, games, and songs spinning in competitive shows that pit two improv teams against each other. Inside the intimate, 100-seat theater, spontaneity rules as a referee moderates the all-ages-appropriate hilarity pitched between the Richmond Legends and Virginia Hams. At the end of each comedic duel, the audience votes for the winning team, sentencing the losers to feed the doves that live inside the winners' top hats. ComedySportz's laugh-masters also host regular workshops to teach aspiring yuksters the art of improvised hilarity and the essential virtues of spontaneity, risk taking, and engagement with the moment. Through scene work, ComedySportz games, and short- and long-form improv, students learn to keep audiences roaring in order to jump-start a career or become a more affable bank robber.

Amid the hum of live entertainment and sleek leather couches, classic American and continental dishes doused in dressings such as spicy garlic, key-lime barbecue, and sweet teriyaki sauce or cucumber-dill aioli convene with more than 85 martinis, beer, and wine. The drinks clink beneath strings of colorful lights, rustic barrel arches, and six 48-inch plasma TVs glimmering with sports games. Six nights a week, guests can raise their glasses to live entertainment ranging from local musicians to line-dancing lessons, all of which offer them a reprieve from lackluster evenings of playing checkers against their goldfish.

Handcrafted mahogany woodwork bolsters the authenticity of this traditional Irish pub, which specializes in heaping portions of shepherd's pie, bangers 'n' mash, and fish ’n’ chips. Friendly servers don kilt-like plaid skirts before they waltz through the dining room, delivering plates of boxty and pints of more than a dozen draft beers from the full bar. Each night, a live-music act regales patrons with songs so catchy they're under investigation by the CDC.