A local banker built a bar night around his interests: The Economist, games and comedy

Cameron Smith, a 31-year-old PNC banker who lives in Pikesville, drove to Frederick one night this past June to meet a woman he’d matched with on Hinge. She ghosted him.

On the long, lonely trip home, he rethought his entire approach to socializing.

“When I was stood up, I realized it wasn’t about escaping, it was about figuring out where your actual community is back home,” Smith said.

He decided to build a bar night around his interests: The Economist, games and comedy. And so “The Droconomist” was born. The name is a combination of his beloved magazine and “dro,” a term he’d heard in rap songs, especially from Southern artists. (He’s a huge rap fan.)

On the fourth Friday of every month, Smith and a collection of people he’s connected with online, through work or simply by word of mouth gather at Old Major, a neighborhood bar in Pigtown. They grab seats upstairs and listen to comedians share hot takes about Economist articles.

“Each month it just gets better and better,” Smith said.

Old Major is perhaps the ideal venue for Smith’s unusual concept. It’s a self-described “arts-focused event space with eclectic events” that sells books and partners with local nonprofits.

Smith usually asks patrons to make a $5 donation for his event and to purchase food, a drink or a book.

On the last Friday of September, folks buzzed the door to get into Old Major, chatted at the bar counter and ordered from the tropical-inspired food menu, which includes Guyanese-style curries and plump drums of chicken.

It wasn’t hard to spot Smith, beaming behind a table on the stage and mingling with guests in a host get-up of a blazer, a ballcap with “Alcatraz” on it, a pair of Vans and a Johnny Carson-inspired tie.

“Host” is yet another title Smith can add to his varied resume. Before getting into banking, the Pikesville native was a video marketing coordinator for Interscope Records in Los Angeles. He and a friend also started an app called Woolyvard, which he likens to Spotify but with storytelling from people in different cities.

The Droconomist show setup is simple. Smith picks out articles to highlight and projects them onto a large screen onstage. The comedians line up on stools to make stream-of-consciousness jokes and comments about each headline.

At the September show, Smith took a page from “Showtime at the Apollo” and let the audience decide who earned the $50 at the end.

Local comedians Malcolm Dorsey, Matt Pennington, Kevin Slattery and a performer who goes by “Brucedaddy DaJokesta” took the stage.

A perfect storm for unscripted comedy brewed: booze, a charismatic host and volleys of profanity from the contestants.

Smith quickly shuffled through 10 articles like an auctioneer.

“If you had to define what a Republican is, what would you say?” Smith asked Dorsey.

“I’d say they was ‘publicans’ once, and then they redid it again,” Dorsey snapped back as the audience erupted with laughter.

Article topics such as diesel prices, Trump TV, midterms and Meta glasses became vehicles for raunchy talk and raw reactions. The comedians invoked fascism, OnlyFans, cocaine and commercial driver’s licenses.

“People like to learn and laugh, but they also want things to be a little edgy,” Smith said.

Brucedaddy DaJokesta proved to be the crowd favorite. The theater kid turned comedian spent most of the show hilariously diverging from each topic.

“I should have been on debate team back in high school, for real,” he said as his sunglasses drooped to the tip of his nose.

In the audience, Michael Newell and Destiny Cooke were first-timers at The Droconomist.

Newell had been to comedy shows in Fells Point, but Cooke wasn’t as familiar with the genre. But Cooke happened to meet Smith while she was trying to initiate a wire transfer at the bank where he works. He of course told her about his show.

She said she enjoyed how Smith teed up and interacted with the comedians.

Newell said he generally loves hearing comedians share their thoughts about random topics but wondered how responses would have changed if the articles weren’t so serious. Some audience members also thought the delivery might be smoother if comedians got articles before the show.

Smith said he’s eager to keep fine-tuning The Droconomist, which is heading back to Old Major on Oct. 23. And he said he’s still surprised that people were interested in his quirky idea spurred by a ghosted Hinge date.

You won’t find a dating app on Smith’s phone today. The eligible bachelor is betting on in-person interactions as the way to meet someone someday.

But he does have one thought for the Hinge woman he never had a chance to meet: “You started something big.”