Sumter channels between Shaw Air Force Base institutional transience and Sumter County small-town permanence. Main Street rooms fill with military families cycling through on rotation, while Downtown hosts the locals who've been here for generations. Alice Drive draws the residential energy. Cherryvale and Pocalla Springs add the neighborhood layers. The comedy here reads the tension between base rotation and Gamecock-country stability. Open mics become neutral ground where both identities converge. Comics who grasp Sumter's dual rhythm find audiences relieved someone recognized the city keeps its Swan Lake soul while the jets fly overhead.