Events & Activities

We dress it up, we paint it up, envy it, love it, hate it, lust after it, and best of all--immortalize it. The human body is art in its purest form! Come experience Kennedy Gallery's 2022 Nudes Exhibit "Carpe Noctem" running Jan. 6. through Feb. 6. Join the gallery on Second Saturday from 10am to 10pm.

Kennedy Gallery features work from over 18 resident artists inside three floors of open studios in the heart of Midtown’s entertainment district.

In Cage Match, two teams battle it out (perform for 20 minutes) in the Comedy Spot arena (on stage) to prove their mettle (hopefully win) in the ruthless, cutthroat world of improv (very supportive and positive). The audience vote decides the winners (true). The host (Kevin Cooley) deals with the losers (treats them well.)

New matches every month. Winning teams get a $20 cash prize and their picture on the winner wall. Winning teams will also be invited back to participate in championship matches with other winners. Sometimes Cage Match features two matches in one night!

At first glance, Parker is your average middle-aged divorced straight guy...that is until he finds himself falling in love with an old friend, Johnny. Having been openly gay for many years, Johnny becomes increasingly frustrated with Parker's desire not to be "labeled", feeling he doesn't need to come out as gay or even bi in order to be with Johnny. Things only escalate further when Parker's ex-wife and two children learn about Parker's new entanglement. The interplay lays bare the challenges of identity and expectation for those identities between lovers, friends, and family.

Trash Movie Improv is a show in which a clip from a bad movie is played. After a few minutes the clip is stopped and a team of improvisers must create new scenes based on the trash movie clip all on the spot!

We get it, you may not be as hardcore as some fans but you are pretty deep into some geeky shit. (D&D, Star Wars, Science, Anime, Game of Thrones, The Witcher) We don’t make you feel dumb about your lack of geek culture, we help you explore it. Just like college! Geek Curious is a comedy show featuring stand-up, sketch, improv, characters, music, special guests, contests, and other weird stuff- celebrating all of your favorite fandoms. It’s okay to be curious.

You into Cosplay!?  Let it rip and get $1 off your drinks at the bar and a chance to win prizes!

Effective August 2, 2021, all audience members, performers, employees, and volunteers must be fully vaccinated (at least two weeks past the final dose) and masked. Proof of vaccination* and photo ID are required for admission. Performers are not required to wear masks while on stage.

Vaccination status may be presented in the form of original CDC card, photocopy, or digital record obtained from the CA Department of Public Health at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov or your healthcare provider.

Screen Time is an interactive improv show that asks the audience to slide into our DMs and send us your favorite pictures or honest answers on that week’s prompt. We may ask you to send us a picture of your favorite birthday present or text us the tale of your first kiss. The cast of Screen Time will then get to know the story behind the submissions and perform long form improv based off of our new real life friends.

Screen Time is: Charlotte Hoar, Coreen Lemcke, Dayna Bryant, Dustin Seidler, Gilbert Gonzalez, Grant Potter, Hillary Niblock, Danny Outlaw, Kacie Shingara, Kevin Cooley, Mike LaRosa, Sam Harrison, Sara Aghamohammadi, and Tessa Brown.

Lady Business, Sacramento’s longest-running all-female improv troupe, uses true stories from the cast to create a long-form improv show with smart humor, unexpected characters, and guaranteed laughs. After the ladies tell true stories on a monthly theme, the cast does a series of improvised scenes inspired by the stories. None of these stories are shared with each other prior to the show.

Lady Business is:
-Hillary Niblock
-Justine Lopez
-Kimberly Chen
-Mel Gelbart
-Michelle Daubner
-Michelle Petro
-Saba Mohtasham

Effective August 2, 2021, all audience members, performers, employees, and volunteers must be fully vaccinated (at least two weeks past the final dose) and masked. Proof of vaccination* and photo ID are required for admission. Performers are not required to wear masks while on stage.

