That’s why Good Good is proud to offer our Diversity Scholarship. On a quarterly basis, we reserve two spots in each class we offer, now and in perpetuity, to be awarded free of charge to people of color, LGBTQIA individuals and individuals with disabilities.

While our comedy classes are already comparatively cheap, we recognize the importance of taking deliberate steps to make comedy as accessible as possible for people of underrepresented backgrounds.

If you’re interested in being part of a community of eclectic, interesting, and even downright bizarre comedy, you can fill out our brief scholarship application below. The application window for this quarter closes on Sunday, May 3rd at 11:59 PM. We will choose as many recipients as possible until all available spots are filled.

All Diversity Scholarship recipients will receive 100% free entry to two (2) Good Good classes, to be redeemed within one year of acceptance. Applicants must be 18 years or older. Only completed applications will be considered.

You can see our full roster of current classes right here.

The post Good Good’s Diversity Scholarship appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

If you’re interested in volunteering, please fill out the simple form here and we’ll get back to you ASAP.

And heck, if you’re a college student and are interested in interning with Good Good Comedy Theatre, please fill out this application.

If none of this applies to you but you still want to support the theater, why not just come see a show or take a class?

If you’re a comedian looking to get on stage, our open mic No Thanks happens every first and third Thursday. Check out all the info right here.

And if none of that seems interesting, might we recommend a different website? Perhaps this one about slug and snail biology.

But really, you should definitely think about volunteering. It’s a fun gig with some sweet perks.

The post Get Involved! appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

Redeemable toward all shows & classes at Good Good Comedy Theatre, in-person at our box office OR online using this convenient form!

The post Good Good Gift Cards appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

If the remaining balance on your card does not cover the full cost of your ticket(s), you will be contacted with a payment link to process the rest of the amount.

You may also redeem gift cards for shows in-person at Good Good by simply providing your gift card number at the box office.

If you’re looking to purchase gift cards, get ’em right here!

The post Gift Card Redemption Form appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

What do you think the brain of a person who is new to improv is like?

A Lindt chocolate truffle. Underneath that candy-coated exterior, we get that center of all the gooey nonsense you’ve been thinking forever, just quietly to yourself. All those idle thoughts you have at 2 in the morning, like “What are pigeons talking to each other about?” That has a place here. Everyone in the world is so strange and it’s so nice when people give you a little taste of what the fuck they’re thinking about. You’re already full of hot, fun garbage and I want to hear all of it. The fun is getting through the chocolate and the reward is the caramel in the middle. It’s always good. Except when you eat the foil.

People often say improv is a gateway drug to other kinds of comedy. Would you agree?

It’s a nice place to start because all an improv class really asks you to do is show up and commit to trying it. I think a lot of improv isn’t so much learning a new skill as it is picking out the portions of the way you interact with people already and exaggerating them for the fun of it. It’s a beautiful little lettuce bed to be goofy in.

Does improv make you more observant of other people?

When people start improv, I think that they realize how much they’ve been paying attention already. You’ve got a whole little box of things you see about people all the time and now you have a reason to play with it. So absolutely, you find yourself obsessed with other people. Last night I heard a couple arguing outside and I just sat in the dark in my bathroom for 20 minutes just listening to them. The woman would do a big speech that was like, “Listen, I just want people to trust me and I will respect the trust they put in me by trusting them.”

Well, that’s another thing about improv: it’s all about trust. You have to get onstage and trust that everyone else on stage with you won’t let you look like a dumbass.

[Improv] only works if you’re coming in with a certain level of trust. To quote that lady who was screaming outside [of my window], the trust people put in you, you can return. So I think there is this gracious giving of yourself that happens pretty quickly and very quietly in improv. But I think a big thing that people realize when doing this is that they can trust themselves.

How can the skills from improv carry over to other forms of comedy?

I think it’s a handy way to get in the habit of making your brain work. You’ll start discovering ideas that seem very fun and then you can just keep those ideas and use them. Improv, by its nature, is a one-and-done type of thing. But it doesn’t have to be one-and-done. If there’s something that was fun in a scene or very fun in a class and you want to keep exploring that, that’s a great moment to write a sketch about it or try stand-up with it. It’s a piñata of creativity and you can just pick up the stuff that feels fun.

How do you use improv in your monthly show Dear Goddesses?

Our show is a combination of improv and stuff that gets written down. Oftentimes we just meet and goof about for an hour or two and find the things that feel fun and we’ll create a skeleton that we’ll use in the show, but it’s still with the expectation that we’re gonna improvise it live. And we do things with tarot a lot. We don’t have to talk about tarot readers in real life but if you did want to become a tarot reader, improv is a great place to start.

Christine Walden’s Basics of Improv class starts on Monday, November 4th. You can enroll right here. Her monthly show Dear Goddesses happens on last Thursdays at 8 PM, you can catch it next week on 10/31. Get $5 tickets here.

The post Q&A: Dear Goddesses’ Christine Walden appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

HEY THERE. This whole weird Good Good experiment started with a little festival called FIVE DOLLAR COMEDY WEEK. The idea behind it was simple: comedians could pitch us whatever show ideas they wanted. The only catch – they couldn’t just be standard stand-up, sketch or improv shows. They had to be something NEW & EXCITING.

