Stand up comedy shows rarely host 90-year-old comedians. Especially those who are holocaust survivors. But, here at ComedySchools.com we like to take chances and bring you the highest quality comedy no matter where it comes from. Our latest FREE comedy show will feature the unique, and very funny, Gert the Joke Lady.

Live comedy you can enjoy!

Great live comedy show

ComedySchools.com brings you the best in live comedy entertainment. In addition to developing young talent, we provide discounted tickets for shows in Arizona and California. This show, featuring two of Arizona’s top comics, is FREE. Just call the Tempe Improv box office at 480.921.9877 and give promo code “TONY.” You can get up to 6 tickets, and the only cost is the 2-item minimum. Normally $15, this is a great show at a great price.

From The Gotham Comedy Club in New York City to The Tempe Improv, Arizona native Greg Frieler is considered in the top tier of Phoenix comedians. We guarantee that you will leave this comedy show repeating his jokes to your friends and family. Originally a teacher, his laugh out loud stories of figuring out kids’ names on the first day and how he handles the stress, will leave you repeating over and over, “You can choose only one, Greg. Choose wisely!”

Joleen Lunzer is one of the fast rising stars in the hot Arizona comedy scene. Already in demand for every quality comedy show in town, she makes her co-headlining debut right here at the Tempe Improv. Joleen can be seen at MyStudio.net as a principal player in the MyStudio Players sketch comedy troupe, and is a weekly regular in the Wonderama Theater. She has worked with Dave Coullier, and many of today’s top headlining acts. See her now before she kicks off her nationwide tour.

Test to see

If you are looking for a terrific event to attend for Father’s Day weekend, you should check out standup Ken Kaz, and musical improvisational duo Dangerville. They will be performing at the Wonderama Theater (part of the Tempe Improv) all Father’s Day weekend. Shows start at 7 PM.

Best of all, you can receive 4 complimentary tickets by calling the Tempe Improv box office, 480.921.9877, and using the promo code “TONY.”

Ken Kaz is one of the hottest comedians around, and is a former student of ComedySchools. Dangerville is a hilarious improv duo, who perform all over the state and country, both as a group and as individuals.

Here’s a description of the show:

A DOUBLE FEATURE AT WONDERAMA

7:00 PM Ken Katz’s Unplanned Parenthood “Unplanned Parenthood” is a hilarious introspect into the modern day challenges of parenting. Join Ken Kaz as he relives his experiences thus far as a husband and father raising three boys. “When you’re a dad you don’t get to relax on the weekends anymore…noooo…we relax at work! For dads, Monday is the new Friday…it can’t get here quick enough!” If you’ve had kids, have kids or are thinking of having kids you must see this show!

8:00 PM Dangerville At WONDERAMA we believe that every marriage is a wondrous creation of God filled with excitement and danger! In fact, every marriage has all the elements of a great musical. That’s why WONDERAMA hired “Dangerville,” the amazing, musical-improv duo, to improvise a musical based on the married life of one couple at every show. The couple will be picked at random, brought on stage where they will watch in astonishment as their connubial life morphs into a heart-racing, musical extravaganza. Don’t miss this show!

Hello, I’m Dave Thurston and I teach a Phoenix comedy class in Improvisation at The Tempe Improv.

At the beginning improvising may seem hard as if getting through the scene will be a strain. At the highest level a performance can be reproduced on film or on TV for millions of dollars. In between these two phases of performance lie a few smaller steps along the way. It was Mike Myers, on Inside the Actors Studio who quoted someone else who was quoting someone else who was quoting someone else who said, “What seems impossible will become difficult, what is difficult will become easy, what is easy will become beautiful.” This progression describes the phases of an improviser’s performance. In the beginning a two minute scene may seem difficult if not impossible. Then that two minute scene will become funny, but it’s a “you had to be there” laugh. In time the scenes become so funny you can tell people about it the next day and it’s still funny. In other words, you didn’t have to be there. That’s the next phase. Eventually you become so funny you can reproduce your improvisation in a written show, on film, in standup or essay form. With enough work your humor will transcend mediums. That’s that highest level, the last phase.