Vaccination status may be presented in the form of original CDC card, photocopy, or digital record obtained from the CA Department of Public Health at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov or your healthcare provider.

When an American college basketball team travels to Beijing for a “friendship” game in the post-Cultural Revolution 1980s, both countries try to tease out the politics behind this newly popular sport. Cultures clash as the Chinese coach tries to pick up moves from the Americans and Chinese-American player Manford spies on his opponents. Inspired by events in her own father’s life, Yee “applies a devilishly keen satiric eye to…her generation (and its parents).”

Actors:
-Matthew Hanjoong
-Tim Kniffin*
-Edward “Teddy” Chen*
-Nicole Anne Salle
*Member Actors’ Equity Association

“…Lauren Yee’s stunning play ‘The Great Leap’ …uses the shared Chinese and American love of basketball as a kind of Rosetta Stone, a key that could unlock understanding between two mutually baffling cultures.” LA TIMES

“Ultimately, two countries and basketball collide into an explosive commentary on race, politics and sport… You can call it an exhibition, you can call it a friendly, but whatever you call it, ‘The Great Leap’ is a reminder that a game is just a game. That is, until it’s not.” BAY AREA PLAYS

“Lauren Yee’s ‘The Great Leap’ is raucously funny, incredibly profane, not for the kids, thoughtful, and will leave you uncomfortable.” MD THEATRE GUIDE

The Wine & Dessert Bar & Patio will open an hour before curtain.

Tella Novella is an improvised soap opera with a twist. Two improvisers act out the drama while two more provide dialogue from off-stage. Lots of evil twins, long lost loves, and someone usually dies.

Effective August 2, 2021, all audience members, performers, employees, and volunteers must be fully vaccinated (at least two weeks past the final dose) and masked. Proof of vaccination* and photo ID are required for admission. Performers are not required to wear masks while on stage.

Vaccination status may be presented in the form of original CDC card, photocopy, or digital record obtained from the CA Department of Public Health at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov or your healthcare provider.

Hot Club of Cowtown is a threesome of high-heeled violinist Elana James, guitarist Whit Smith and Sacramento's own bassist/singer Zack Sapunor!

“The interplay is as sleek as ever.” – The Times (London)

“The hot jazz is what Hot Club do best, and this is a staggering return to form for the band I once said I could listen to forever. That still stands.” – Country Music People
“This trio’s stylistic genesis–as well as title–stems from the realization that the great heritage of strings (guitars and violins) originates mutually with the Manouche gypsies of France and the no-less virtuosic hillbilly pickers and fiddlers of Oklahoma and Texas... showed from the beginning that jazz and country music could exist together on the same page, a highly commendable achievement if ever there was one.” – Wall Street Journal

“Hot Club of Cowtown swung light and tight, like tumbleweeds made of velvet.” – Rochester City Paper

“...inventive violin style can still conjure up the unique image of Bob Wills strolling through Tin Pan Alley.” – JazzTimes

“Hot Club of Cowtown swung light and tight, like tumbleweeds made of velvet.” – Rochester City Paper

Note: This event has been postponed. New date will be announced soon.

Debuting in the U.S. in 2012, We Banjo 3 (WB3) has since emerged as fast-rising touring darlings in the country that two of the members now call home. The Galway, Ireland, and Nashville-based quartet––comprised of two sets of brothers, Enda and Fergal Scahill and Martin and David Howley––continually push musical boundaries while maintaining an unwavering devotion to the essential audience experience.

WB3 seamlessly converge the shared and varied traditions of Americana, Bluegrass, and Celtic music with popsensible songcraft to create a truly unique and gratifying signature sound. Brilliantly commanded instruments––banjo, fiddle, mandolin, guitar, and percussion––effortlessly elevate lead singer David Howley’s propulsive voice. Live on stage, their songs carry the listener along until, at the perfect moment, the band crescendos into catchy choruses with pitch perfect harmonies. We Banjo 3 deliver their music with such palpable rapport, stunning precision, and infectious energy, it’s impossible to pigeonhole what kind of listener might suddenly consider themselves a WB3 fan. With recent stunning performances at such broad ranging festivals Merlefest, BottleRock, Summercamp, ROMP, Wintergrass and others, enthusiasts of almost every genre of music are taking notice.

