experimental comedy

November 12, 2019

bake stuff, comedy show, experimental comedy, lindsay adams, los angeles

While so many reality cooking shows skirt the edges of the human condition via near impossible cooking and baking challenges given to people desperate for a win of some kind, Bake Stuff with Lindsay Adams takes it to the next level by confronting the past directly with a very specific recipe.

Last time, Lindsay made a revenge themed cupcake that was step-by-step designed to shade her HS bully, which Adams hilariously filled us on the whole way through. Also, it should be noted that you get to snack on truly delicious baked goods the whole show.

Bake Stuff with Lindsay Adams is happening once again, this time in the beautiful Rita House near the Grove on Fri. Nov. 22nd at 7:30PM. Tickets are $15 and space is very, very limited. Go purchase some tix here while you still can.

October 31, 2019

comedy show, experimental comedy, final show, hollywood, pack theater, speedface, variety show

It truly has been an honor to get to be a part of Speedface (we’ve been helping produce it for a couple of years along with the show’s creator, the great Eric Moneypenny), one of the most insane shows in and around LA and while it is sad to know that its swan song is this Sunday, we’re thrilled by the idea that it’s going to be one truly hysterical, out-of-this-world, headbangin’ swan song comprised of bonkers 100 second comedy bits presided over by timelord Dr. Timef**k (Nick Gligor) and his time slave, the titular Speedface (John Paliferro).

For this show, our line-up thus far is:
Leroy Patterson (America’s Got Talent)
Dave Ross (Comedy Central)
Ed Larson (Murderfist, Last Podcast Network)
Sarah Squirm (Adult Swim)
James Austin Johnson (Hail, Caesar!, Better Call Saul)
Isaac Kessler (Canadian Comedy Award winner)
Erin Nicole Bounds (Detention)
Dominique Johnson (Haymaker)
Samantha Jane, Kaeli Quick & Jason Kaye
Leeann St. John & Christopher Corbin
Evan Watkins (Rabble Rabble, College Humor, Hell Kross)
Elizabeth Hayhurst (Haymaker)
J. Elijah Cho (AMC’s Halt & Catch Fire, Some Sort of Show)
Michael Skarsten (Dreamboat) & Nick Pupo (Gutter)
Nicky Urban (Femmebot PHD)
Catherine Durickas (Rabble Rabble)
Grady James Welch (Hell Kross)
Elyssa Phillips & Angela McLafferty (Tantrum)
Katie Molinaro (Haymaker, Nickelodeon)
a special appearance by Royce Shockley (The Color Collective)
AND MORE! AND SUPER SURPRISE CELEBRITY GUESTS!

Really, we’ve got a lot up our sleeve (even more so than Home-Improvement-ized version of Doom in the flyer suggests).

It’s a little earlier than normal at 9:30PM, so all of you who thought our normal start time on Sunday was too late are now obligated to come! It’s still pay what you can FYI. Get more details, RSVP, etc. here.

October 11, 2019

comedy show, experimental comedy, improv comedy, los angeles, loz feliz

The Murge, which already has been a highly experimental improv show that pretty much had no rules, is going to follow even less rules in their new form as Murge Zero without former Murge director John Gilkey.

So, a collection of LA’s favorite idiot performers, will fly as close to the sun as possible with fourth-wall-less improvised bits and scenes that are daring, sometimes dangerous, hysterical (sometimes literally), and almost unbelievable.

Murge Zero is
Sethward Allison
Ian Bratschie
Lucia Brizzi
Chad Damiani
Meera Kumbhani
Kevin Krieger
Joe Mitchell
John Norris
Claire Woolner
John Wyatt

Don’t miss Murge Zero at The Clubhouse this Sun. Admission is donation based FYI. Get more details here.

September 27, 2019

art installation, experimental comedy, funk shuffle, hollywood, immersive art, improv comedy, K3WLAZN420, wild

Enough with black walls, doors, and chairs. It’s time to see improv in an immersive art installation and have an experience that you’ve probably never had.