We’re proud to continue this tradition with the 2019 FIVE DOLLAR COMEDY WEEK FESTIVAL – now in its FIFTH YEAR OF EXISTENCE. We’ve got 23 brand new, totally original comedy shows for you, your friends and your parents to imbibe. All happening right here at Good Good Comedy Theatre (215 N. 11th St. Philadelphia, PA). All just FIVE MEASLY BUCKS EACH.

Full schedule below! Click on each show to see more info + get $5 tickets.

 Immediately followed by a FREE Secret Show

 Immediately followed by a FREE Secret Show

 Immediately followed by a FREE Secret Show

 Immediately followed by a FREE Secret Show

 Immediately followed by a FREE Secret Show

The post Five Dollar Comedy Week (11/10 – 11/16) | Philadelphia, PA appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

What is experimental comedy?

Either you are experimenting to create a new form of existing art or a new way to approach art. If the comedy itself or the art itself is different from the mainstream or different from other forms then that is experimental.

Does experimental comedy need to be funny?

Experimental comedy, for me, has to be funny. I think all comedy has to be funny. Comedy is one of the only art forms that, to be the thing that it is, has to have a result. If you put on a play, you’d be like, “yeah, that was a play.” But with comedy, it’s like, “I just did stand-up comedy. If no one laughed, was it stand-up comedy?” Some people say comedy is all reliant on surprise—it’s like you’re leading people one way and then you bring them over here. Sometimes, though, you’re leading them a certain way and they know what the payoff is gonna be but they just wanna hear you say it. With experimental comedy, it’s too easy to be different and experimental and not be funny. Being both experimental and funny is where the challenge is.

So it has to make an audience laugh?

I guess you don’t really have to laugh for it to be experimental comedy but you have to think it’s funny. I accept the fact that a person can be in a room doing something funny and no one watching will laugh…you might have the wrong audience. But you can always find the right audience.

You’ve been involved in so many art forms over the course of your career: illustration, animation, performance art, comedy, photography, the list goes on and on. Would you call your life an experiment?

Yeah. Definitely making it up as I go along, for sure. I never liked to call myself weird or say I’m weird because if you say you’re weird then you’re not really weird.

One of your most well-known projects is photographs of money: either with you or with animals or in different domestic scenes. Can students of your class expect to make lots of money with experimental comedy?

No. The reason those money photos exist is because I didn’t have a bank account and I’d make money and it would disappear so fast. I’d take the photographs like a portrait of something that was about to disappear. We’ll talk about comedians that have been experimental and made money [in the class]. It’s always a possibility, just like anything else. You can talk about success as financial success and fame but you can also talk about success as making something that you find interesting and worthwhile.

Who are the successful experimental comedians that you’re going to reference in the class?

Reggie Watts is experimental. And, to a degree, Kristen Schaal is. Also Kate Berlant.

Experiments in a scientific context are trying to prove something. Is experimental comedy trying to prove anything?

I don’t think it’s trying to prove anything. I just think it’s trying to get to a result where the result is taking people’s brain on a trip that, even if they know they’re in for something unexpected, they’re still surprised and taken on this journey where they didn’t know where they were gonna go and they went there and they laughed. It’s about taking people on a trip.

Andrew Jeffery Wright’s Experimental Comedy class starts on Tuesday, October 22nd. You can enroll right here.

The post Q&A: Andrew Jeffrey Wright appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

Interacting with an audience must take a lot of focus. Do you ever meditate to prepare?

When I am about to go on stage to do stand-up, especially if I know I want to talk to the audience, I will sometimes take deep breaths. I might have a piece of chocolate to cheer myself up and get my endorphins going. I wouldn’t say I meditate but I will be encouraging people [in the class] to get out of their heads and clear their mind and be in the moment. I think that’s a big part of it.

So there are certain nights when you want to communicate with the audience more than others. What are the factors that lead up to that choice?

A lot of times you can see, when you’re waiting to go up, that the crowd just wants to be talked to so badly.

What does that kind of crowd look like?

Just like me! They’re craving attention all the time. They’re just the type of people that like comedy but assume it’s going to be interactive. Those are the people that don’t necessarily want to heckle and ruin the show, they just want to be a part of it. They want to feel special. They’re easy to get a laugh from because any time you interact with them and engage them and make them feel like they’re a part of it, they are happy.

The dynamic between the audience and a stand-up is that there’s an active role and a passive role. But part of communicating with the audience is that those roles are sort of flipped, or at least you’re playing with them.

Yes. You always want to be the dominant one. You need to show that you have control of the room. I think that there’s something fun about being self-deprecating in crowd work where you are empowering an audience member but you’re also still secretly controlling the room. It doesn’t come off as dominant but it is dominant.

So even when you’re giving up control, you’re still in control.

Yeah, being in control without seeming like you’re being controlling. It’s something that we’re definitely going to cover [in the class]–how to walk that line and find that balance.

Have you had any particularly weird moments interacting with an audience member?