Note: All attendees are required to be COVID-19 vaccinated.

MRI [Masters of Rap Improv] is Sacramento Comedy Spot’s only freestyle rap improv show. The cast of MRI gets a one-word suggestion from an audience member to inspire a freestyle rap, then performs improvised scenes based on the rap. If you like hip hop and improv, this is the show for you!

YOU! The Musical is a completely improvised musical inspired by your suggestion of a title. Everything in the show is made up on the spot—lyrics, music, dancing…everything. Each 60-minute performance features a full story with heroes and villains, sidekicks and allies.

YOU! The Musical is:
-Brian Crall
-Chris Emery
-Michelle Petro
-Mike LaRosa
-Sarah Kullbom
-Ruben Acosta
-Nick George
-Stephen Pilolla
-Dan Madrid
-Sydney Taylor
-Sam Harrison

Since scoring a worldwide smash with her debut album, Eye To The Telescope in 2004,which went on to sell over 5 million copies, KT Tunstall has remained at the forefront of UK singer-songwriter talent. Over the next decade, three further critically-acclaimed albums followed; Drastic Fantastic, Tiger Suit and Invisible Empire//Crescent Moon in 2007, 2010 and 2013 respectively, keeping the platinum sales rolling and cementing the Scottish singer-songwriter’s reputation as a major recording talent, as well as a mesmerizing live artist.

The last few years have seen something of a creative rebirth for Tunstall. Upon relocating to the west coast of the USA, she was accepted as one of six annual fellows for the Sundance Film Institute’s Composers Lab (hosted by George Lucas’s Skywalker Ranch in Northern California) and has since scored music for short and feature films.

She has also been awarded the Inspirational Artist gong at the Women In Music Awards and was chosen as the first ever female Grand Marshal (following the likes of Sir Sean Connery) to lead April 2018’s annual New York Tartan Week parade. In May 2018 she and Mike McCready, of legendary multi-million selling Pearl Jam, released a cover of Tom Petty’s huge hit single ‘I Won’t Back Down’ with proceeds going to Pearl Jam’s Vitalogy Foundation.

Note: All attendees are required to be COVID-19 vaccinated.

Short Cuts is a fast-paced, game-based improv show similar to the TV show Whose Line is It Anyway? Fun, short-form improv games and a great cast of performers will ensure that this is one show that you won’t want to miss!

Effective August 2, 2021, all audience members, performers, employees, and volunteers must be fully vaccinated (at least two weeks past the final dose) and masked. Proof of vaccination* and photo ID are required for admission. Performers are not required to wear masks while on stage.

Vaccination status may be presented in the form of original CDC card, photocopy, or digital record obtained from the CA Department of Public Health at myvaccinerecord.cdph.ca.gov or your healthcare provider.

The Set has been selling out their sketch comedy shows in Sacramento since 2014, and a very low percentage of those tickets were purchased by their grandparents! Featuring a multi-generational cast packed with wide-ranging comedic talent, The Set features some of the most original and provocative sketch comedy productions in the Sacramento area in recent years.

The Set’s writers and cast were once referred to as “SNL if it were on HBO.” While The Set appreciates all of its acronym-based comparisons, they welcome you to come judge for yourself.

Remember: It’s not TV. It’s The Set.

Based on the classic stories by Arnold Lobel, A Year with Frog and Toad leaps from the B Street stage! Follow two best friends, the cheerful Frog and the grumpy Toad, as they hop, sing, and dance their way through a year of adventure. As the seasons change from spring to fall, these beloved characters learn lessons about life and the importance of friendship.

