‘Behind closed doors’: Former Comedy Attic employees, comedians allege pattern of manipulation from owner

Editor's note: This story includes references of a sexual nature. Of the ten former Comedy Attic employees, comedians and regulars who alleged a pattern of inappropriate behavior, six are named, one is anonymous and three others shared statements corroborating the claims but are not mentioned. The anonymous source was granted confidentiality because of concerns about damage to her career and reputation. Chey Navarro asked to use her maiden name to protect her husband from being identified.

Jared Thompson, 47, has long been a central figure in Bloomington’s comedy scene. As co-owner of the Comedy Attic and co-founder of the Limestone Comedy Festival, he’s hosted some of the biggest names in stand-up, including John Mulaney, Patton Oswalt and Nikki Glaser.

Now, his role at the club – and in the broader comedy community – appears to be in flux.

During a contentious group phone call Jan. 22, several Comedy Attic employees and comics aired grievances against Thompson, alleging he used his position of power to engage in inappropriate behavior and manipulation with several women throughout his 17-year ownership. Many of the participants on the call have since cut ties with Thompson and the club.

On Feb. 26, Comedy Attic booking agent Mat Alano-Martin sent a text message to club employees saying Thompson stepped down from the Comedy Attic and the Limestone Comedy Festival. Though the reason for his resignation is unclear, it comes amid the claims of misconduct surfacing locally.

However, in a statement to the Indiana Daily Student, Dayna Thompson, Jared’s wife and co-owner of the club, said Alano-Martin’s text is inaccurate.

“Jared did not resign from the Comedy Attic,” Dayna wrote in an email to the IDS on April 11. “We decided to have me (Dayna) take a more public role in hopes of members of the group call returning to the club.”

The IDS reached out to Jared and Dayna on March 27, which began four weeks of communication via email to gather the Thompsons’ responses to the allegations. After missing two scheduled in-person interviews, a lawyer contacted the IDS on behalf of the Comedy Attic on April 1. Dayna has since sent four emails denying allegations and alleging that some of Jared’s accusers have ulterior motives. Though the emails are signed by both Dayna and Jared, all statements regarding allegations have come from Dayna’s email address. Their lawyer reached out to the IDS several times in addition to contacting IU General Counsel and administrators within the Media School. Jared replied once, although he didn’t respond to any specific allegations in his email.

“One thing I’m certain that I have NEVER done is made advances or acted inappropriately toward a single member of the staff or the several thousand comedians who have performed at The Comedy Attic these past 17 years,” Jared Thompson wrote in an email to the IDS on April 20.

Nine former employees and one person close to the club told the IDS that Jared Thompson allegedly targeted and manipulated numerous women, many of whom were nearly 20 years younger than him. One of the two women the IDS spoke to who claimed Jared targeted them asked to be anonymous for fear of harming her career; however, former employees who spoke with the IDS allege there are at least four more women with whom Thompson exhibited inappropriate behavior.

Chey Navarro, 30, is one of the women who alleges she was subjected to Thompson’s sexual misconduct.

•••

In 2022, Navarro and her husband began working at the Comedy Attic. Her husband, who requested to remain anonymous for fear of harming his comedy career, was a regular performer, while Navarro served as the club’s operations manager.

From her first day on the job, Navarro alleges Thompson used his position to create opportunities to be alone with her, often making intrusive comments about her personal life, sex life and marriage.

Navarro and her husband are expecting their first child this year. She said Thompson even asked about her sex life during pregnancy.

“He said, ‘As your belly gets bigger, you’re going to have to change up your sex positions,’” Navarro said. “And then he would say, ‘Your boobs are going to get bigger.’”

Though Navarro said she set clear boundaries on numerous occasions, she alleged Jared Thompson dismissed her concerns and continued his unwanted advances in private or over the phone, Navarro said — leaving little to no physical evidence.

“From the get-go, I was very adamant that this was not okay,” Navarro said. “I don’t want to talk about this. You’re my boss, this isn’t appropriate.”

Dayna Thompson has insisted in her four separate emails that Navarro’s claims are false.

“No “advances” were made towards the female manager (Chey). None,” Dayna Thompson wrote in her email to the IDS on April 11. “We have never received feedback from anyone that they have felt “harassed” by us. The first notice we received of concern was the contact by the IDS.”

Navarro said she never addressed her concerns to Dayna Thompson, but she did on numerous occasions to Jared Thompson.

“In person, I addressed Jared’s harassment directly to him continually throughout my employment and he did not stop,” she wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “I was uncomfortable to address these concerns with Dayna, who he told me he hid things from. I did not feel safe going to the wife of a man who had power over me.”

