Inside Comedy Shows Near Me: Stand-Up, Improv, Open Mics & Tours
Comedy is the easiest live ticket to say yes to. It's a Tuesday-night problem solved for under fifty dollars in most cities, and the range of what counts as a comedy show has never been wider. This hub pulls every comedy ticket we can verify into one place, then sorts it by what you're actually after — a big-room arena tour from a Netflix-special headliner, a tight ninety minutes at a downtown brick-wall club, a four-dollar open mic in the back of a bar, or a long-form improv set from a Second City alum still living in town. The point is to take the search work off your hands. You shouldn't have to remember which club books Wednesdays, which theatre handles the touring shows, and which café runs the storytelling night, so we keep a live feed of every announced date and let you filter from there.
What you'll find above the cards is the next confirmed comedy show in your area, pulled from Ticketmaster, the major club box offices, festival passes and direct artist on-sales. Below the cards is the editorial layer — the comedy types we cover, the top cities for live stand-up in Canada and the U.S., the pro tips on minimums and seating, and the questions people most often ask about how comedy nights actually work. Nothing on this page is seasonal in the way Halloween or Christmas events are, but comedy does have a rhythm: spring and fall are when the big special tapings tour, summer leans into festival season (Just For Laughs in Montreal, JFL42 in Toronto, the Bell House and Comedy Cellar showcases in New York), and the holidays bring out the "comedy as gift" buyers and the year-end retrospective specials. Use the filter to narrow to your city, then keep this page bookmarked.
How to find comedy shows near you
Start by typing your city or postal code into the search bar at the top of this page. The map view will surface every confirmed comedy show within roughly a 50-kilometre radius of where you are, sorted by date with the next available show on top. If you're in a major metro — Toronto, Vancouver, NYC, LA, Chicago — you'll see a long list including arena tours, mid-size theatre shows, club nights at the regulars (Yuk Yuk's, Comedy Bar, Comedy Cellar, The Improv, The Laugh Factory), and open mics. In smaller markets the list compresses but the priority is the same: anything ticketed and verified shows up; anything we can't confirm doesn't.
Use the category filters to narrow the type — pick "Stand-up tours" if you want the named touring acts, "Comedy clubs" for the weekly programming at brick-and-mortar venues, "Open mic nights" for free or low-cover developmental shows, "Improv shows" for long-form and short-form troupes, "Comedy festivals" for multi-day passes, and "Sketch & variety" for revues and one-off showcases. Most pages also show price range, age rating (most comedy clubs are 18+ or 19+ with two-drink minimums), and the venue's seating style — table service, theatre seating, or standing room. Tap any card to jump to the venue page for parking, transit and a seat map, or buy direct from the linked box office.
What you'll find on this comedy hub
Three things, layered: the live ticket feed, the editorial filters, and the city quick-links. The live feed is the engine — it pulls every announced comedy date from Ticketmaster, AEG, Live Nation Comedy, JFL, the major independent club box offices, and direct artist on-sales, then de-dupes and sorts them by date and distance from the searcher. That means the same headliner playing two nights at Massey Hall and three nights at the Beacon Theatre shows up cleanly without flooding the page.
The editorial filters group those listings into the categories most people actually search for. Stand-up tours tend to run ninety minutes to two hours with an opener and a headliner, ticketed in the $40-$150 range depending on room size and artist. Comedy clubs are smaller — most cap at 200-300 seats — and run shorter shows at $20-$45 with a two-drink minimum that's usually disclosed at the door, not on the ticket page. Improv shows are the budget play, often $15-$25, sometimes free for student troupes. Open mics are typically free or $5 and worth checking the rules — most are signup-by-list, first-come-first-served. Comedy festivals (JFL, JFL42, SF Sketchfest, Moontower, Boston Comedy Festival, Limestone, Winnipeg Comedy Festival) bundle dozens of shows across multiple venues over four to ten days.
Age ratings are typically 18+ at clubs that serve alcohol, 19+ in Canadian provinces with that drinking age, all-ages at theatre tours, and PG at family festivals. Filter by what fits.
