A comedy bus wants to take people around Newport. One councilor says it's no laughing matter

Members of Newport City Council are pushing back against the presence of a comedy tour bus that hopes to bring its business to Newport this summer.

“They act like there’s some kind of public conveyance that people can get around downtown and all, no, it's for them to make money, period, end of story, and all these people that, you know, you go out and have a cookout in your yard or something, and they can’t enjoy their family out there without a bus going by and narrating god knows what, so that’s what its about,” Councilor Jeanne Marie Napolitano said.

Comedy Bus City Tours, going under the business name Comedy Bus LLC, currently operates its 90-minute bus tours around Providence. The usual tours start at Brass Monkey Bar and Grill and make one short stop at a local restaurant or brewery. Guests can bring alcohol, although not hard liquor, onto the bus and sip while listening to a local comic acting as the tour guide. The company also hosts brunch tours, which stop at two restaurants, and private tours.

It applied for an addition to its current jitney license from the state Division of Public Utilities and Water Carriers to start offering tours in Newport, although the hearing on the license for May 9 was rescheduled. Due to this schedule change, Napolitano withdrew the resolution opposing the comedy bus tour from the council’s May 8 meeting agenda.

Although Napolitano’s resolution was withdrawn, she plans on bringing it back to the council docket with stronger language recommended by City Solicitor Christopher Behan.

The original resolution noted the company would have to request both an entertainment license and liquor license from the City of Newport before it begins operations. It also noted that the city has an ordinance on the books explicitly against “pub crawls,” which the code defines as the organized, commercial travel of a large group of individuals for which the primary purpose is to consume alcohol at more than one premises.

It stems from an incident in May 2004, although the resolution stated it was in 2002, where a fight between a Fairfield University student and a University of Rhode Island student attending a pub crawl ended with the Fairfield student falling backward, getting crushed underneath the wheels of the bus carrying the students around on their pub crawl tour.

Napolitano had been the councilor to introduce that ordinance banning pub crawls back then.

Beyond her general objections to the idea of a bus tour pub crawl, Napolitano also has concerns over the noise generated by the comedy bus tour. The buses Comedy Bus LLC uses for its tours are old school buses that have had the windows removed and replaced with clear vinyl siding that can be opened. With the addition of the comedian using a microphone, and the company’s promise of R-rated shows, Napolitano said she was concerned about how the tour might impact local residents.

“Can you imagine somebody standing around with their kids and all of a sudden hear ‘F this’ or something,” Napolitano said. “That doesn’t work for me or anybody else.”

She noted that, although she was concerned about R-rated material being heard by passersby, she did not include it as a part of the resolution language, because the material would be free speech protected by the First Amendment.

The new resolution, which she provided to the Newport Daily News, focuses on the possible noise issues instead, highlighting that the proposed bus routes snake through a couple of residential streets in the city and that could pose noise issues for those residents.

The resolution also objects to the jitney license on the grounds that it neither addresses the needs of the public nor serves a public convenience. One of the requirements for a jitney license is that the applicant prove the public convenience and necessity of a new jitney service.

After multiple attempts, the Newport Daily News was unable to reach Comedy Bus LLC for comment at the time of reporting.