In the April 11 email, Dayna Thompson claimed Navarro and Jared Thompson had a friendly relationship. As evidence, she provided a screenshot of Navarro reaching out to her on Facebook on Jared’s birthday June 27, 2024. Navarro asked what dessert she should buy at the store to bring to the club for him.

“This does not sound like the behavior of someone who felt they were being targeted, abused, sexually harassed or made uncomfortable by Jared,” Dayna Thompson wrote in the email.

Navarro said it doesn’t matter that Jared Thompson was nice or that she reciprocated kindness. She told him to stop and he didn’t.

Courtney Hallows, 32, started working at the Comedy Attic in 2019 and left soon after Navarro became involved. She described Navarro as bubbly and a friendly person to be around, and she said she could tell that Jared quickly took an interest in her.

It was only after getting to know Navarro that Hallows figured out her feelings toward him were not reciprocal.

“He was taking it too far,” Hallows said. “But again, there is that power dynamic too, that always made it super creepy whether it was, you know, reciprocal or not, which it wasn't.”

Navarro refuted all claims by the Thompsons against her and said her friendly relationship with Jared doesn’t offset the inappropriate behavior she experienced.

“This man is almost 20 years older than me, he signed my paychecks and owns a very respected comedy club and festival,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “When someone has that kind of power over you, you feel like you have to play along.”

•••

Thompson frequently called Navarro when his wife was away at work or out of town, sent her photographs of women in lingerie and in the nude and asked her not to tell anyone the things he told her, especially not her husband.

Navarro said that made her uncomfortable.

Dayna Thompson said all calls and texts between Jared and Navarro were not inappropriate or secret. Jared himself did not comment on any of these allegations.

“The nature of any calls or texts were friendly and in no way romantic and these communications were not hidden from me (Dayna),” Dayna Thompson wrote in the April 11 email.

Navarro said Thompson often told her things in person or on a phone call that he asked her never to repeat, and made it clear it was because he didn’t want Dayna to find out.

“Jared had an affair with a married woman and sent an email notifying the staff and comics of this in January,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “Considering this instance, it is an unreliable statement to say nothing was hidden from Danya.”

Navarro claims these inappropriate messages were unsolicited, especially given their employer-employee relationship.

“I believe he did it to test boundaries of my reaction to explicit material so he could continue to push those boundaries further and further,” Navarro said.

According to a screenshot from July 9, 2023, provided by Navarro, Jared Thompson sent Navarro two images of women in underwear during a text exchange about hiring a new employee. Navarro did not acknowledge the explicit photos in her response and instead steered the conversation back to the topic of hiring.

On Dec. 25, 2022, Jared Thompson sent Navarro a still from the movie “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation” of a nude woman in the shower. Both the Thompsons and Navarro submitted evidence of this exchange, but the timelines and content of their messages do not align.

The Thompsons provided a screenshot suggesting the shower image was sent during a lighthearted exchange in which Navarro had been sharing Christmas-themed GIFs. However, according to a screen recording from Navarro, the GIFs she sent occurred in a separate conversation approximately two hours earlier.

In Navarro’s screen recording, the shower image was sent by Jared unprompted at 1:28 p.m., to which she responded with, “That’s not what you’re supposed to be googling on Christmas…” Thompson then replied, “Lol how was the food?”

In Thompson’s version, the shower image is sent around 11 a.m in response to Navarro saying there are no Christmas Vacation shower gifs and she instead sent a GIF that read, “Merry Christmas!” The “googling on Christmas” exchange occurred at 2:02 p.m. in Thompson’s screen recording and in his version, Navarro sent that message seemingly out of the blue.

When asked for comment, Jared and Dayna Thompson denied any inappropriate intent behind the messages, and instead, allege Navarro was the “instigator” of these sexually explicit texts. In one instance, they sent screenshots from March 10, 2023, in which Navarro appeared to have sent images of “scantily clad women with no context.”

Navarro, however, claims those images were related to a potential hire who worked at a strip club. She stated she was on a phone call with Jared Thompson at the time, discussing the woman's employment. Her screen recording shows the messages both before and after the photos of the women reference the hiring conversation. Navarro also provided the IDS with the potential hire’s resume, which included proof of employment as an exotic dancer.

Neither the screenshots nor the statement submitted by the Thompsons to the IDS includes any mention of hiring.

•••

Thompson’s power stretches far beyond the walls of the Comedy Attic. As co-founder of Bloomington’s nationally recognized Limestone Comedy Festival and gatekeeper of Indiana’s premier comedy club, he holds the careers of aspiring comedians in his hands.