Bad Traffic in the Alchemy Tunnel, thanks to host Christiana Morgenroth and producer Max Lasser, will combine some really swell improv teams with UCB Cagematch champs WILD, K3WLAZN420 that does improv off your first experiences w/the Internet, and experimental darlings Funk Shuffle and an aforementioned art installation called the ALCHEMY TUNNEL by one Laurie Shapiro.

All of this will happen at Radiant Space at 1444 N. Sierra Bonita Ave. (right around where Meltdown used to be) on Fri. Oct. 11th at 9PM (doors 8:30PM).

Tickets are on sale right now $15 and you can (and very much should) go get them here.

September 19, 2019

comedy horror, dynasty typewriter, experimental comedy, helltrap nightmare, los angeles, sarah squirm, variety show

Sarah Squirm and her Helltrap Nightmare gang (Scott Egleston, The Shrimp Boys-Luke Taylor, Wyatt Fair and David Brown) has charmed us for a number of years now (so much that she has made our 100 Best List in 2017 and 2018).

Her mastery of blending the grotesque and the comedic is something to behold (and so damn funny). Helltrap Nightmare became and stayed a cornerstone show for comedy that was “out there” in Chicago as you can read in a lovely farewell piece in the Chicago Tribune.

So, we’re thrilled to her that she’s making the move to LA and bringing all of Helltrap Nightmare with her, starting with a date at Dynasty Typewriter. Please go get your tickets now for $10 before they kick up to $15 on the day of.

September 12, 2019

comedy show, experimental comedy, los angeles, sethward allison

Shows like America’s Got Talent are not really set up to be a platform for the weird and wonderful. Often, absurdist characters and comedic performance art gets cued up just to be shot down.

So, Sethward Allison and many of his contemporaries have unfortunately been put in such a situation and with, in our opinion, such little time on stage, their bits never really get to be fleshed out properly for full comedic effect.

Thus, this Friday, Dynasty Typewriter will have a whole night of the weird and offbeat edges of comedy that didn’t get to advance on AGT called America’s Talent Rejects. There will be puppets, giraffes, an incarnation of death, and plenty more.

Go get tickets for America’s Talent Rejects here.

August 16, 2019

amy silverberg, carl tart, comedy debate, comedy show, daniel webb, danny palumbo, debate, experimental comedy, jared logan, lindsay adam, los angeles, sabrina jalees, sam wiles, steph tolev

Straw Men is, without a doubt, one of our new favorite shows of the year in how it puts many of the funniest people in LA to have the most absurd debates ever using the dumbest arguments and childish tactics possible.

While name-calling, the title-inspiring “straw man”, tangential insults, etc. are not at all productive in real debates between politicians that steer the course of policy at any level, it’s pretty damn fun to watch comedians do it in a theater.

So, go get your tickets for the next Straw Men, happening next week!

August 14, 2019

comedy show, experimental comedy, feminism, femmes the rules, los angeles, stand up comedy

In the spirit of the times of trying to level the playing field between men and women, Femmes The Rules that cheekily has male comedians get interrupted and then have to sit and listen to female or non-binary comedians.

With or without that format, the line-up is definitely worth checking out:

Katrina Davis & Kevin Anderson
Pallavi Gunalan & Robert Schultz
Debra DiGiovanni & Paul Danke
&
hosts Mary Jane French and Sarah Mowrey

If you’re down for this playful comedy experiment (that no one on the Internet is sure to have a hardline opinion about even before going to actually see it and maybe having some fun), make your way to Skiptown Playhouse in East Hollywood on Mon. Aug. 19th at 7PM to check our Femmes the Rules (tickets are only $5). Get more info here.

blonde medicine, chris garcia, comedy show, crossword puzzle, dynasty typewriter, experimental comedy, irene tu, zach sherwin

Zach Sherwin is doing “it” yet again.

