Calling All Dreamers<\/a>, a business incubator program helping entrepreneurs develop business plans and financial projections to open storefronts in Downtown Sacramento.\u00a0<\/p>\nAt the same time, she was also reaching out to Andy Sarouhan and Nick Armstrong, who would become her partners in Haus of Comedy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The six-month \u201cboot camp\u201d included workshops on marketing, human resources, financing, permitting, and pitching to investors.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her theater background and improv skills came in handy.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s always so cool when you\u2019re doing something collaborative with a bunch of\u00a0people\u00a0and you spontaneously create something great.” — Jessilee Windhaus<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0no stranger to presenting, or memorizing, so I was just like, \u2018Great.\u00a0Let\u2019s\u00a0dust off the old skills,\u2019\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Her pitch focused on how Haus of Comedy could help revitalize the struggling Downtown core, particularly Old Sacramento, where business had fallen since the pandemic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cTime and time again, it\u2019s been shown that when you\u00a0plop\u00a0an arts business somewhere, it immediately starts feeding positively back into the economy,\u201d Windhaus said. \u201cWe\u2019re\u00a0an experience-based business. When people come to us,\u00a0they\u2019re\u00a0going to get coffee.\u00a0They\u2019re\u00a0spending money on parking,\u00a0maybe they\u2019ll\u00a0get\u00a0a hotel or go to dinner.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople love entertainment.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
It was more than a pitch for Windhaus, who also happens to love Old Sac.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not long after graduating from Sac State, she took a job at the Sacramento History Museum.\u00a0Dressed in period costume and in character, she took visitors on underground tours of Old Sacramento, explaining how the streets and buildings were raised to protect the Gold Rush town from floods during the 1860s and 70s.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI got to know the history of Old Sacramento, and I just really fell in love with it,\u201d Windhaus said. \u201cI\u2019m\u00a0from here. I love Sacramento so much, and to be at the core of it, and to hear about the founding of our city from the earliest trials and tribulations was very cool.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Haus of Comedy was named a runner-up in the Calling All Dreamers\u00a0contest, and\u00a0was awarded $15,000 in prize money when Windhaus signed a lease for a site in Old Sac. When that lease fell through, she secured a spot in the Eagle Theatre, a reproduction of California\u2019s first theater.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The original structure, a wood frame and canvas topped by a tin roof, washed away three months after it was built in the flood of Jan. 4, 1850.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Today the Eagle Theatre is part of California State Parks.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s definitely challenges to running a business there, like parking and the historic nature of the buildings,\u201d Windhaus said. \u201cBut Old Sacramento is the lifeblood of our city.\u00a0It\u2019s\u00a0the first spot tourists come to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Wearing many hats\u00a0<\/p>\n
Windhaus could\u00a0probably teach\u00a0a master class on multi-tasking.\u00a0<\/p>\n
She was running Empire Arts Collective while working full-time as\u00a0a\u00a0project manager at UC Davis Health\u2019s Early Psychosis Training and Technical Assistance Center overseeing a $27 million project that included 42 California counties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
These days, she is the director for Sharks\u00a0Barksley, the flagship improv team at Haus of Comedy that puts on shows every Saturday night. She also teaches\u00a0improv, and\u00a0performs while also serving as artistic director.\u00a0<\/p>\n
When\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0not at the Eagle Theater,\u00a0she\u2019s\u00a0across the way at the Sacramento History Museum where she conducts Underground tours again.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI take people by the Eagle Theatre on my tour because it\u2019s part of the route,\u201d Windhaus said. \u201cIt\u2019s really cool to know the history of the theater, and then an hour later go there and do improv.\u201d<\/p>\n
About Jennifer K. Morita<\/p>\n
Jennifer K. Morita joined Sacramento State in 2022. A former newspaper reporter for the Sacramento Bee, she spent several years juggling freelance writing with being a mom. When she isn\u2019t chauffeuring her two daughters, she enjoys reading mysteries, experimenting with recipes, and Zumba.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By Jennifer K. Morita June 17, 2026 Jessilee Windhaus has a problem \u2014 or so she jokes.\u00a0 It\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":364343,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[121,123,122],"class_list":["post-364342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sacramento","tag-sacramento","tag-sacramento-headlines","tag-sacramento-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364342"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364342\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/364343"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
![\"Jessilee](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/mass-jessilee-windhaus-ap-6.4.26-19web.jpg\")