Friendly Fire with Jo Ellis

Jo Ellis brings Friendly Fire to The Creek & the Cave on Thursday, August 20, from 10 to 11:30 PM. It's a late-night comedy show that takes the format of a talk show and puts it in a live club setting, recorded in front of a studio audience.

The structure pulls from a few different places at once. There are comedy headlines to start, standup sets, guest interviews, and a Q&A session with the audience. A live band runs through the whole thing, so it keeps the energy of a late-night TV broadcast rather than a standard comedy lineup. The show is recorded live at the venue, and the idea is that the crowd becomes part of the performance rather than just watching from their seats.

Ellis bills Friendly Fire as Austin's number-one live late-night TV show, and that's the pitch it works from: the polished feel of a television production meeting the spontaneity of a comedy club. Between the headlines, the standup, the interviews, and the band, it's a full night's worth of variety packed into a ninety-minute window.

Tickets are $15, and the show runs from 10 PM to 11:30 PM on Thursday, August 20, at The Creek & the Cave, 611 E. Seventh in Austin.