By “it”, we mean putting on a dazzling display of how linguistically masterful he is via having comedians solve a crossword puzzle live on stage that is superbly weaved into a theme with jokes, stories, etc. all throughout. It’s quite the spectacle to see especially if you’re wondering how solving a crossword can be a live show.

This edition, this Wed. Aug. 7th at Dynasty Typewriter at the Hayworth Theater, will feature Chris Garcia, Irene Tu, and a “special surprise solver”. Tickets are $10 right now and $15 on the day of. Please go get them here.

Also, if you can’t make it to this one, “it” (The Crossword Show with Zach Sherwin) will be happening monthly at Dynasty Typewriter for the rest of the year!

comedy show, experimental comedy, hollywood improv, rory scovel, stand up comedy, todd glass

Todd Glass and Rory Scovel are diving into the deep end once more with their anything-goes, plan-free show, What’s The Story with Todd and Rory? at the Hollywood Improv Lab.

Glass and Scovel are two of the best at being-in-the-moment with the entire audience and taking them for a wild ride (even though they’re not entirely sure where they’re headed).

Tickets are $12 (plus 2 item min.). Please go get your tickets for this right now right here.

amy poehler, comedy show, dtla, experimental comedy, free taping, live taping, los angeles, natalie palamides, solo show

Natalie Palamides has really pushed herself to new thrilling and hysterical territory with her solo show, NATE. Audiences and critics around the world (including some of the most prestigious comedy and performance festivals) agree in being awestruck with Natalie’s work here where she satirizes masculinity in such a daring way.

Also, one Amy Poehler feels similarly and, as such, will be presenting NATE to the world as a live comedy special that will tape next month, Fri. Aug. 9th, at the Los Angeles Theatre Center in DTLA. There will be two tapings, 7PM and 9:30PM, and you can (and very, very much should) RSVP for FREE tickets here.

aerobics class, angel city brewery, arts district, comedy show, dtla, experimental comedy, los angeles, madeline wager, solo show

Tammercise is simultaneously an actual aerobics class that you can join and solo comedy performance that follows a woman trying to, well, you know, just keep it together. Truly, it’s a wonderful and weird time (shout out to Madeline Wager)

You can also just watch as other colorful-spandex-laden Tammercisers become part of the experience. If you do choose to join in the workout (we’ve even seen people attempt doing so with a full beer in the their hand), you will work up a legitimate sweat.

Get more details for the next Tammercise at DTLA’s Angel City Brewery next weekend here.

Julio Torres’ My Favourite Shapes Trailer Shows Julio Sparing No Indulgence For His HBO Special

comedy central, experimental comedy, hbo, julio torres, stand up

Lots of folks are trying a lot of things with their comedy specials these days in order to, thankfully, mix things up, try something new.

Julio Torres has got something really, delightfully out there with his upcoming HBO special My Favourite Shapes with Julio literally commenting on his favorite shapes and forms. In fact, it might just be the most lavish presentation of shapes ever, which sounds pretty grand for a comedy special.

See for yourself in this trailer here, then look for the premiere of Julio Torres’ My Favourite Shapes on Sat. Aug. 10th on HBO.

allen strickland williams, amber nelson, barbara gray, biniam bizuneh, experimental comedy, kristen studard, kyle ayers, late late breakfast, maggie maye

The somewhat controlled chaos of Late Late Breakfast is finally back with more hysterical, insane challenges for LA favorites in stand-up to attempt while doing their sets.

Hosts Tyler Jackson and Danny Maupin will be at Lyric Hyperion in Silverlake this time around on Sat. Jul. 20th at 4PM. Tickets are only $5 for what is truly a beautifully bonkers experience.

Please go get tickets here.

atwater village, comedy show, experimental comedy, los angeles

Underbelly, your favorite stand-ups-doing-anything-but-stand-up-comedy show is back.

For years, this show and hosts Chris Garcia and Ryan Singer have hopped from venue to venue bringing their comedic and mystical delights in the form of characters, songs, experiments, etc. all to bring the cutting edge in comedy with many of the city’s best.