Pro tips for a great comedy night
A few things worth knowing before you go. Most comedy clubs enforce a two-drink minimum on top of the ticket price, and it's not always disclosed on the ticket page — budget another $20-$30 per person for the bar. Sit row two or three if you want energy without becoming part of the act; the front row at most clubs is a crowd-work zone. Big touring shows increasingly use Yondr pouches to lock your phone for the duration — you can carry it but you can't use it inside the room, so plan accordingly. Headliner-only theatre shows tend to run 60-75 minutes; full club bills with a host, feature and headliner run closer to two hours. Open mic etiquette: clap for everyone, don't heckle, tip the bartender, and don't be the table that talks during a set — comics will call it out. Festival pass holders should expect to queue 30-45 minutes before the marquee shows because passholders are seated subject to capacity. Recording laws vary but the practical rule is universal: don't film, don't post jokes verbatim, and don't be the reason the comic stops the show. Comics talk to each other — the room that ruins one show gets a reputation in 24 hours.
When to catch comedy shows near you
Comedy is the closest thing live entertainment has to a year-round product. Comedy clubs run programming 50+ weeks a year — most close for one week around Christmas and reopen New Year's Eve with a special bill — and open mics run every week regardless. The touring stand-up calendar does have a rhythm worth knowing about. The two big windows are spring (March through June) and fall (September through November), which is when most special tapings happen and Netflix names tour the rooms they want to film. Summer is festival-heavy: Just For Laughs Montreal in late July is the biggest in the world, JFL42 Toronto in September, Moontower in Austin in April, SF Sketchfest in January-February, Netflix Is A Joke in LA in early May. Awards season tends to bring a surge of LA-based one-off shows in January and February. December slows for touring but picks up for "comedy as gift" — clubs run heavy programming the second and third weeks of December, then close briefly. The single quietest stretch of the year is the first two weeks of January, when most touring acts are off and clubs lean on house headliners. If you want a guaranteed name on a guaranteed night, target Thursday-through-Saturday in March, October or November and book three weeks ahead.
Browse by category
Stand-up tours
The big-room tours — Netflix-special headliners, late-night regulars, podcast names selling out theatres and arenas. These shows usually run 90 to 120 minutes with one opener and a headliner doing 60 to 75 minutes, ticketed in the $40-$150 range depending on the venue and the act's draw. Expect theatre seating, no two-drink minimum, photo and recording bans (most tours now use Yondr pouches to lock phones), and arrival lines that move fast. Tours typically announce 4-6 months out and the best seats go in the artist pre-sale window — bookmark the artist's mailing list if you're chasing a specific name across a multi-night run.
Improv shows
Long-form and short-form improvised comedy from house teams and touring troupes. The Second City (Toronto, Chicago), UCB (NYC, LA), iO (Chicago) and dozens of regional theatres run programming most nights of the week, with ticket prices in the $15-$30 range and shows that run 60 to 90 minutes. Format varies — Harolds, Armandos, montages, musical improv, two-person scenework — and the best advice for first-timers is to pick the theatre's flagship Friday or Saturday night show, which is where the strongest teams perform. Many improv theatres also run training centres, which means the audience is often other improvisers — a smarter, more attentive crowd than the average comedy club.
Open mic nights
Free or low-cover developmental shows where comics work out new material in front of a small live audience. Most run weekly at a bar or café back room, with a signup list that opens 30-60 minutes before the show and gives each comic three to five minutes on stage. Quality is uneven by design — you'll see touring pros dropping in to test jokes alongside first-timers reading off their phone — and that's the point. Expect 8-15 comics per night, runtime of 90 minutes to two hours, and a vibe somewhere between a coffeehouse and a dive bar. Bring a friend, tip your bartender, and clap for the rookies. They remember.
Comedy clubs
The brick-and-mortar weekly programming that's the backbone of stand-up — Yuk Yuk's, Comedy Bar, The Comic Strip, Comedy Cellar, Caroline's, The Improv, Helium, The Laugh Factory. Most clubs run Thursday-through-Sunday with a featured headliner doing two shows a night (early and late), plus a host and a featured act. Tickets are $20-$45, rooms cap at 150-300 seats, and the two-drink minimum is the industry standard — disclosed at the door, not on the ticket. Reserved table seating with food service is the default, dress code is casual, and the closer you sit to the stage the more likely you are to get pulled into crowd work. Sit row two or three for the best balance of energy and anonymity.
Comedy festivals
Multi-day festival passes that bundle dozens of shows across a city — Just For Laughs in Montreal (July), JFL42 in Toronto (September), SF Sketchfest (January-February), Moontower in Austin (April), the Boston Comedy Festival (November), Winnipeg Comedy Festival (April), Halifax Comedy Festival (February). Festival passes typically run $80-$300 depending on tier and let you walk into any participating show subject to capacity, with marquee headliner shows requiring a separate ticket. The festival format is the single best way to discover new comics — you'll see five or six different bills in a weekend and walk out with a list of new names. Plan for late nights and pace yourself.
