The best comedy clubs in Austin.
The best comedy clubs in Austin are Esther’s Follies, which its own site says has run its sketch, satire, and magic revue on 6th Street for 50 years, The Velveeta Room, which has been putting comics on a 6th Street stage since 1988, and The Hideout Theatre, the city’s longest-running improv theater and school by its own description. Ten Austin-run rooms are ranked across stand-up, improv, and sketch, with door minimums printed where the venues publish them and the published absence of one printed where they do not. Two of the ten share owners, which this page says out loud because both make competing claims to being the oldest. The clubs owned by national groups are in the cut list.
Austin’s comedy scene splits into three kinds of rooms and it helps to know which one you are buying a ticket to. Stand-up clubs book touring headliners and local comics into a showroom, usually with a door minimum: the Velveeta Room, East Austin Comedy, Rozco’s, Sunset Strip, and The Creek and The Cave. Improv and sketch theatres run their own ensembles and, crucially, their own schools, which is where most of the city’s comics actually come from: the Hideout, ColdTowne, and Fallout. And then there is Esther’s Follies, a sketch, satire, and magic revue that its own site says has been running for 50 years, which is genuinely unlike anything else in American comedy.
The practical fact this page exists to publish is the door policy. Comedy clubs make their money on minimums, and two of the rooms here print one: Rozco’s requires two drinks and Sunset Strip two items, both on top of the ticket. Two others print the opposite in writing, which is just as useful: Esther’s answers its own FAQ with “No drink minimum”, and The Creek and The Cave lists “No minimum purchase” among the venue facts at the top of its page. East Austin Comedy runs a third model, bring your own beer with tickets at $10 to $15, and the improv theatres mostly just sell a seat. Ages differ too, from no minimum age at all at Esther’s and the Hideout to 18 and up at Rozco’s and 21 and up at Sunset Strip and The Creek and The Cave.
One thing to check before you drive: two of the three improv and sketch theatres are in rooms they say are temporary. The Hideout now performs in a 35-seat space on North Lamar and is raising money to relocate again, and ColdTowne’s site says the building holding its East 2nd Street space is set to be replaced with condominiums when the lease expires. Addresses on this page are the ones each theatre publishes today.
Two names are missing and both are explained in the cut list. Cap City Comedy Club, the north Austin room that books the touring circuit, turns out to be part of a national club group: Helium Comedy’s own site lists it among its clubs alongside nine others around the country, and this page ranks independent, Austin-run rooms. And Comedy Mothership, the 6th Street club that draws the biggest names in comedy, blocked our requests on both of the days we tried to read its site, so this page has nothing sourced about it and says so rather than ranking or cutting it on reputation. Everything ranked here comes from what the venue publishes about itself.
- 01 · 6th Street, downtown
Esther’s Follies
Photo courtesy of Esther’s Follies The strangest and most Austin thing in American comedy, and by its own count it has been running for 50 years. Esther’s Follies puts political satire, comedy sketches, Vegas-style magic, and musical numbers on one 6th Street stage, performed by a cast of actors, entertainers, and musicians who are named on the site. It calls itself Austin’s longest-running comedy show, which is a different claim from the longest-running comedy club at rank two, and the two are worth reading together for a reason neither site hides: the same owners are behind both rooms. Two answers in its own FAQ do more for a first-timer than any of that history. There is no drink minimum, and there is no minimum age requirement.
In Ellana Breedlove’s words: “Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton had a dream, and it was a weird one! 50 years later of live shows every weekend on 6th Street.”
Thursday through Saturday, with 7:00 pm shows all three nights and a 9:00 pm late show on Friday and Saturday. Ninety minutes with a five-minute intermission. Tickets from $30 plus a $5.75 service fee, printed on the site. No drink minimum, no minimum age, reserved seating, and a full bar. 525 East Sixth Street.
Visit their site - 02 · 521 East 6th Street
The Velveeta Room
Established 1988, and by its own account the longest-running comedy club in Austin, with one piece of context the club itself supplies: its about page names its owners, Shannon Sedwick and Michael Shelton, as the founders of Esther’s Follies, and calls the room a proud member of the Esther’s family of venues. So the two oldest claims on this page come from the same house, on the same block. The room moved to its current address in 1993, into a former adult cinema, and brought the mirrors from the strip club it started in along with it. Programming is a mix of veteran headliners and rising stars six nights a week, and the club is direct about what it is not: no edgelord wannabes, no tired shock-value acts, just comics working. Its history page names Devon Walker and Andrew Dismukes of Saturday Night Live among the comics who came up on that stage, and Ron White, Bill Hicks, and Doug Stanhope among those who played it.
