Comedy Events

30 events you didn't know to search for

Anime & Manga Events Gaming & Esports Events Concert & Music Events Movie & Film Events Sports Events Comic & Superhero Events Convention & Expo Events Fashion & Streetwear Events Family & Community Events Comedy Events Theater & Dance Events Art & Culture Events Nation's Best

Coming Soon

41 Gathering

6h away

Bobby Lee at Pechanga

Today · Oct 3 Pechanga Resort Casino, 45000 Pech…

Somewhere in the middle of the set he will say the worst thing that has ever happened to him — out loud, on purpose, to a room of strangers — and you will leave lighter than you arrived. That makes no sense until you have sat through it. The MADtv veteran and TigerBelly host has been running the same trick for years: an entire act built out of the confessions most people take to the grave, committed to completely, every awful detail intact. The more uncomfortable it gets, the funnier it gets. This is a man who decided long ago that hiding was more exhausting than simply telling you, and the relief of watching somebody live that way is most of why a room stays with him. Temecula is nearly a homecoming — he is from San Diego, and a crowd that already knows the stories changes what a show can be. One night at the theater inside the resort on Pechanga Parkway. Bring the friend you are comfortable being seen laughing that hard with.

Coming Soon

12h away

Adam Ray: Who Is Me Tour

Today · Oct 3 $40+ Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave, Sa…

You have already watched the Dr. Phil bit. Everyone has. Somebody sent it to you with no caption, you watched it more times than you would admit to, and then you went looking for more — which is roughly how this entire audience got built. Live is a different animal. He is an improviser and an impressionist and a comic's comic, so the show is crowd work, characters, and riffing that goes somewhere nobody planned. That is the thing a special can never capture, because a special is edited and this is not. No two nights are the same, and the room knows it, so people turn up ready to be part of the machinery. The Balboa Theatre downtown is one of the more beautiful old rooms in the city. Get there early; the pre-show energy is half of it. Bring the friend who quotes bits for weeks afterward. You are about to lose a month of conversations to this.

Comedy Heights at Twiggs Coffee Roasters

Weekly

35 Gathering

13h away

Comedy Heights at Twiggs Coffee Roasters

Every Saturday · Next Oct 3 Twiggs Coffee Roasters, 4590 Park …

Some of the best comedy in this city happens in the back of a coffee shop with about a hundred chairs in it, and it costs nothing, and that combination has confused people for years. No cover. No drink minimum. No corporate anything. Just a room, a mic, and comics who keep coming back to University Heights because the audience is real and the booking is better than a free show has any right to be. Some weeks it is a rotating lineup of working comedians. Some weeks it is a marathon with a headliner closing it out. The alumni list is long enough that on any given night you might be sitting in the room for someone's breakthrough set — a thing you only recognize much later. Twiggs on Park Blvd, Saturday nights at 8. Tips are encouraged and the bar takes cash. Get there early, because the back room fills. Bring the friend who claims they never laugh at stand-up anymore.

Weekly

77 Gathering

2 days away

Lestat's Monday Night Open Mic

Every Monday · Next Oct 5 Lestat's Coffee House, 3343 Adams …

The scariest room in San Diego is a coffee house on Adams Avenue where nobody is drinking enough to be polite about it. There is no bar noise to hide inside. If the song does not work, you find out inside a silence that is paying complete attention. Which is exactly why this room has produced so many people who can now play anywhere. The list runs from regulars who have been signing up for years to somebody holding a borrowed guitar for the first time in their life, and the night treats both the same. Singer-songwriters, acoustic bands, a solo instrumentalist, the occasional comic or spoken-word performer who wandered in off the avenue. Every name gets a real slot. Nobody gets talked over. Monday evenings in Normal Heights, sign-ups early, no cover, coffee in your hand. Send it to the person who has been writing songs for a decade and playing them for nobody.

Monday Night Open Mic — Mad House Comedy Club, San Diego

Weekly

2 days away

Monday Night Open Mic — Mad House Comedy Club, San Diego

Every Monday · Next Oct 5 Mad House Comedy Club, 502 Horton …

Every comedian you have ever watched on a special was once standing in a room like this, holding a microphone that smelled like the last person's hand sweat, trying material that might not work on a Monday night when nobody expects to laugh. Monday Night Open Mic at the Mad House Comedy Club in downtown San Diego is where the city's comedy scene shows up to test, fail, adjust, and occasionally bring a room of strangers to tears. Free admission. The lineup changes every week because it is open — which means you might see a 10-year vet workshopping new five minutes next to someone doing their third set ever. That unpredictability is the whole point. You do not know if the next person up is going to bomb or become the best thing you see all month. Mad House is at 502 Horton Plaza in the Gaslamp Quarter. Doors at 7 PM. The only cost is whatever you drink from the bar. The room is small enough that the comedian can see your face, which is part of why the good ones love playing here.

