Things to Do in Downtown Mesa:
Comedy This Friday Night

The storyteller finishes. It’s a real story — theirs, told straight, with no punchline engineered into it. The room is still sitting with the last line when the lights shift and the improvisers walk out. They heard that story for the first time ninety seconds ago. Now they’re building a comedy scene out of it, live, in front of the person it actually happened to.

If you’re scanning for things to do in downtown Mesa this weekend and you’ve exhausted the usual list, this is the one worth putting on the calendar. Every Friday at 7:30 pm, the Neighborhood Comedy Theatre runs The Main Street Comedy Show — a blend of live storytelling and improv comedy where a storyteller shares true tales and our cast turns them into scenes on the spot. It’s a different animal from a stand-up night or an open mic: there’s no set list, and half the show doesn’t exist until the story is told. This Friday, July 17, the storyteller is Mesa poet Tomas J. Stanton.

How the Show Actually Works

The structure is simplet. A storyteller takes the stage and tells something true — perhaps its a memory, a mishap, something from thier work or life. Then the improvisers, who have been listening to the story for the first time, mine that story for what our instructors call “the unusual thing”: From there the cast builds scenes — some that follow the story, some that leap sideways into new worlds. Because the raw material changes every week, so does the show. You could come three Fridays in a row and never see the same night twice.

 This Week’s Storyteller:
Poet Tomas J. Stanton

Tomas J. Stanton is the Director of Engagement at Mesa Arts Center and the host of the Mesa Arts Center Podcast. He describes himself as a poet for people who don’t like poetry — his work blends lyrical and narrative writing into raw, reflective stories about life as he’s lived it.

That combination is exactly what makes a great Main Street storyteller. Poets pay attention to the concrete: the object, the room, the exact word. Those are the details an improviser can grab and run with.

Who’ll Love It — and How to Plan Your Night

This is a good show for people who love stories and improv, because half of it is a person telling you the truth. It’s a good date night, a good “my friend is visiting from out of town” night, and a good introduction to what the Phoenix area improv scene actually creates.

Doors open at 7:00 pm and the show runs 7:30 to 9:00 — short enough to grab dinner on Main Street beforehand and dessert or drinks after.  We reccomendt the sacred pint Mesa, but we might be biased.

Reservations are strongly recommended; Main Street fills up. And if you leave thinking “I want to try that,” you’re in the right building: the same downtown Mesa stage hosts our classes, and the people improvising on Friday were sitting in a Level one improv class not that long ago.

Not a Friday person? The Saturday show is a whole different format — we broke down how the audience-judged Competitive Comedy Show works in a recent post — and the full lineup of comedy shows in Mesa, AZ lives on our calendar.

This Week at NCT

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.