After 16 years, eight albums, and hundreds of shows, Joshua Radin still treats music as an antidote to any ailment. The LA-based singer/songwriter finds healing in between waves of acoustic eloquence and dyed-in-the-wool Americana storytelling. On his ninth album The Ghost And The Wall [Nettwerk], the troubadour continues a cycle of catharsis meant to be shared among any and all receptive hearts.

Since 2004, he’s affected countless listeners with palpable transparency, selling over 1 million records, generating 1 billion+ streams, and garnering a gold plaque for single “I’d Rather Be With You.” Landing north of 150 film, television, and commercial syncs, his voice courses throughout the zeitgeist. Among many highlights, First Ladies Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden personally handpicked “Brand New Day” for a commercial in support of the troops. In addition to memorable performances on Ellen, The Tonight Show, Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Conan, and Today Show, he famously serenaded avowed super fan Ellen DeGeneres and Portia DeRossi during their wedding. Beyond sold out headline shows on four continents, he’s performed alongside Ed Sheeran, Sara Bareilles, Ingrid Michaelson, Sheryl Crow, Tori Amos, Imogen Heap, and more. He also remains a committed philanthropist, supporting charities like Little Kids Rock and North Shore Animal League America (NSALA), among others.

The Ghost And The Wall was produced entirely remotely by Jonathan Wilson [Father John Misty, Conor Oberst, Dawes}.

Note: All attendees are required to be COVID-19 vaccinated.

Mustache and Cleavage (Alexander Lewis and B Street company member Amy Kelly) returns to The Sofia with a bevy of new material that combines drama and humor to round out one hell of an American folk-pop show! Mustache and Cleavage delivers compelling stories, ringing harmonies, and memorable melodies with two voices and an acoustic guitar.

Ottmar Liebert’s global success can be attributed to a myriad of things - his creative vision, his determination, and a strong sense of melody. Born in Cologne, Germany, he began playing guitar at 11. Before the age of 19, Liebert had intended to stay in Germany and pursue a career as a designer and photographer. However, while journeying extensively through Asia and playing with other travelers and local musicians, he realized that he could not escape a life of music. After pursuing his dreams of playing rock music in Boston, he settled in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Santa Fe was a fresh start for Liebert in many ways and in addition to returning to the acoustic guitar, he remained open to letting the place define the music he made. It was this openness to the local landscape that defined what was to become his musical style, a mix of Spanish, Mexican and World elements, strong melodies tinged with a shade of melancholy, balanced with upbeat rhythms.

Liebert founded the first incarnation of his band, Luna Negra, in 1989. His debut album began as a self-produced release called Marita: Shadows and Storms, copies of which local Native American artist, Frank Howell, distributed in his art galleries. After the record made its way to radio stations, it began generating a buzz among programmers and received unprecedented response among listeners. Higher Octave Music picked it up and released a fully remastered version, Nouveau Flamenco. Recorded for less than $3,000 on an old analog machine in a shack beside a gravel pit, this CD became an international sensation, establishing Liebert's unique border-style flamenco, and becoming the best-selling instrumental acoustic guitar album of all time.

Two-time Grammy-winning vocalist/pianist Diane Schuur shakes out new versions of songs for which she has a deep-rooted affection. On her latest recording “Running On Faith,” Schuur arranges music by some of her favorite performers and songwriters; from Miles Davis to Percy Mayfield to Paul Simon, all with her distinctive, jazzy charm. According to Schuur, “I’ve been focusing on the condition of our world and selected songs that make a statement about what is, along with songs of hope, about what can be.” Showcasing music from “Running On Faith,” Schuur’s performance will include blues, straight-ahead jazz and a few tunes that defy categorization. The artist adds these familiar compositions to her expansive body of work to create a musical blueprint of her current place in time.

“Schuur is playfully salty and intimate throughout Running on Faith” -A.D. Amorosi / JazzTimes Magazine

Note: All attendees are required to be COVID-19 vaccinated.