In 2017, a female comedian, who has requested to remain anonymous for fear of harming her reputation, began performing at the club when she was 20. She said Thompson, then 39, quickly took an interest in her. He told her she could make it far in comedy, and he could help her get there.

“He would say to me, ‘You just understand me better than anybody else in the world, even my wife,’” she said.

“Jared has no recollection of ever saying anyone understood him better than Dayna,” Dayna Thompson wrote in the April 11 email.

The female comic said she performed at the Comedy Attic in the midst of a hard time in her life, and Jared Thompson was the closest relationship she had. She performed at the venue until 2021 when she started experiencing recurring panic attacks, many she said were triggered by Jared’s presence in the audience.

Stephanie Lochbihler, 41, started performing at the Comedy Attic in 2012. Although she did not experience Jared Thompson’s favoritism herself, she witnessed his cycle of misconduct since she began doing stand-up at the club.

Lochbihler said she witnessed Jared’s fixation on Navarro herself. She remembers thinking Navarro and Jared had a particularly close relationship, and recalls Thompson having multiple close relationships with younger women at the club prior to Navarro. This includes the anonymous source who started doing comedy at the club in 2017.

“He latches onto younger, vulnerable women,” Lochbihler said. “He creates competition among them, and then when they’re no longer useful to him, he moves on to the next one.”

•••

Navarro said Jared Thompson complimented her body and showered her with expensive gifts, including an Apple Watch and a pre-paid massage.

In multiple emails, the Thompsons firmly denied that Jared gave Navarro gifts with any inappropriate intent.

They claimed the Apple Watch was neither a gift nor expensive, and that Navarro was always expected to pay for it. They also said the watch was eventually returned online.

Navarro disputes this account. She said Jared gave her the watch on the evening of July 22, 2024. When he handed it to her in the Comedy Attic parking lot, she asked whether Dayna knew where he was. He told her she did not.

“I told him this was wrong and I wasn’t going to let him buy me something this expensive, especially under these circumstances,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “He insisted (like he often did with buying me things) that I deserved it, I should just let him do these things.”

Navarro maintains she was the one who insisted on paying for the watch, which she said cost over $150, and that she later chose to return it to Jared without paying him.

As for the massage, the Thompsons’ lawyer said it was compensation after Navarro was not tipped out by her employees one night.

Navarro also denied this claim and provided a screen recording from Nov. 2024 of her text messages with Jared Thompson. In their exchange, he asked about her schedule and soon after sent a receipt confirming he had booked a massage for her. There was no mention of the massage being compensation before or after the receipt.

“My husband designed, printed, delivered and hung up all the print collateral and produced the clubs videos on a regular basis,” Navarro said. “He drove comedians to/from the Indianapolis airport to/from the Comedy Attic and covered Jared’s shifts at the club when Jared needed. My husband has never received any material compensation like massages/electronics/etc.”

The Thompsons said they gave many gifts to both male and female employees and comics.

“For so long, he tried to make me feel like I was the problem for reacting, so he could keep doing what he wanted,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “There were times where he was friendly, but this intermittent kindness just played into his manipulative pattern.”

•••

As the operations manager for the Comedy Attic, Navarro spent significant one-on-one time with Jared Thompson. Navarro recalls her Wednesday shifts unfondly, often spent sitting with him on the couches in the green room – a private space where staff and comedians relax before and after shows.

“He would shift his feet so our legs would touch or reach around me so his chest would touch my back,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “He would take his hand and slowly glide his fingers across my arm or my shoulder and compliment how soft my skin was.”

Navarro emphasized in her statement that no one was around for these moments. She said at times, she would pull away or ask him to stop, but she didn’t feel safe enough to have a big reaction, especially because he would usually respond by saying they could do this because they were friends.

“I have never touched Chey other than to hug or high five her AT HER REQUEST,” Jared Thompson wrote in an email to the IDS on April 18. “In fact, I am notoriously known for being uncomfortable with and avoidant of physical touch.”

Jared added he would never touch or make advances toward an employee.

Navarro said this only scratches the surface of the many years Thompson inappropriately pursued younger women.

Both Jared and Dayna Thompson said they have strived to make the Comedy Attic a supportive environment for women and all other underrepresented groups in the community, while Navarro directly disagrees.

Navarro said Jared Thompson built much of his and the club’s entire reputation on female empowerment, all while mistreating them “behind closed doors.”

•••

Tracy Luther, 29, was never officially employed at the Comedy Attic but has assisted with small tasks around the club since 2018. He said he witnessed Thompson’s misconduct firsthand.