UCB Monday Night Improv — Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Los Angeles

Weekly

2 days away

UCB Monday Night Improv — Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, Los Angeles

Every Monday · Next Oct 5 Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre, …

The Upright Citizens Brigade has been the training ground for half the comedians you quote without knowing their names. Every Monday night, UCB's house improv ensembles take the stage in Los Angeles — no script, no safety net, just the audience's suggestions and whatever the performers can build from them in real time. This is not the glossy improv you see on TV. It is fast, collaborative, occasionally catastrophic, and the kind of funny that only happens when nobody planned it. The show rotates ensembles weekly, so the style shifts — some nights are long-form narrative, some are short-form chaos, some are experimental formats that do not have a name yet. Tickets are affordable, the venue at 5419 Sunset Blvd is intimate enough that you are part of the show whether you volunteer or not, and the bar is open. If you have never seen improv live, this is where you start. If you have, this is where you keep coming back. The alumni list includes names that went on to SNL, Parks and Rec, and Broad City — and they all started on a Monday.

Lyrical Exchange Open Mic — Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center, North Park

Weekly

15 Gathering

3 days away

Lyrical Exchange Open Mic — Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center, North Park

Every Tuesday · Next Oct 6 Queen Bee's Art & Cultural Center,…

Every Tuesday night in a North Park arts center, the mic goes live and the room fills with people who came to say something. Poets who have been carrying a verse in their pocket all week. Musicians who want to test a song on a crowd that actually listens. Comedians working out material that might be brilliant or might be a beautiful disaster. Nobody knows until the words leave their mouth. Lyrical Exchange is not a showcase — it is a conversation. The five-dollar cover keeps it intimate. The room at Queen Bee’s is small enough that you can feel the nervous energy of a first-timer three rows back, and the regulars treat newcomers like they belong because the whole point is that everyone does. The format rotates between spoken word, acoustic music, comedy, and whatever else walks through the door. This is the room where the city’s creative community shows up when they need to be heard, not applauded. Every Tuesday, 8:00 PM – 11:00 PM. Five dollars at the door. Queen Bee’s Art & Cultural Center, 3925 Ohio St in North Park.

Duff Goldman Presents: The Tao of Duff | Fully Seated

Coming Soon

4 days away

Duff Goldman Presents: The Tao of Duff | Fully Seated

In 4 days · Oct 7 Ventura Music Hall, 1888 E Thompso…

Watching somebody who is genuinely great at a craft talk about it without condescension is rarer than it should be, and it scratches something that cooking television mostly stopped providing years ago. Goldman built a reputation on architecturally insane cakes, but the more interesting thing about him has always been that he trained as a real pastry chef, welds his own armatures, and treats the whole enterprise as sculpture that happens to be edible. An evening like this is closer to a lecture from a working artist than to a demo — stories about failures, about the physics of holding a six-foot cake upright, about running a kitchen. Seated, in a converted bowling alley turned music room, which is a funnier and better setting for it than a theater would be. Music at 8:00 PM in Ventura on East Thompson Boulevard. The people who come to these tend to be the ones who actually bake, and they ask the good questions.

Queen Bee's Open Mic Night — 1st & 3rd Thursdays

Every 2 weeks

132 Gathering

5 days away

132

Queen Bee's Open Mic Night — 1st & 3rd Thursdays

Every other Thursday · Next Oct 8 Queen Bee's Art & Cultural Center,…

The first time you stand in front of strangers with something you made, what you need is a room that will not punish you for it. This is that room. It is an arts center in North Park, not a bar that tolerates an open mic in the corner, and the difference shows up in the crowd: they came for the performers instead of the drink specials. Sign up before the show, take your five to seven minutes, then sit down and actually listen to everyone else. A singer-songwriter follows a stand-up who follows a slam poet. The quality swings wildly, which is the whole point. Some of the best sets of the night come from people who did not look like they were about to do anything remarkable. Ohio Street in North Park, first and third Thursdays, low or no cover, street parking around the block. Bring the friend with the notebook they never show anyone.

