Tampa Comedian Lost Everything In House Fire, Comedy Benefit Show Set

TAMPA, FL — Tampa Bay-area comedians are rallying around one of their own, who lost everything he owns in a fire earlier this month.

They’re hosting a Sunday benefit show at 5 p.m. at Side Splitters Comedy Club in Tampa to help stand-up comic Clark Brooks get back on his feet. All proceeds from tickets will be given to him.

Those unable to attend can also support him through a GoFundMe fundraising page set up for him.

Brooks, who has been performing comedy in the region for 11 years, considers Side Splitters his home club. He also writes for the satire news site Tampa News Force.

The Dec. 7 electrical fire and the water used to put it out that night destroyed his West Tampa home and most of his belongings.

“I'm at the point where mentally I'm accepting that I lost all of it,” Brooks told Patch.

He smelled smoke when he got home around 9 p.m. that night.

“I smelled something weird like something might be burning,” he said. “I went all over the house with a flashlight, all corners, everywhere, but I couldn’t find anything. No smoke or evidence of a fire. I thought something might be going on outside and went to bed.”

Around midnight, Brooks heard his neighbor yelling outside his bedroom window: “Clark, get up! Your house is on fire!”

Tampa Fire Rescue responded quickly and controlled the fire, which was limited to a small section of the house.

He got out of the home safely and his outdoor cats, Stripes and Junior Mint, were smart enough to leave the property that night, returning to his neighbor’s home the next morning, he said.

First responders determined there was a wiring issue that caused the fire.

“It’s a kind of old house, built in 1946,” Brooks said, “It’s not a case of negligence … They said it could have happened 20 years ago; it could have happened 20 years from now. It just happened to have happened that night.”

Though the fire was small, “it’s the water damage that is a big problem,” he said. “I went to the house the next day to salvage stuff and looking around, it was just, yeah, I don’t think this stuff is salvageable. All the ceilings are down, and the water made them crumble and turn into whatever that stuff is made out of and it’s all over the place.”

Brooks is currently living at a hotel waiting on reports from investigators and insurance so he can make his next move.

“I’m kind of a bystander. I haven’t heard anything at this point. It’s a process and right now I just kind of have to sit back and observe and wait,” he said. “Maybe the structure of my house is still sound and it can be repaired or maybe it will have to be rebuilt.”

Since the fire, Brooks has experienced a rollercoaster of emotions over the loss.

“I have good and bad days,” he said. “The fact of the matter is there is very little of it that I can control. It doesn’t serve a purpose to get upset about it … It’s not productive for me to devote energy to it if I can’t affect any change to it.”

Brooks added, “There are days when I’m more ok with that than others.”

In the meantime, he’s appreciative of the support he’s received from friends and the local comedy community.

“It’s super humbling and super flattering,” he said. “I keep equating it to Tom Sayer’s funeral. I didn’t even know some of these people knew me, let alone liked me. You don’t know that until something like this happens and people step up. I almost feel spoiled in that regard.”