TucsonStage Blog: Tucson Improv Movement: 11th Annual Tucson Comedy Arts Festival

Friday, November 07, 2025

Tucson Improv Movement: 11th Annual Tucson Comedy Arts Festival

From: Tucson Improv Movement <justin@tucsonimprov.com>
Sent: Wednesday, November 5, 2025 7:46 AM
Subject: 🛎️TCAF Preview - 11/5/25

Tucson Comedy Arts Festival Preview

The curtains go up Friday night on the 11th Annual Tucson Comedy Arts Festival! We are so excited to bring you two weeks of comedy at this year's TCAF! We have comedians coming from San Francisco, Los Angeles, North Carolina, New York City, and all over Arizona to join in on the fun! With 70+ performers, from outside of the TIM Company, this promises to be our biggest and best festival yet.

Weekend One will host our most out-of-town guests ever in our first weekend!

Our friends from Flagstaff have come to every TCAF since the beginning, including our online version during COVID. Catch both of their teams this weekend: Paul from Breakfast and French Knife.
An Improv Mixer - Friday, 11/7 at 9 pm

This show features teams from all over the state! Manic Monday from Phoenix will be back in the house, sharing the stage with The Big Daddies and other teams from Unscrewed Theater.

Saturday Night Shows - Saturday 11/8 at 6:30pm, 7:30pm, or 9 pm

Saturday night features teams from Flagstaff, Phoenix, Green Valley, Keep Tucson Sketchy, a local sketch comedy show, and numerous TIM teams!

Advancing Your Play with Technique, Tags, and Three Beats - Sunday, 11/9 at 11 am

The highlight of the weekend will be Jacque Arend's workshop, Advancing Your Play with Technique, Tags, and Three Beats. This all-day workshop will culminate in a showcase at 6 pm with workshop participants performing the Swap Meet, a long-form improv format developed in Phoenix. There are still a few spots left in this workshop, sign up today!

During the rest of the festival, you can't miss these amazing shows:

How Embarrassing Is Jesus? - Thursday 11/13 at 7:30 pm

A standup-flavored fifty minutes in which idiot journalist Lauren Duca investigates the meaning of life just as soon as she can look through the crowd to see if her parents are there. After going viral for publishing "Donald Trump is Gaslighting America" to Teen Vogue, Duca was profiled in The New York Times and canceled by Buzzfeed before running off to the mountains to join a psychedelic cult, where she was saved by a rainbow alien praying mantis named Jesus, and this show has to ask, "How weird is that?"
This show has been performed at the Lyric Hyperion in Los Angeles, the 2024 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, and will be in New York City at the Union Hall this week on November 6th, before it returns to Tucson at TCAF!

Comedy Corner and the Charles Darwin Experience - Wednesday 11/12 at 9 pm

We welcome back both University of Arizona improv teams!

The Collaboratory - Saturday 11/15 at 7:30 pm

The Collaboratory brings together veteran performers from the Phoenix Improv Scene monthly, and we can't wait to host them in Tucson. Featuring performers from Monster Improv, Neighborhood Comedy Theatre, Second Beat Improv Theater, and The Bridge Improv Theater, this event creates a juggernaut cast of veteran Phoenix improvisers bringing the best of the Phoenix improv scene under one roof.

Friday 11/14 at 6 pm

A love letter to improv comedy, comedian Suzi Barrett deep dives with veteran improvisers about their journeys through improv, and discusses the philosophies, theories, tips, lessons, and stories they've gathered along the way. We can't wait to host a live taping of this podcast right here in Tucson, Arizona, featuring the stories of Justin Lukasewicz and Jessica Hill!

The Soapbox Box Best of 2025 - Friday, 11/14 at 7:30 pm

We invited three of our favorite monologists from 2025 to tell another story, and we are so excited to welcome back: Mike Plunkett, Cyd Ponce, and Sarah T. Dubb! There will also be some special guest improvisers in this show!

So please come out and support the festival! Take a workshop, see a show, grab an All Access Pass! You won't want to miss a moment of the funny at Tucson's Biggest Comedy Party of the year!

Get an All-Access Pass - $40

Get Individual Show Tickets