A new comedy experience is making waves on the central coast. It’s a speakeasy style show called Don’t Tell Comedy — where the location and performers are kept secret until they hit the stage.
Local comedian Sam Goldstein is the showrunner for Don’t Tell Comedy’s central coast headquarters. Goldstein said he feels like the shows make stand up fun again.
“You’re bringing a comedy experience to a town that might not have ever seen it or had it,” Goldstein said.
Some locations are not where you would think a comedy show would be, according to Goldstein. Shows range from bars and banquet halls, to gyms and bookstores.
He said one of his favorite spots to perform is the gym he attends in Atascadero.
“At Headstrong, their gym, they have a kindergarten like a child care center in there. And we thought, how funny would it be to do the show in their child care center at the gym? We did it and it was phenomenal. It was an absolute blast. We ended up packing 100 people in there,” Goldstein said.
Kyle Kazanjian-Amory, the CEO and founder of Don’t Tell, said he wants to make intimate stand-up comedy available to the masses.
“My goal was sort of, how can we make standup more affordable, more accessible by bringing shows to different neighborhoods. So that it's not all in one part of town and also makes it feel like more of a community,” Kazanjian-Amory said.
He said he also wanted to give comedians opportunities that they previously never had.
“Comedy's really tough, and it feels like you're either living in a mansion or you're scraping by to pay rent. What we're trying to do is, to help empower what I call the middle class of comedy. People that are really talented but just haven't broken, and could use more opportunities,” Kazanjian-Amory said.
More information on central coast shows is here.