Start at the beginning, it’s your first class; it’s your first scene. You are asked to do a scene for two minutes. The first time I had to do that in the Del Close Theater at the IO intensive I got about 45 seconds in and stopped the scene, “I’m sorry could we get a suggestion or something?” I thought they had forgotten to get a suggestion. I thought they messed up. As it turns out they were doing something I had never seen before. I had been improvising for years and this was the first time I had been asked to truly improvise. It didn’t take long to get caught up. After few listening exercises and some support everyone in the class became functional, meaning able to improvise for an infinite amount of time without thinking or try. It became easy. But it wasn’t very funny.

I remember seeing a twenty minute scene and thinking, “How did they keep going? How did they know what to say?” I was then told that they guys I had watched usually do a 45 minute to hour set. The important thing is to know that in a short period of time, with just a few exercises time will no longer be a factor. Getting laughs is.

On to the second phase, getting laughs. The first people you will make laugh are your friends in class. Usually, when you are improvising you will get laughs on your first day. Your first couple of scenes will get some kind of positive reaction. It’s the magic of improvisation. It’s entertaining just because you are doing it. You will get laughter on some level. But here is what will happen. You’ll see your friends do a scene. You’ll laugh and then go to hang out with your friends. They will invariably ask where you were. You’ll say, “I was at this improv class. And there was this one scene where this guys was eating this sandwich and this girl kept asking him what he wanted on the sandwich but he couldn’t say because his mouth was full. He really loved the sandwich…er, uh, well, you had to be there.”

But then you get to the next phase where you see something, it makes you laugh and when you tell people about it they laugh. They didn’t have to be there. That is very powerful. I remember Mark Sutton and Bill Joe in Bassprov doing a scene about the Da Vinci code. Mark was talking about how the book is about Leonardo Da Vinci. He eloquently, in a way that I’m not doing justice to right now especially in written form, states that the word “Da” means “The” and “Vinci” means “Venice.” At no time is the city of Venice involved. Then Joe Bill asks Mark if he has read the Lord of The Rings. To which Mark says, “Who has six months?” Even if you weren’t there it’s still funny.

The next level of improvisation is when you can reproduce the material in a written show, which is a higher standard for the audience to watch, or in another medium and the material will still hold up. It will still get laughs. In one of the first classes that I taught since I’ve been back in Arizona, there was a scene where three people were smashing the hood of a car with baseball bats for about a minute. One of the students, Kevin, steps out and say, “Hey what are you doing? That’s my car.” To which Dustin says, “There was a fly.” I think that scene will hold the stage in a written show. Not bad for the first day of the first class. Another great example of a scene that would transfer mediums is the Da Vinci code scene. I do remember seeing that scene, on the internet. I wasn’t actually there. But I’m sure that if I was it would have been funny then too.

The ability to write material that transcends mediums is very valuable. When I watch Always Sunny In Philadelphia I get the feeling that they were just sitting around talking about ideas that would be funny and then they filmed it and it’s awesome. It looks easy. It is beautiful. It’s awesome, but it wasn’t easy. There are a lot of steps along the way. When you see something that good it’s easy to think I can do that no problem. I’ll just take a few classes, ba da boom ba da bing I’m in the movies. But the small goals, the small steps along the way are blast. You can reach the small necessary goals now. In time by achieving the small goals you’ll reach the medium goals and in time the long term goals there is no reason you can’t go as far as you want to go in this industry.

If you can get through a scene you are doing great. Have a party. If you are getting laughs, that’s a big deal. It’s very difficult. When you start hearing people retelling the things you say outside of the performance, at work on the Facebook it’s very gratifying. Those small goals are hard to achieve but it is reasonable. Anyone can get there if the time is put in. This is a noble journey.