Six nights a week, dark on Tuesdays, with 8:00 and 10:00 pm sets on Fridays and Saturdays. Full schedule and tickets on the site. Private events bookable. 521 East 6th Street.
Visit their site - 03 · North Loop
The Hideout Theatre
Austin’s longest-running improv theater and school by its own description, and the most detailed curriculum published by any comedy institution in the city. The ladder runs nine levels above a free intro class, and the site describes them specifically enough to know what you are signing up for. Level Four is an advanced scene-study class with a strong direct-feedback component, meeting three hours a week for six weeks with a twelve-student cap and ending in a student showcase in the Sunday Weekender. Level Five is a run of self-directed shows in a format you pick, from shortform games to narrative longform. The theatre performs in a 35-seat room on North Lamar with free parking, and is raising money to relocate, so confirm the address when you buy.
Free intro class offered, then nine levels. Shows Thursday through Sunday. Calendar, classes, and kids programs on the site. 5555 North Lamar Boulevard, Unit B103, with free parking.
Visit their site - 04 · East 2nd Street
ColdTowne Theater
Austin’s home for alternative comedy since 2006, in its own words, with the origin story to match: the three men behind it evacuated New Orleans in September 2005, right after Hurricane Katrina, started a long-form Chicago-style improv training center next door to the I Luv Video store, and opened the theater on October 28th, 2006 with the troupe The Frank Mills. It shows improv, sketch, and stand-up seven nights a week, its conservatory runs classes on weeknights and weekend afternoons, and it lists UCB classes separately from those. The corporate side is unusually concrete for a comedy theater: the site names Whole Foods, eBay, Dell Computers, and SXSW Interactive among the clients it has built training for, and it rents the venue and books private shows. Worth knowing before you plan around it, because the theatre says it plainly: the building holding its current space is set to be replaced with condominiums when the lease expires.
Shows seven nights a week; conservatory classes weeknights and weekend afternoons. 1700 East 2nd Street. Venue rental, private shows, and corporate workshops bookable. A sponsored project of the Austin Creative Alliance.
Visit their site - 05 · East 6th Street
East Austin Comedy Club
The eighty-two-seat room, and the clearest value proposition in Austin comedy. Founded by Raza Jafri, East Austin Comedy runs shows seven days a week with tickets at ten to fifteen dollars, and instead of a two-drink minimum it is bring-your-own: beer, wine, anything, with popcorn inside and a food truck out back. The site is candid about why the room is small, low ceilings and dim lights and eighty-two seats, because every laugh lands harder in a room that size, and it publishes its door timings to the minute, which matters when a set runs seventy to ninety minutes and a late arrival can forfeit a seat to the waitlist.
Tickets $10 to $15; BYOB. 18 and up to enter, 21 and up to drink. Doors open 20 minutes before showtime and close 15 minutes after. Open 7:00 to 9:00 pm Monday and Tuesday, to 11:00 pm Wednesday and Thursday, 6:00 pm to midnight Friday and Saturday, and 6:00 to 11:00 pm Sunday. 2505 East 6th Street, Suite D.
Visit their site - 06 · 616 Lavaca, downtown
Fallout Theater
Austin’s underground comedy, in its own words, and the most format-agnostic room on this page: improv, sketch, and stand-up share one calendar, and the listings make the experimental streak obvious. Recent weeks have held a Dungeons and Dragons inspired comedy show, live improvised Broadway-style musicals, a night built for women and nonbinary comedians, a magician and a clown double-booked into the same slot, and a Gothic social deduction comedy show. It is also a school, home to what the site calls Austin’s School of Comedy, and it runs corporate improv workshops. It is the only one of the three improv and sketch theatres here that is downtown.
Two or three shows a night on the published calendar, which currently runs Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, with tickets per show on the site. Some shows are BYOB. Classes and corporate workshops listed separately. 616 Lavaca, Austin.
Visit their site - 07 · 418 East 6th Street
Vulcan Gas Company
A 6th Street room whose calendar is comedy first these days, anchored by a weekly Kill Tony Regulars night that holds the Tuesday slot months out on the published listings, with Bingo Loco parties, a touring headliner or two, and music nights filling the rest. Every listing carries both an RSVP and a ticket link, which is the tell of a room that wants a headcount before the doors open. It is also the reason this page and our live music page disagree about the same address: the music venues list cut it for exactly this programming, and this one ranks it for exactly the same reason.
Tickets and RSVPs per show on the site; private events bookable. 418 East 6th Street.