Luther said Thompson had a lot of “younger female best friends” that he was very close to, including Navarro. Eventually, Luther realized this pattern of behavior by Thompson had been occurring for years.

“I don’t think that he would think that he is trying to be harmful to someone,” Luther said. “But his actions are very manipulative.”

He also observed Thompson asking female employees in the kitchen if their breasts got “in the way” of anything or how they managed to find shirts that fit.

“Jared has no recollection of commenting on anyone’s body in the kitchen or elsewhere,” Dayna Thompson wrote in an email to the IDS on April 11.

Dayna Thompson, on behalf of Jared, said in her email March 31 that staff conversation at the Comedy Attic is often “bordering on the inappropriate,” and they rarely participate.

Raisa Wenz, 34, worked at the Comedy Attic as a server starting in 2019. She worked every weekend for five years and bore witness to Thompson’s inappropriate behavior toward Navarro.

“He definitely had a fixation on Chey,” Wenz said.

In an email sent to the IDS on April 11, Dayna Thompson wrote that in the 17 years of owning the Comedy Attic, there have been hundreds of instances of Jared being alone with employees and no inappropriate behavior by Jared had ever occurred.

Wenz and Jared Thompson had a friendly relationship during her time at the club, but when she spoke to Navarro about her experience and another former employee who allegedly experienced his inappropriate attention, she changed her mind about him.

•••

In July 2024, Navarro said Thompson confessed his feelings for her in the privacy of the green room.

“He said, ‘Things are getting increasingly more difficult for me,’” Navarro said. “‘I know that I have everything that I need in my life to make me happy, but the only thing that I want is you.’”

Navarro said Thompson then told her he wanted to leave his wife for her, and that he knew people would be upset by the news, but he couldn’t deny himself this happiness. For 20 minutes, he spoke to her, saying he didn’t just want this to be an affair.

She told him she didn’t feel the same way, that she had never felt the same way.

He said he didn’t believe her.

“He said, ‘I can tell by the look in your eyes, you're saying one thing, you mean something else,’” Navarro said.

When Thompson asked her what she wanted, Navarro answered that she wanted a marriage and a future with her husband. She said she made it clear to Thompson she had never reciprocated his feelings, and she would not continue her employment at the Comedy Attic if his behavior continued.

In response to this allegation, Dayna Thompson wrote in her email to the IDS sent April 11, “This is false. The below text is an example of how Jared and Chey spoke about me.”

She included a screenshot as evidence in which Navarro texted Jared, “Happy birthday to Dayna!”

Jared Thompson did not respond when asked directly about this July 2024 encounter.

“This pattern of boundary blurring and manipulation, initially presented as friendship and later escalating into direct pressure for an affair, ultimately revealed a consistent abuse of his powerful position,” Navarro wrote in a document sent to the IDS on April 14. “Through his behavior with me, it was clear he was trying to leverage his power to convince me to have an affair with him. This was apparent in that immediately after I declined his plea to leave my husband and be with him, he started to pursue another married comic.”

•••

On Jan. 21, Jared Thompson called a small staff meeting where he revealed he was having an affair for six months with a female comedian who worked at the club.

According to sources in attendance, he jokingly confessed to asking close friends and staff to cover for him with the excuse of watching his daughter play the dulcimer. In reality, he was meeting the female comic in a parking garage.

“Jared and I both frequently leave the club prior to the show ending,” Dayna Thompson wrote April 11 in an email to the IDS when presented with this claim. “Is a boss required to tell his/her employees where they go when they clock out?”

Jared Thompson tearfully told employees at the meeting that he was leaving his wife to be with the comic, and in response, many of his staff offered their support for him.

Wenz said he singled out Navarro and asked if she had any questions. Wenz recalls her sitting quietly, seemingly shut down.

“I couldn’t fathom a tear because it was such a stunt,” Navarro said. “To see everybody just accept it made me want to throw up.”

That same day, Jared Thompson emailed more employees and close friends announcing the affair.

“(The comedian) and I have fallen in love and are in a relationship,” he wrote. “I realize this is salacious news, and I’d like to ask for your support as we navigate this phase together.”

In Jared Thompson’s original email, he named the female comedian with whom he had the affair. The IDS chose to leave her name out of the article to protect her identity.

According to MyCase, on Feb. 18, Dayna Thompson filed a Petition for Dissolution of Marriage with Child(ren). Just over a week later Feb. 27, Dayna filed a Motion to Dismiss. She and Jared are still married.