One time during a comedy competition, I was telling a joke and somebody sneezed as loud as they could. I continued the joke for about another 5 words, then I paused, said “God bless you” and immediately continued the joke and I got a round of applause laugh break for perfectly timing my ‘bless you.’ So I like to think that I can bless a person after a sneeze in better timing than anyone.

You can catch Dan Vetrano’s show Get Work every third Saturday @ 8:30 PM.

Dan Vetrano’s Interacting with the Audience class starts on Monday, October 21st. You can enroll right here.

The post Q&A: Get Work’s Dan Vetrano appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

This class is about teaching people about how to sound more natural on stage. But shouldn’t sounding natural just be natural?

That’s the thing. When people get on stage, they don’t know that a lot of humor comes from natural speech. They think that they have to manufacture it. They think that they have to talk differently on stage than they do off stage.

Does that entail stripping away insecurities or conventions?

It’s not a psychology class. We will talk about the psychology of speaking a little bit but it’s a linguistics class. We’ll be analyzing speech, analyzing other comedians, analyzing our own language, looking at grammar, annunciation and intonation.

You’re an English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher, correct?

Yeah, I have a Master’s degree in Teaching English as a Second Language. It was a year and a half into comedy when I went to grad school and it completely changed my understanding of doing comedy.

In which ways?

I compare it to the way I play basketball. I’ve always been overly concerned with form: how you have your hands on the ball, where your feet are. I would spend all this time focusing on form and then completely miss the basket. But then I would mess around and just shoot and the ball would go in. You have to just assume that you know how to do what you’re doing and just do it. There’s no time to think about it, you have to just act. [Teaching ESL] made me realize that communication is the same way. People who speak a language proficiently and natively, they’re just doing it based on instinct.

And that goal is to express some core truth about yourself or the world.

Yes. The fun for the audience is watching you trying to explain yourself and trying to illustrate these complex feelings, emotions and philosophies you have in a way that people can understand. I’ve realized over the past couple years that the reason why I started doing comedy is because I have this incessant need to explain myself.

Do you have the need to explain yourself because you feel like you’re misunderstood?

Mmhmm. I feel like people make a lot of assumptions about me just because of who I am. It is very easy to look at me and get the wrong idea about a lot of things. Comedy is the only place where I can explain myself and reveal things about myself and illustrate them and have fun with it. There’s no other medium or art form or profession in the world where it would be appropriate for me to go up to people and try to explain my insecurities.

One time I saw you begin a set by walking on stage and saying, “I am gay.” Everyone laughed because it seemed so unexpected to start your set that way.

Right. They’re looking at me and assuming I’m a straight person. Me coming out creates a lot of tension. I only need to say 3 words to get to the heart of what people are thinking. Part of being good at comedy is understanding the context behind what you’re saying. You have to know what the audience already knows about what you’re talking about, what their expectations are, what you talking about this looks like. And then you can play with that and that gives you the power to say more with less.

Brandon Vincent Jackson’s Communication Through Comedy class starts on Sunday, October 20th. You can enroll right here.

The post Q&A: Brandon Vincent Jackson appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.

You’re teaching a rare comedy class that is specifically geared toward being a safe and comfortable space for female and non-binary students. Can you talk about what that entails?

We’re not just gonna talk about how there’s no men in the room. You can talk about whatever you want. When I started comedy, I would feel afraid to talk. I would be afraid that people would judge what I was about to say. Now I’ll say whatever I want and I’m not afraid. To me, the most fun place to be is in a writer’s room working on something. I like the idea of creating that environment for people to have fun in.

What has your experience been both receiving and giving feedback as a woman in comedy?

I have had people tell me, “You should tell this joke this way,” and then I don’t listen to them. I won $100 for telling a joke at a comedy competition and a guy told me a way that I should tell it differently. And I was like, “I’m not gonna tell it differently. It already works. What does this guy know?” It was a joke about periods.

Sometimes someone will have an idea and you’ll be like, “I don’t think that was funny.” But if you don’t like someone’s idea, you need to be able to tell them why in a way that is helpful. Being able to break the joke down to figure out what the issue is is a good skill to have.

Have you ever used comedy as a coping mechanism for sexism in your own life?

No. Mostly I do comedy because I get a thrill out of performing something that I think is funny and interesting and then seeing someone else appreciate it. That’s so cool, when you write something in your room and then you say it out loud in a room full of people and they’re like, “That’s a funny thing to say!”

Do you ever feel impostor syndrome?

No. I know that I’m funny. I don’t ever question it. Comedy is the one thing that I am steadfast about. I know that I can do this.

The content of what people are going to be creating in this class doesn’t have to be about not being male, correct?

No. In fact, I would encourage you to do something else.

Is there anything else about your class that you would like people to know?

I have expectations. You have to come in and be ready to do work. I’m going to be like, “You’d better have stuff written in that notebook on Wednesday.”

Caitlin Feeney’s Women and Non-Binary Writing class starts on Wednesday, October 16th. You can enroll right here.

The post Q&A: Darlings’ Caitlin Feeney appeared first on Good Good Comedy Theatre.