Visit their site - 08 · East 7th Street
Rozco’s Comedy Club
The East 7th stand-up room, open 7:00 pm to midnight seven days a week depending on showtimes, with a door policy published in full on the homepage: 18 and up, a two-drink minimum, no recording, no heckling, no backpacks, no outside drinks, digital tickets emailed after purchase, and all sales final. Publishing all of that up front is a courtesy most clubs skip, and it tells you exactly what kind of room to expect: a straightforward comedy club that takes the show seriously enough to say so before you buy. Its mailing list exists to drop free tickets.
18 and up; two-drink minimum, and the site notes the ticket price does not include alcohol. No recording or heckling. Nightly 7:00 pm to midnight depending on showtimes. 1805 East 7th Street.
Visit their site - 09 · 214 East 6th Street
Sunset Strip Comedy Club
The 6th Street club with the open-mic list published on its own site, which is how a room signals it is part of the local comedy pipeline rather than only a stop for touring acts. The house rules are printed in full, 21 and up with a two-item minimum the ticket does not cover, no recording or heckling, and the club makes two disclosures most venues leave out: a photographer shoots every show and the crowd pictures get used, and episodes of a series it calls Austin Live are filmed there for the internet. Both are worth knowing before you sit in the front row. Its mailing list gives away free tickets, which is the cheapest way into a 6th Street comedy night.
21 and up; two-item minimum per person on top of the ticket. Open-mic list and events on the site; mailing list gives away tickets. 214 East 6th Street, Unit C.
Visit their site - 10 · 611 East 7th Street, downtown
The Creek and The Cave
Your favorite comics’ favorite Austin comedy club, in its own words, and the room that answers this page’s central question most bluntly: no minimum purchase, listed among the venue facts at the top of its own page. It is also where the city’s comics work out material, with two open mics a night from Sunday through Thursday, an early one and a late one, ten a week in all, under a happy hour it advertises on the honest principle that when the jokes are new the drinks are cheaper. The club runs free shows alongside the ticketed ones, keeps a food truck and a full bar on site, and stays open until 2:00 am every night of the week, which makes it the late option once the 6th Street showrooms have turned their crowds out.
No minimum purchase. 21 and up, valid ID required. Doors 30 minutes before each show, first-come seating, and no photos or video once the show starts. Open until 2:00 am daily, from 3:00 pm Sunday and 3:30 pm Saturday. Food truck and full bar on site; no stairs, and aisle seats available. 611 East 7th Street.
Visit their site
Independent Austin picks like these, three a week, in a free email from Carissa.
Considered and cut
Places that came up in the research and did not make the list, and why.
- Cap City Comedy ClubThe hardest cut on this page, and one a reader deserves the reasoning for. Cap City is a genuinely good north Austin room that books the touring circuit weekly, and it publishes the things this page cares about right across the top of its own homepage: listed price includes fees, 18 and up, a two-item minimum in the showroom, and a warning to beware of third-party ticket resellers. It is also, by the parent company’s own website, part of a national group. Helium Comedy lists six clubs under its own name and four more under “our other clubs”, and Cap City is one of the four, alongside nine rooms from Philadelphia to Portland. This page ranks independent, Austin-run rooms, the same standard that cuts the Live Nation venues from our live music list. Go see a show there; it is just not an independent.
- Comedy MothershipNot evaluated, and that is the honest word. The 6th Street club draws the biggest touring names in the country, and its website returned a rate-limit error on every request we made, on the research date and again on the fact-check date three weeks later. Nothing on this page could be sourced from it. Ranking it on reputation or cutting it on silence would both be wrong; it is recorded here and will be re-checked at the next refresh.
- ComedySportz AustinThe long-running clean, all-ages improv show moved out of Austin proper. Its own site answers the question directly in its FAQ: new May 2026 shows are at Premier Music Academy in Round Rock, Saturdays at 7:30. A geography cut, not a judgment, and worth knowing if you were looking for it in town.
- The Green Room at Mr. Nice Guys and Black Rabbit ComedyThe two alternates, and both are unevaluated for the same reason. Neither site could be reached by our tools on the research date or on the fact-check date three weeks later, so this page has nothing sourced about either room and will not describe one it could not read. Both are real, both are first to re-check, and neither absence is a judgment.
- 29th Street BallroomA bar and venue that books comedy among its shows. Our census files it under comedy clubs; its own site calls it a bar and venue, publishes a dedicated music booking address, and describes itself as a place for loud music. We file it where it files itself.
Questions
- Do Austin comedy clubs have a drink minimum?
