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Comedy Shows in Mesa Arizona

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Comedy Shows in Mesa, AZ:

Three Shows, One Saturday Night

 

Most Saturdays on Main Street, the lights come up around nine and everyone files out. This Saturday they don’t.

The Competitive Comedy Show ends, the room half-empties, and then it fills back up for a 9:30 show that runs on completely different rules. Three shows, one stage, one night — starting at six and ending well after most of downtown Mesa has gone quiet.

 

Why this Saturday is worth planning around

 

If you’re looking for comedy shows in Mesa, AZ, the usual advice is pick a night. This week you can pick between 3 events.

Saturday, September 12 runs a pay-what-you-want jam at 6:00,

the flagship competition at 7:30, and

Indie Night at 9:30 — three formats that share nothing but a stage and a green room.

Come for one, stay for all three! One note before you plan around it: the 7:30 show is all ages, the 9:30 show isn’t.

6:00 PM — Genre Jam, and you can be in it

A jam is a drop-in session: improvisers who don’t normally play together get thrown into scenes with whoever walked in the door. Genre Jam narrows that by picking a genre and committing to it — horror, noir, romance, whatever the room lands on — so the fun is watching people build a haunted house out of nothing while keeping the rules of the genre intact.

It’s pay what you want, there’s no audition, and Sarah Christman hosts. Plenty of people come to a jam once and sit in a chair the entire time, and that’s a completely normal way to attend. This is the cheapest and least intimidating door into the building.

7:30 PM — Competitive Comedy Show, all ages

The Competitive Comedy Show splits improvisers into teams who play scenes against each other, and the audience picks the winner out loud, in real time, by being louder. It’s the easiest show here for a first-timer, because you’re never wondering what you’re supposed to be watching for — you have a job.

This is the one show on this list we can tell you is all ages. Saturday’s teams: Don Jamesen, David Gilmore, Jordan Blanton, Francis Zagarrigo, Jordan Collier, Thomas Arnold, Sarah Christman, Bonnie Hawkes and Amy Wegner, with Amber McCall on box and Abbey Prochaska on voice. It runs again the following Saturday with a different roster — the lineup never repeats, which is why regulars treat it as a weekly rather than a one-off.

9:30 PM — Indie Night, and it’s not all ages

Then the room resets. Indie Night is the one to come back for, and it’s the rarest thing on this month’s schedule: outside teams come in and perform. Not our house casts — independent groups from around the Valley who built themselves, rehearse on their own, and play what they want the way they want it. Jenna Jacobsen hosts, with Amber McCall on box and Abbey Prochaska on voice.

Worth saying plainly: this one is not all ages. The 7:30 show is where to bring the whole family; 9:30 isn’t. Late-night improv is a different animal — the audience is smaller and more committed, the teams take bigger swings, and a scene that would get tidied up earlier in the evening is allowed to go somewhere strange instead. If you’ve seen a show at our theatre in downtown Mesa and liked it but want to know what the form looks like without the guardrails, this is that show. We wrote about a similarly stacked week here.

And the rest of the week

Saturday isn’t the whole story. Friday brings the Main Street Comedy Show featuring Amy Segal, where a real guest gets interviewed and a cast builds an hour out of their actual life. And next Thursday, Duo Night puts pairs of improvisers on stage with nobody else to hide behind — eight performers, working in twos.

This Week at NCT

Tickets → nctphoenix.com/calendar

Sign up → nctphoenix.com/calendar/classes

  • The Process Lab starts Sunday, October 4, 2:30 PM — four Sundays of focused scene work for improvisers who have the basics down and want to dig into how a scene actually gets built.
  • Advanced Scenework (Level 4) starts Monday, October 19, 7:00 PM — six weeks.
  • The Harold (Level 5) starts Thursday, October 22, 7:00 PM — six weeks.
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Where is NCT located?

NCT shares a space with The Sacred Pint Taproom in Downtown Mesa.
When head in and look for the secret door marked with our logo.
You’re exactly where you need to be!”

Can we get tickets at the door?
Yup, but its always way faster to buy them online.

Is there a drink minimum?
Nope, there is no drink minimum but supporting the sacred pint would be cool.

Where do we park?
There are over 5,000 FREE parking spaces available in Downtown Mesa every day!

Is there places to eat downtown?
Heck Ya! Here are some awesome restaurants in our Neighborhood.

Wanna learn more about NCT?
Check out all the cool live shows and Improv classes we do.

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