Sketch & variety
Scripted sketch revues, character work, alt-comedy showcases, comedy game shows, and storytelling nights — anything that isn't pure stand-up or improv. The Second City mainstage revues are the gold standard for sketch, with new shows opening every six months in Toronto and Chicago. Variety nights pack stand-up, characters, music and one-offs into a single 90-minute bill, often hosted by a name comic and ticketed in the $20-$35 range. Storytelling shows like The Moth, RISK!, and local equivalents fill a slightly different niche — true stories told live, no notes, ten minutes each. These are some of the most reliable comedy nights in any city because the bar to get on the bill is high.
Top cities
Canada's deepest comedy scene. Comedy Bar (Bloor and Ossington), Yuk Yuk's downtown, The Second City on Mercer Street, and dozens of bar-back-room open mics across the west end. JFL42 takes over downtown venues every September with a wristband pass that gets you into 40+ shows. Massey Hall and Meridian Hall handle the big touring stand-up specials.
Yuk Yuk's downtown and The Improv Centre on Granville Island anchor the scene, with weekly open mics across Main Street and the East Side. The Vogue Theatre and Queen Elizabeth Theatre host the touring specials. JFL Northwest brings the festival format to town every February with shows in venues from the Vogue to the Rio.
Home of Just For Laughs every July — the biggest comedy festival in the world, with hundreds of shows in venues from Place des Arts down to tiny Plateau bars. Year-round, The Comedy Nest and Le Bordel keep the club programming going, with strong bilingual and francophone scenes that don't show up on most U.S. radar.
The Laugh Shop and Yuk Yuk's run the club programming, and the Jubilee Auditorium handles the bigger touring stand-up bills. The Calgary Comedy Festival adds a multi-day showcase format each spring. Stage West Theatre Restaurant runs occasional comedy dinners for the date-night crowd.
The Comic Strip in West Edmonton Mall is the long-running club, with weekly Thursday-through-Sunday programming. Edmonton International Comedy Festival fills downtown venues each fall, and the Winspear Centre books touring stand-up names a few times a year. Open mics run multiple nights a week across Whyte Avenue.
Yuk Yuk's Ottawa anchors the club scene downtown, with Absolute Comedy in Centretown running a parallel weekly bill. National Arts Centre and TD Place host the bigger touring stand-up specials. The Crackup Comedy Festival each fall adds a multi-day festival layer.
Winnipeg Comedy Festival in early April is the marquee event, with shows across the Burton Cummings Theatre, Pantages Playhouse, and the Park Theatre. Rumor's Comedy Club on Corydon runs weekly programming, and the Centennial Concert Hall handles the biggest touring acts.
The densest comedy market on earth. The Comedy Cellar in Greenwich Village is the daily-show benchmark, with surprise drop-ins from anyone in town. Caroline's, Gotham, Stand Up NY, UCB, The PIT, and dozens of independents run shows every night. Beacon Theatre, Madison Square Garden and Town Hall handle the arena and theatre tours.
The Comedy Store on Sunset, The Laugh Factory, The Improv on Melrose, and the Largo at the Coronet anchor the club scene. Netflix Is A Joke Festival takes over the city for a week each May. The Wiltern, the Greek and the Hollywood Bowl host the biggest touring stand-up bills, and UCB and Groundlings run the improv and sketch end.
The improv capital of North America. The Second City on Wells Street and iO Theater (Old Town) are the institutions, with daily programming and a training pipeline that has fed SNL for fifty years. Zanies and Laugh Factory Chicago run the stand-up club nights. Chicago Theatre and the Vic Theatre book the touring specials.
The Wilbur Theatre is the destination room for touring stand-up, with daily programming from headliner acts. Laugh Boston on Northern Avenue and Nick's Comedy Stop in the Theater District run the club nights. Boston Comedy Festival adds a November festival window. Improv Asylum in the North End handles the long-form scene.
The Improv at CityPlace Doral and Magic City Casino's Comedy Club run the weekly programming, with Spanish-language comedy strong across the city. James L. Knight Center and the Adrienne Arsht Center host the bigger touring stand-up specials. South Beach Comedy Festival each spring brings a marquee weekend.