- Some do and some publish that they do not, which is why it is worth checking before you go. Rozco’s requires two drinks and Sunset Strip two items, both on top of the ticket, and Cap City, in the cut list, requires two items as well. Esther’s Follies answers its own FAQ with “No drink minimum”, and The Creek and The Cave lists “No minimum purchase” among the facts at the top of its page. East Austin Comedy runs the opposite model, bring your own beer or wine with tickets at $10 to $15, and the improv and sketch theatres, the Hideout, ColdTowne, and Fallout, generally just sell a seat.
- What is the oldest comedy club in Austin?
- Two venues make related but different claims on their own sites, and there is one thing to know before you weigh them: they share owners. Esther’s Follies says it is Austin’s longest-running comedy show, at 50 years by its homepage and nearly 50 by its about page. The Velveeta Room says it is the longest-running comedy club, established in 1988 with more than 38 years behind it, and its about page names its owners as the founders of Esther’s and calls the room part of the Esther’s family of venues. This page prints both claims as theirs rather than picking a winner, because the claims are about different things and because the same house makes both. The Hideout Theatre makes a claim in its own lane as Austin’s longest-running improv theater and school.
- Where can you take improv classes in Austin?
- Three theatres on this page run real schools. The Hideout Theatre publishes a nine-level ladder above a free intro class, and describes Level Four in detail: three hours a week for six weeks, capped at twelve students, ending in a student showcase in the Sunday Weekender. ColdTowne runs a conservatory on weeknights and weekend afternoons and lists UCB classes separately. Fallout Theater is home to what it calls Austin’s School of Comedy. All three also run corporate workshops.
- Which Austin comedy club is best for a cheap night out?
- East Austin Comedy, on both counts: tickets are $10 to $15 and the room is BYOB, so the drinks that usually double the cost of a comedy night are whatever you carried in. The Creek and The Cave is the other answer, with free shows in the mix, no minimum purchase, and a cheaper bar during its nightly open mics. Sunset Strip and Rozco’s both give away tickets to their mailing lists, and the improv theatres are generally cheaper than the stand-up showrooms because they do not run a minimum.
- Are Austin comedy clubs 18 and up or 21 and up?
- It varies and the venues publish it. Rozco’s is 18 and up with a two-drink minimum, East Austin Comedy is 18 to enter and 21 to drink, and Sunset Strip and The Creek and The Cave are both 21 and up, the latter requiring a valid ID. At the other end, Esther’s Follies and the Hideout Theatre both state that there is no minimum age at all, with the content rated by the show rather than the door.
- Where do Austin comics perform before they are headliners?
- The open mics and the schools. The Creek and The Cave runs two mics a night from Sunday through Thursday, ten a week, and Sunset Strip keeps a public open-mic list on its own site. The Hideout, ColdTowne, and Fallout all run class programs whose upper levels end in student-run shows, which is where most working Austin improvisers come from. East Austin Comedy’s seven-nights-a-week calendar mixes local comics with touring headliners.
How this list was made
This list started from our census of Austin businesses tagged as comedy clubs, a small pool that also contains a music venue or two and, in one case, a venue this page ranks and our live music page cuts, for the same reason in both directions: its calendar is comedy-first today. Reading every candidate’s own site sorted the rooms into stand-up clubs, improv and sketch theatres, and one long-running revue, all of which are ranked and labeled. Three rules govern the list. First, comedy-first: the room’s product is comedy on a published calendar, which cuts a music venue that books the occasional comedy night. Second, Austin proper: a long-running improv show that moved its performances to Round Rock is cut on geography, with its own announcement cited. Third, independence, which cuts a club owned by a national group and, where two ranked rooms turn out to share owners, discloses it rather than letting the page imply otherwise. Every showtime, age policy, minimum, and ticket price printed here is as published on each venue’s own site on the day we checked it, and where two venues make competing historical claims, both are printed as their own claims rather than adjudicated. One well-known club could not be read at all because its site rate-limited every request on both check dates; it is recorded as unevaluated rather than ranked or cut, because a business should not be judged on hearsay, and two alternates go unevaluated for the same reason. Nobody paid to be here, no venue saw the list before publication, and the cut list explains every near-miss.
The census number that explains a comedy night in Austin: our census tags sixteen venues as comedy clubs inside the city, and thirteen of them run a site we could actually read. Among those thirteen, three publish a mandatory two-item or two-drink minimum on top of the ticket, two publish in writing that they have no minimum at all, one is bring-your-own with tickets starting at ten dollars, and three are theatres running published class ladders rather than showrooms. The city’s comedy economy runs on two models that look identical from the sidewalk, a club that makes its money at the bar and a theatre that makes it teaching, and the ticket price tells you almost nothing about which one you have bought. The door policy does.
Related
One edition, every Thursday morning.
What to do, eat, and know in Austin, in a five-minute read.