LA comedy calendar: Upcoming stand-up and comedy shows in LA

Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler host their variety show, Hot Tub, every Wednesday night at Permanent Records Roadhouse (after years spent on Mondays at the Virgil). Expect a fresh, oddball lineup each week of stand-up comics, sketch performances and new music.

Kate Berlant, who grew up in Los Angeles, started doing stand-up at 17 at Archer School for Girls—or at least, she told one-liners while wearing a kimono and sitting in a wheelchair. She no longer brings props on stage, but her definition of comedy is still expansive. Berlant doesn’t tell jokes so much as she riffs on the metaphysical, turning a set into a strange stream of consciousness that leads nowhere, and is simultaneously disarming and satisfying.

Yes, that Ellen. Degeneres cemented herself as everyone’s favorite daytime talk show host for nearly two decades… until she wasn’t. Amid it all, though, you may have forgotten that she started as a stand-up comedian. Catch her during occassional sets at Largo.

Netflix’s stand-up specials keep us cackling at home, but the streaming service’s ambitious comedy festival is nothing to laugh at. For its second iteration, Netflix is a Joke Fest is headed back here May 1 to 12, 2024 and upping the ante: We’ve counted over 500 shows slated for three dozen venues with sets from Ali Wong, Jerry Seinfeld, Jim Gaffigan, Chris Rock, Taylor Tomlinson and literally hundreds of others (we’ve highlighted 10 of the most unique offerings to help narrow things down). The event is a bit more of a marathon than a traditional festival: There’s not an all-encompassing festival pass, but you can buy individual tickets to shows throughout its run. The exception is Outside Joke, an outdoor event set up in a parking lot behind the Palladium. You’ll find a mix of music, drag and stand-up—hosted by the likes of Atsuko Okatsuka, Leslie Jones and Reggie Watts, among others—alongside a couple of carnival games plus food, drinks and merch. Unlike the 2022 version, which was free, you can access the area on a first-come, first-served basis if you have a ticket to any other Netflix is a Joke Fest show, or you can guarantee entry with a $25 day pass. Just a heads up that if you enter Outside Joke at the same time as doors open for a show at the Palladium, you may find yourself stuck in a security line that wraps around the block; otherwise the two venues have separate lines. Elsewhere, you’ll find shows staged at venues as big as the Hollywood Bowl and Greek Theatre (a

The oversharing host of the WTF podcast performs a mix of music and stand-up at Largo.