Jonas Schrodt, 40, also known as the “Fifth Thompson” due to his close relationship with Jared and his family, originally offered support for the owner following his affair announcement. Yet, when he thought back on his 14 years working closely with Jared, he began to realize the pattern of misconduct he had been exhibiting throughout his time with the club.

“He’s done this over and over again,” Schrodt said. “Comedy in general is a culture where that sort of manipulation by people with more power is just accepted, and everybody's willing to put up with that.”

Looking back now, Schrodt can name several women whom he claims Thompson has fixated on.

•••

Following Thompson’s announcement of his affair, several current and former employees aired their long-standing grievances about the owner’s behavior Jan. 22 during a group call. Schrodt named a list of women to Navarro, Lochbihler and others and said there had been a pattern of this conduct for years.

In an email sent to the IDS on April 11, Dayna Thompson said that a few current Comedy Attic employees and comics were on the group call, but left once they heard that one person was trying to “take down Jared and the club.” The Thompsons didn’t specify which person they were referring to.

Susan Hingle, 56, has worked in the kitchen at the Comedy Attic for over eight years and was present on the group call. Hingle said that throughout her entire employment at the Comedy Attic, she had never witnessed or experienced any misconduct from Jared Thompson.

“I think that a lot of the people on that call already had grievances with Jared and were just looking for a reason to air them,” Hingle said.

Hingle said that to her, the phone call felt like it was mostly about people not feeling fairly compensated. She said she was periodically leaving the group call but coming back because she was simultaneously on the phone with Jared.

Hingle called the group call conversation “unnecessary drama” and that it seemed to her like “pitchfork talk.”

Those in attendance for the entirety of the call say otherwise.

“The call was a direct result of the email that Jared sent about his affair and we were trying to understand what was happening,” Lochbihler said in a text message to the IDS sent April 11. “From that, some women came forward about their experiences with abuses of power.”

Jared and Dayna Thompson’s lawyer said in an email to the IDS on April 1o that the people on the group call were a “small group who openly coalesced around the goal of destroying the Thompsons and the Club” and that the group was “trying to recruit people to boycott the Club to damage the Club.” Jared and Dayna made similar remarks in their own emails to the IDS.

Lochbihler said that no one, including both current and former affiliates of the Comedy Attic, benefits from the club being “taken down.” She, among others, lost friends, their communities and comedy opportunities by stepping away. Lochbihler said the group just didn’t want to be associated with Jared Thompson’s actions any longer.

The Thompsons did not give an answer when asked why they thought those on the group call were openly attempting to destroy them and the Comedy Attic.

Navarro stopped working at the Comedy Attic following the phone call. Schrodt has since stepped away from the Comedy Attic and cut ties with Thompson.

“I’m ashamed of myself for playing any part in facilitating this,” Schrodt said in an email to Thompson on Jan. 23. “Your actions have destroyed a place that was sacred to me. You’ve sullied the thousands of joyful memories I have of that place, and most importantly you’ve irreparably hurt people I love.”

•••

Lois DeHoff, 46, worked at the Comedy Attic as a server for two years starting in 2014. DeHoff, among six other current and former employees, contacted the IDS via text message prior to publication with statements endorsing Jared Thompson and the Comedy Attic. None of the messages referenced any allegations.

“I recommend Comedy Attic to anyone seeking an unforgettable comedy experience, whether as a guest or an employee,” DeHoff wrote in her text sent to the IDS on April 12.

DeHoff said Jared Thompson called her and told her that people were attacking the club and the IDS was going to publish false information about him, which she said is why she, among others, reached out to the IDS. DeHoff said Jared did not mention any allegations during this phone call, and she assumed it was all about his affair.

DeHoff said she contacted the IDS prior to hearing of the allegations because she was confident in Jared Thompson’s character. DeHoff has not maintained a relationship with Jared since she left the club.

“I never felt uncomfortable with Jared,” DeHoff said. “Granted, I wasn't a young lady when I was working there.”

DeHoff said she was shocked because it seemed out of character for him. She went on to say that she hopes other people are sticking up for him too.

To Navarro, speaking out about her experience with Jared Thompson was not about his infidelity or trying to take down the club. She said it was about the years of alleged misconduct and unwanted attention she experienced and the protection he received from his peers.

In August, Navarro is expecting her first child. Initially, she said she was worried the pregnancy came at the wrong time, but now she thinks it’s the “perfect” moment.

“If I’m bringing a daughter into the world, I want to set a good example for her," Navarro said. “I want her to know that I did what I could to try to put a stop to it and to give a voice to all the women or the victims.”

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