About the Show

Price: $15 GA, $20 reserved

When: Wednesday 7:30

Spotlight: Join us for a supersized edition of the world's greatest stand-up competition! Each Wednesday for four straight weeks (July 9 - July 30), we'll have six different performers duke it out. Each "match" has comics doing sets back-to-back, and the audience chooses one person to advance. At the end of each Wednesday, we'll have a champion ... and of course, the audience ALWAYS wins. Once all four champs are determined, they'll return one more time for a no-holds-barred comedy battle (August 6). The winner of that match becomes our Comedy Kumite XL champion for 2025! This is a great way to enjoy top local talent, at a price that's a knockout.

Featuring: TBA

About the Comics

Chris White (official website) has been part of the DC comedy scene for more than a decade, both as a performer and as the guy who runs dcstandup.com. Working with the DC Improv, he produces and hosts The Other Side podcast, Happy Hour Trivia, the “Make Up Party" game night and Comedy Kumite stand-up tournaments. His comedy writing on the U.S. presidents has been featured on McSweeney’s, and he has two stand-up albums available on iTunes: “I Take Requests" and “Forbidden Style."

Kumite History

Comedy Kumite was first organized by Chris White around 2005 at venues in D.C. and Northern Virginia. Eight comedians squared off in a bracketed tournament, with the audience deciding the winner of each match with their cheers. The DC Improv worked with Chris to revive the format in its lounge showroom in the summer of 2015, showcasing the next wave of DMV talent. Kumites have returned every few months since then, always selling out in the lounge and sometimes even filling up the club's main showroom. While the venue was closed in 2020 and early 2021, six editions of the tournament were featured in the club's virtual showroom. More than 30 kumite champions have been crowned. You can see them all in the Comedy Kumite Hall of Fame.