Meet Collin Ruegg of Atlanta

Today we’d like to introduce you to Collin Ruegg.

Hi Collin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I got my start in stand-up in July 2022, in my college town of Lexington, Kentucky. A coworker had been on me for a while telling me I should try it. He eventually stood over my shoulder while I signed up for an open mic at Comedy Off Broadway, which was Lexington’s only comedy club at the time. I’ll be honest, I had actually signed up two months before that and got cold feet. But I finally got the courage to go through with it in July, and the coworker who pushed me the hardest didn’t even show up the night I performed. I had about 20 friends in the crowd though, and that was more than enough. That night got me.
For the next year or so I was doing open mics on and off because I was coaching high school lacrosse, which took up most of my time and energy. When the 2023 season ended, I made the decision to leave coaching behind and really give comedy a legitimate shot. Best decision I’ve made.
By fall 2024 I started noticing that Lexington’s comedy scene was growing but there was no real structure or community holding it together. I’d seen what cities like Cincinnati and Louisville had built and couldn’t figure out why Lexington didn’t have the same thing, so I decided to build it. I started an Instagram page called Lex Comedy Hub to centralize open mic schedules and show info for the city, and it took off. That eventually evolved into Wildcat Comedy Co., my first company, which produced two weekly open mics and two monthly booked shows. Over the course of 2025, Wildcat grew into a genuine staple of the regional comedy scene.
That fall I felt like I had taken it as far as I could in Lexington and was ready for something bigger. I relocated to Atlanta, closed the chapter on Wildcat, which felt right, and founded Zero2Funny. The whole point was to take what I learned running Wildcat and build something more intentional, more scalable, and designed to operate beyond just wherever I was living.
Zero2Funny is focused on comedy promotion, event management, and production, and the growth has been genuinely more than I expected this fast. I’ve worked with comedians from all over the country, including legends like Myra J, Tommy Davidson, Alex Thomas, and George Wallace. I’ve co-produced shows at City Winery and multiple comedy clubs, and I started 2026 partnering with the management of the Culture Therapy Comedy Tour, three comedians from different backgrounds and cultures sharing their stories across five states so far. My performance career has grown alongside the business. I’ve been traveling consistently for stage time and was selected as a top 40 comic in the 2026 World Series of Comedy Atlanta satellite competition, where I won first place in the Wildcard Round. This spring I started working with several comedy production companies, and multi-state show runs kick off in May.
Four years in and it genuinely feels like the foundation is just now being laid

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
There have definitely been some real struggles along the way. The biggest one was relocating. I had built a solid following and a real community in Lexington, and walking away from that was genuinely tough. But honestly, my time in the comedy scene there had a ceiling, and I knew I had reached it. Moving to Atlanta was the right call.
Atlanta has been more supportive than I expected, and a big part of that is just the caliber of people here. A lot more comics in this city are serious about it, and that energy is contagious and motivating. But it was not easy to break into. I was grinding open mics constantly, sacrificing sleep, putting in the time to build relationships and earn my spot in a scene that didn’t know me yet. It was worth every bit of it, because now I’m getting booked and running shows here, but I won’t pretend it wasn’t a grind.
The other major challenge was rebuilding Zero2Funny from scratch. When I started Wildcat Comedy Co. in Lexington, it took off fast because it was rooted in a local community that rallied around it. Zero2Funny is a different animal. My brand is national, I’m not tied to one city, and it’s a lot harder to build a reputation when you don’t have that immediate local foundation to lean on. You’re essentially asking people to trust you based on your track record somewhere else. That required patience, consistency, and just putting in the work until the results spoke for themselves. And they have. It’s still growing, but the foundation is there now.

As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
The name Zero2Funny actually comes from my time in Lexington. People would always tell me I hit the ground running, that I went from zero to funny like a fast car going zero to sixty. That stuck, and it became the foundation of the brand.
What I do breaks down into what I call the three P’s: promotion, production, and performing. On the business side, Zero2Funny is what I like to call a one stop comedy shop. I run digital ad campaigns, handle social media strategy, create show flyers and digital artwork, edit video and comedy clips, and help comedians and venues build a real presence online. The whole goal is simple: get your funny in front of people who want to laugh.
What I’m probably most known for right now is the range. Zero2Funny doesn’t really live in one lane of comedy. I’ve worked with comics just getting started at open mics, and I’ve also worked with legends with thirty or forty years in the game, bigger cities, larger budgets, all of it. That range is something I’m genuinely proud of because it speaks to adaptability, which I think is one of my biggest strengths.
I’m also not in this purely for the money. If I was, I definitely wouldn’t be in comedy. But in all seriousness, comedy is a real art form, and sometimes the budget just isn’t there, especially when someone is just getting off the ground. I do my best to work with people in a way that benefits both of us, because at the end of the day I’m in this to help bring laughter to people who need it. And right now, God knows we all need it.
That adaptability, the ability to work at any level, with any budget, in any market, is really what sets me apart.

How do you think about happiness?
Simple answer: laughter. But more specifically, it’s what laughter does for other people that really drives me.
We live in a world where it feels like every day something more devastating or more negative than yesterday is fighting for our attention. And what makes me genuinely happy is knowing that for ten to fifteen minutes, or however long I’m on that stage, I can give someone a break from all of that. Just a moment where none of it matters and they can laugh and breathe and remember that life may be serious, but happiness is just as serious too.
Laughter is contagious, and I think that’s what makes comedy so powerful. It’s one of the few things that can walk into a room full of strangers and make everyone feel the same thing at the same time. I feel a real sense of privilege being someone who gets to be that voice. The person people are laughing at, laughing with, whatever it takes. As long as they’re laughing.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://Zero2funnycomedy.com
• Instagram: @collinruegg @zero2funnycomedy
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/zero2funnycomedy
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@zero2funnycomedy?si=kbY1M1HvP0sL56kh

Image Credits
@thecomedyphotographer, Sam Spitalny