ComedySportz San Jose

Founding (1987)

Jeff Kramer founded ComedySportz San Jose in September 1987, posting flyers at San Jose State University and Santa Clara University to recruit the company's first players. Jeff Ringgold and Tom Gough were among the original cast members. The company premiered at the Bold Knight restaurant and became Silicon Valley's first sustained improv comedy show.

Programming and Venues

ComedySportz San Jose moved through several venues over the decades, including Camera 3 Cinema at 288 S. 2nd Street in downtown San Jose, before settling at its current home at 5440-D Thornwood Drive in South San Jose. The company performs Fridays and Saturdays, presenting the standard ComedySportz two-team competitive format in which audience members serve as judges.

Recognition and Community Engagement

In 2006 ComedySportz San Jose won the ComedySportz World Championship. The company has performed at Montreal's Just for Laughs Festival and been named Best Local Theatre by Metro Newspaper. ComedySportz San Jose has supported Ronald McDonald House, Second Harvest Foodbank, and YMCA's Project Cornerstone through charitable programming. The High School League operates with eighteen or more participating schools across multiple area districts and is among the largest in the ComedySportz franchise network.

ComedySportz San Jose presents the competitive short-form improv format established by Dick Chudnow in Milwaukee in 1984, with two teams competing for audience approval through improv games. The company operates with an explicit family-friendly commitment and no religious or political content. Its High School League extends the ComedySportz model into education across Silicon Valley.