Bassem Youssef: The Belly of the Beast Tour

Coming Soon

6 days away

Bassem Youssef: The Belly of the Beast Tour

In 6 days · Oct 9 $82+ Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave, Sa…

Making jokes about power is easy when the worst that happens is an angry tweet; Bassem Youssef did it in a country where it could cost him everything, and it did. The heart surgeon turned satirist became the Jon Stewart of the Arab world, drew tens of millions of viewers, and eventually had to flee Egypt for the crime of being funny about the wrong people. That history gives his stand-up a charge most comedy never touches — sharp, fearless material about identity, war, exile, and the absurdity of being a Middle Eastern man explaining the Middle East to the West. For the Arab diaspora especially, this is catharsis with a scalpel. Friday, October 9, 2026, 7:30pm, Balboa Theatre. Come laugh at the things that are usually too painful or too dangerous to say out loud, in a room full of people who have been waiting to hear someone finally say them. It is a rare night when a whole community gets to laugh at its own expense, on its own terms.

Rocky Horror Picture Show — Live with Patricia Quinn at Balboa Theatre, San Diego

Coming Soon

15 Gathering

8 days away

Rocky Horror Picture Show — Live with Patricia Quinn at Balboa Theatre, San Diego

In 8 days · Oct 11 Balboa Theatre, 868 4th Ave, San D…

Thirty newspaper bags. Six water guns. A roll of toilet paper you will throw at the exact right moment. And Patricia Quinn — Magenta herself — standing on the Balboa Theatre stage in the flesh. The Rocky Horror Picture Show screening is one of those events that exists in its own category. It's not a movie. It's not a concert. It's a participatory ritual that's been running for half a century and shows no sign of slowing down, because every generation discovers it at exactly the right age and never fully recovers. The Balboa Theatre showing features the original cast member Patricia Quinn live and in person, making this more than a screening — it's a pilgrimage. Costumes are encouraged. Props are required. The callback lines are non-negotiable. If you don't know them yet, the person sitting next to you will teach you before the opening credits end. Sunday, October 11, 2026. 7:00 PM. Balboa Theatre, San Diego.

Hokus Pokus Live! at Observatory North Park

Coming Soon

9 days away

Hokus Pokus Live! at Observatory North Park

In 9 days · Oct 12 The Observatory North Park, 2891 U…

The lights go down and something impossible happens in front of your face and for a second you are seven years old again. That is what Hokus Pokus Live does — it finds the part of you that still believes in things you cannot explain and gives it permission to come out. This is not a birthday party magician. Hokus Pokus Live is a full-production stage show that blends illusion, comedy, and spectacle into something that works on adults the way Cirque du Soleil works on adults — you know it is not real, but your body does not care. The acts rotate so even if you saw it last year, this is a different show. All ages, which means the energy in the room is half screaming kids and half adults trying to act like they are not screaming too. Monday, October 12, 2026. The Observatory North Park. Doors at 7 PM, show at 8 PM. Tickets from $70 on Ticketmaster. This is a Monday night out that earns its keep.

Java Joe's Open Mic — Bi-Weekly Tuesdays

Every 2 weeks

37 Gathering

10 days away

Java Joe's Open Mic — Bi-Weekly Tuesdays

Every other Tuesday · Next Oct 13 Java Joe's Coffee House, San Diego…

You have a song and you have never played it for anyone who was not legally obligated to be kind about it. There is a room in San Diego that exists specifically for that problem. Because it is a coffee house and not a bar, the room listens instead of talking over you. That single fact changes everything: quiet instruments work, dynamics are audible, and the distance between you and the nearest table is essentially nothing. Gaby Aparicio hosts, keeps the order honest, and does not let the list get gamed by whoever showed up loudest. Half the crowd is performers waiting their turn. The other half came because the format produces surprises — some Tuesday, somebody nobody knows gets up and does something remarkable. Sign-ups happen before the music starts and the list fills. Check facebook.com/javajoesopenmic for the current address. Bring the friend who has been writing songs in their car. Do not tell them why.

Coming Soon

10 days away

Ilana Glazer Live!