So, this Saturday at Cahmadee Club (basement of Oeno Vino), another Underbelly will happen with:

Blair Socci
Maggie Maye
Anna Seregina
Greg Edwards
Alex Stone & Adam Dubowsky
plus Drennon Davis and Mike Nissen!!

Oh yeah, admission is FREE! Get more details, RSVP, etc. here.

atwater village, dynasty handbag, experimental comedy, frogtown, kate berlant, los angeles, performance art, silverlake, variety show, weirdo night, zebulon

At one of LA’s hippest venues Zebulon, performance artist/comedian Dynasty Handbag has been curating a hosting one of their, in our opinion, marquee nights with Weirdo Night! for two years (though it has been running a bit longer than that around town).

This transformative and hilarious evening collects all sorts of performers that are in or adjacent to comedy, bringing in a wonderfully bizarre collection of multi-disciplinary performers, magical musicians, and all other artists that defy categorization in a great way.

For their 2 Yr. Zebulon Anniversary this Sunday, they’ve got a line-up of Kate Berlant, Malik Gaines, Amelia Bande, Charles Galin, and, of course, Dynasty Handbag (Jibz Cameron).

Tickets are $15 and you can go get them right now right here.

experimental comedy, los angeles, lyric hyperion, musical, musical comedy, silverlake, swingers

So, on one level, you have a musical adaptation of Swingers, which would be pretty fun with the right folks. Then, there’s this other level where said musical is done from memory and nothing else by Nick Thorburn and Jason Tippet. On the third level, there’s an amazing cast to do said memory-based-Swingers-musical with Steve Little, Josh Fadem, Jamie Loftus, Fat Tony, Carlen Altman, Donny Divanian, Anna Seregina, Kyle Mizono, Zora Bikangaga, Shane Carpenter, and Susan Berger.

You get all of this meta-nostalgia-musical in one package with Swingers From Memory, which is playing this Friday and Saturday at the Lyric Hyperion. You’ve probably already said it in your head about this, but, just in case you haven’t, this looks money.

Go get your tickets here.

clown, comedy play, comedy show, experimental comedy, fringe festival, hollywood fringe festival, los angeles, the living room

The Living Room is a wild, thoughtful, thought-provoking, and touching comedic journey through, of all things, grief and loss. Amrita Dhaliwal and Gemma Soldati who created and star in the show do a beautiful job of realizing and expressing the process of mourning through absurd vignettes and involving the audience in “the living room”. It has been transformative and hilarious every time we’ve seen it.

The Living Room is about to have a run at the upcoming Hollywood Fringe Festival at the Theatre of NOTE in Hollywood. Tickets are $15 and dates are below.

Sun. Jun. 9th 5PM
Thu. Jun. 13th 8PM
Wed. Jun. 19th 10PM
Fri. Jun. 21st 9PM
Sun. Jun. 23rd 3PM
Thu. Jun. 27th 9PM

Go snag your tickets here.

butt, clark jones, comedy show, danny palumbo, debate show, debra digiovanni, experimental comedy, jamie loftus, kyle ayers, lindsay adams, los angeles, lyric hyperion, megan gailey, mekki leeper, sam wiles, silverlake

This comedy debate show, Straw Men, really pushes the envelope with how hilariously childish you can get in a debate and it’s all the more brilliant for it. The catharsis you’ll get from seeing adults resort to name calling in debates over the weirdest topics is just so damn fun.

So, don’t miss this latest edition of Straw Men, which has a killer line-up as well. Go get your tickets here.

book club, brad evans, brendan scannell, cait raft, carl tart, comedy show, cook blub, drew spears, experimental comedy, hayley hepworth, jamie loftus, los angeles, los feliz

If you both desire the superiority that comes with being a member of a book club AND also don’t want to really put in the work to actually be in a book club AND want to see a great comedy show with LA comedy’s best and brightest doing the work of a book club for you, then Drew Spears’ Cook Blub might just be for you.

