It will be both symbolic and significant when Adam Cayton-Holland steps onto the stage Thursday officially reopening Comedy Works South, a satellite of the legendary downtown Denver comedy venue.

It will be one year to the date since the Denver native, whose stand-up career began on a Comedy Works open-mic night back in 2004, appeared on the downtown stage, just before the statewide ban on indoor gathering went into effect. The downtown venue has been closed ever since. Thursday will mark four months since the last show at Comedy Works South.

It has been a gut-punch of a year for those who deliver punchlines. And for those who deliver food and drinks to those who deliver punchlines. For Cayton-Holland, it was an honor that owner Wende Curtis chose him to headline three reopening live sets March 11-12, one of which will be available for online viewing. Capacity, normally 380, will be limited to around 150.

“I am telling you, it is going to be so nice to just smell a comedy club,” he said. “I don’t even care what that smell is. At this point, I’ll take chicken tenders and bar mats. To me, it’s the smell of nostalgia.” 

Curtis knows the gradual March reopening, which will include dates for Vinnie Montez and Jim Breuer, is still a long way from normal. “But we have to get back to providing the fun and escape of live comedy entertainment, even at a much smaller capacity,” she said. “It’s been too long.”

By any measure, Cayton-Holland has become one of the great success stories in Colorado comedy history. He entered 2020 at the top of his field, having been named one of 25 “Comics to Watch” by Esquire Magazine and one of “10 Comics to Watch” by Variety. Along with local cohorts Ben Roy and Andrew Orvedahl, he created, wrote and starred in “Those Who Can’t,” which aired for three seasons on truTV. He has released four comedy albums and co-hosts “The Grawlix Saves the World,” a local podcast that focuses on keeping a positive attitude through the pandemic.

So he’s not complaining. Even though, like just about anyone in an entertainment job, his income dropped by about 80% in 2020.

“My income loss certainly has been devastating, but I am pretty lucky,” Cayton-Holland said. “I had built up a little nest egg. My wife and I have a 2-year-old, so we are blowing through that. But I have spent every single day of the past year with my little dude, and I think a lot of parents would say, ‘You got the greatest gift in that.’ ” 

Those parents got another greatest gift with the news that Kid No. 2 will be arriving in May.

“I know that a lot of people are suffering, so I am definitely not, ‘Woe is me,’ ” he said. “I’m OK.”

Still, Cayton-Holland entered 2020 poised for a breakout year in ever-expanding disciplines. He had left his comfort zone by publishing an unsentimental and heartbreaking memoir called “Tragedy Plus Time,” a Colorado Book Award winner that addressed his sister’s suicide. He had just adapted that book into a True West Award-winning one-man play called “Happy Place,” which was an official selection for the 2020 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. That would have put Cayton-Holland on one of the world’s most revered theater stages last August. Didn’t happen.

“That was really a bummer,” he admits. “But I decided a long time ago that I am going to stop mourning the things I was looking forward to, because this is the new world order. The past year has been a great reminder to stop thinking that you know how anything is going to go.”

But he does know with near certainty that he will be appearing on Thursday and Friday on Comedy Works’ Greenwood Village stage. And he has a lot of new material, courtesy of the pandemic and the election.

“I don’t want to pass judgment on other comedians but I have seen some of them lately doing their same sets from before all this,” he said. “And I am like, ‘If you aren’t talking about this … then what are you even doing?”

Cayton-Holland knows this week’s shows will be different from any definition of normal, given the reduced live capacity, social-distancing guidelines and general world circumstances. Audiences are more self-conscious and not as likely to let loose with the laughs as they are when sitting in a packed house. He gets it.

“Listen, we’re all collectively suffering from PTSD and kind of spaced out right now,” Cayton-Holland said. “People have been doing Zoom shows, and those are just so uniquely awful. The timid laughter of real people in a live room would be music to my ears compared to that. I am happy to have anyone reacting in any natural human way in the same space that I am in.

“I am excited to see the people who want to come, and at the same time I totally understand anyone who might not be ready to gather at a comedy club right now. I am hoping those people will watch the livestream.”

As vaccinations increase and COVID positivity rates continue to fall, many Denver entertainment venues are starting to inch forward with reopening plans. But it will mean more, Cayton-Holland said, to have a 40-year Denver mainstay like Comedy Works open.

“Comedy Works is such a crucial cultural institution in the world of comedy,” Cayton-Holland said. “I don’t think people realize what a jewel it is. Comedy venues don’t get the love that music venues do but if they did, Comedy Works would be a top-five destination music venue in the nation. For me, growing up in that club and loving Wende as much as I do, it means the world to get that back open. I am hoping this is a sign of impending normalcy.”

BOX: Adam Cayton-Holland at Comedy Works South

• March 11-12

• Comedy Works South, 5345 Landmark Place, Greenwood Village

• In-person showtimes: 7:30 p.m. Thursday; 7:30 p.m. (sold out) and 9:45 p.m. Friday

• Online: Thursday show will be livestreamed and available to watch online; link good for 24 hours

• Tickets: $18-$22 live; $15 online

• Information: 720-274-6800 or comedyworks.com