In 10 days · Oct 13 $91+ Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave, Sa…

Some people need a best friend who is a little unhinged — the one who talks you into the bad idea, tells the truth too loudly, and makes you feel like the most normal thing in the world is to be a complete weirdo. For a lot of people, Ilana Glazer has been that friend from a distance ever since Broad City, and her live show is the closest thing to actually hanging out with her: raunchy, warm, wildly funny, and secretly a little wise about bodies and anxiety and growing up without growing boring. The Balboa Theatre's ornate old room makes it feel like a night out that matters. This is comedy as permission — to be gross, to be soft, to laugh at the stuff you were told to be embarrassed about. Tuesday, October 13, 2026, 7pm, downtown San Diego. Bring the friend who is your Ilana, and spend an evening feeling gloriously, hilariously understood.

Coming Soon

18 Gathering

12 days away

John Mulaney at Pechanga

In 12 days · Oct 15 Pechanga Resort Casino, 45000 Pech…

The architecture is the whole thing with him. A premise gets set in one throwaway sentence, builds for ten minutes, and arrives at a punchline the first line was quietly pointing at the entire time. Watching a special, you notice it afterward. Sitting in the room, you feel the trap closing in real time. A casino theater is a different animal than the arena run, and it suits this material better than it has any right to. The timing lands closer. The callbacks stack faster. The crowd's collective inhale right before a turn becomes part of the bit, which is what stand-up at this level was always supposed to be, before all of it got scaled up into hockey rinks. Pechanga Resort Casino in Temecula, with seating and details at pechanga.com. Buy the second seat now and decide later who deserves it, because this one goes.

Coming Soon

12 days away

Daniel Sloss: BITTER

In 12 days · Oct 15 $40+ Balboa Theatre, 868 Fourth Ave, Sa…

A single stand-up special reportedly ended eleven thousand relationships and triggered hundreds of divorces, and Daniel Sloss treats that number as a rave review. Beneath the filthy jokes and the withering Scottish delivery sits a genuinely dangerous idea: that you deserve better than the comfortable lie you have settled for. His new hour, BITTER, promises the same trick — savage, brilliant, uncomfortably honest comedy that feels like being roasted by the smartest, meanest friend you have, right up until it quietly rearranges something inside you. This is stand-up for people who want to be provoked, not soothed. Thursday, October 15, 2026, 7pm, Balboa Theatre. Come for the brutal wit and stay for the strange gift of a comedian who respects you enough to tell you the truth you have been avoiding — you may laugh the whole way through and still leave a different person than you walked in. Go with your partner if you dare; go alone if you are smart.

Outpost with writer/director Joe Lo Truglio

Coming Soon

12 days away

Outpost with writer/director Joe Lo Truglio

In 12 days · Oct 15 Vidiots MUBI Microcinema, 4884 Eag…

Some weeks the fantasy is not a vacation. It is a fire lookout tower, one road in, no service, nobody who needs anything from you. Then you get there and discover the quiet is not empty - it has been waiting to hand you back everything you drove up to avoid. That is the film, and the man who wrote and directed it is the guy you know as the sweetest idiot in a police precinct sitcom. Joe Lo Truglio made a psychological horror picture about isolation and it is genuinely unsettling, which is its own small shock to anyone who only knows him from sketch comedy. He will be there in person. The MUBI Microcinema is the smaller of the two rooms here - under fifty seats, which means a director talkback in there is less a panel than a conversation. That intimacy is the entire reason to pick this over a bigger screening somewhere else. Thursday, October 15 at 7:00pm, in the small room upstairs.

Every 2 weeks

11 Gathering

12 days away

Comedy Heights at Reds Bar & Grill

Every other Thursday · Next Oct 15 Reds at Point Loma, San Diego, CA …

Free comedy is usually free for a reason, and anyone who has sat through a bad open mic in the back of a bar knows exactly what that reason is. This is the exception people in San Diego quietly protect. Comedy Heights has been booking rooms in this city long enough that good comedians want the slot, which is the whole trick — the booking is done by people who actually know the scene, so the floor stays high even on an ordinary night. The Point Loma show runs a rotating lineup of local and touring acts, some themed nights, the occasional surprise guest very obviously working out new material. The crowd skews a little older than the Saturday room across town: neighborhood regulars, people who found it years ago and never stopped, and first-timers dragged in by a friend. Thursday nights, full bar, no cover at all. Tip your server, tip the comics. Bring the friend who claims they hate stand-up. Let this be the argument.

There's more here for you.

An account shows you comedy events matched to your exact taste — not just what's popular.

Find mine Log In

Comedy Events

Leaving Falkor