For this debut at Blue Rooster Art Supplies, fantastic line-up will be breaking down Chris Kattan’s SNL memoir “Baby Don’t Hurt Me: Stories and Scars from Saturday Night Live” (you’re free to read the book or not by the way).

Also, you’ll get to be part of a book club that meets in the back of an art supplies store, so you definitely will feel intellectually superior after attending.

Go get your tickets here.

comedy musical, comedy show, experimental comedy, hollywood, les miserables, les miz and friends, los angeles, parody, satire

Lez Miz and Friends is so damn ambitious as a meta musical that viciously deconstructs the beloved, eternally running musical Les Miserables as well as work in puppets versus humans paradigm into the whole thing. It’s a tall order, but writers Nathan Makaryk and Geneviève Flati and the marvelous cast pull it off with precise abandon.

It’s such a rollicking dashing of convention that we’d wager you’d enjoy even if puppets, musicals, and Les Miserables weren’t really your thing.

Les Miz and Friends has running at the Hudson Theatre in Hollywood for the last several weeks and will be finishing their run this weekend (Fri. 8PM/Sat. 3PM & 8PM). Don’t miss your chance to catch before it leaves. Go get your tickets (they’re $32 a piece) here right now.

beverly hills, comedy show, experimental comedy, largo, los angeles, paul scheer, rob huebel, stand up, weho

Once upon a time, Rob Huebel and Paul Scheer used to take the stage together at UCB to do something called Crash Test. It was a live show where Paul and Rob got to do whatever the hell they wanted (i.e. an aggro-version of musical chairs, accidentally talking to celebrity assistants in the crowd, going over Vin Diesel’s real FB page, etc.) in between great stand-ups. Eventually, that led to an entire comedy special that they did on a glass bus.

It has been more than couple of a years since Huebel and Scheer have dove into this wondrous chaos, but that’s all changing as they will be reprising Crash Test again at Largo Thurs. May 30th at 8:30PM. Go get your tickets now as we have no doubt that this will be something special.

comedy show, experimental comedy, laid, los angeles, lyric hyperion, natalie palamides, nate, silverlake, solo show

It’s no secret that we love Natalie Palamides here at The Comedy Bureau as she has made our 100 Best lists more than once.

Thus, we feel obligated to tell you that she is bringing her two critically acclaimed, award winning solo shows, LAID and NATE, back to the place where they were born, Lyric Hyperion Theatre & Cafe. Whether you’ve never seen it or seen it multiple times, you shouldn’t miss out on Natalie doing these encore performances.

NATE will go up on May 24th & May 25th.

LAID will go up on May 31st and Jun. 1st.

Tickets are $20 for every show and well worth it.

anthony jeselnik, experimental comedy, jacqueline novak, stand up, ucb franklin

This will undoubtedly be a night to remember as Jacqueline Novak puts herself and her act on the line with Anthony Jeselnik on stage the whole time, possibly interjecting, “offering guidance” the whole way though. Perhaps, it’ll be the closest thing to a thrilling chess match in stand-up comedy.

Tickets are $12 and you best get them here.

alternative comedy, comedy show, experimental comedy, gondola, long beach, los angeles, poetry, spoken word

OK, so you’ve seen comedy in someone’s backyard, in a salon, in a tattoo parlor, in the back of a U-Haul, and even in an abandoned parking lot. Where do you get your next underground comedy fix?

Well, how about in a gondola in, of all places, Long Beach that features the delightful hijinks of Kurt Braunohler, Natalie Palamides, and Christina Catherine Martinez, and the sweet and funny poetry of Derrick Brown?

Pretty out-of-left field, no?

Even we haven’t heard of or seen something like GondoLOLs and we have no doubt that Kurt, who jet-skied the entire Mississippi River for charity and Derrick, who, as a poet, has toured with Eugene Mirman, will be showing us all a night of comedy unlike any other.

GondoLOLs is coming to Gondola Getaway in Long Beach on Sat. Apr. 27th at 7PM. Tickets are $29 and you best go get them here.