Dayton calibrates by relationship to the closures. Oregon District rooms fill with the creative class rebuilding after the plants left, while Downtown hosts the professionals navigating revitalization. Kettering draws the suburban buffer. Oakwood operates in its own bubble. The comedy here navigates populations that share a metro but carry different economic memories. Open mics become neutral ground where the people who stayed through the hard years and the people rebuilding sit together. The comics who honor Dayton's specific resilience find audiences grateful someone understood the city isn't defined by what closed.