No fooling: Dry Heat Comedy Club is closing the curtains at its current location on April 1 and teaming up with another iconic downtown performance space. 

The two-year-old comedy club’s move into The Box Performance Space’s annex also marks a reunion of sorts. The Box is where Sarah Kennedy, co-owner of Dry Heat got her start. Kennedy says she spent five years as a member of the Broad Humor Production Group and produced more than a hundred shows and developed many show concepts. During her time there, Kennedy’s shows ran alongside The Box’s well-known house improv team, The Show.  

“They were gracious enough to let me and my producing partner at the time, do weekly stand up shows. We did that for quite a few years before I moved to New York and we’ve just always stayed in touch,” says Kennedy. 

Kennedy’s collaborative relationship with The Box co-owners Kristin Berg and Doug Montoya was reignited when Kennedy moved back to Albuquerque. But like nearly all plans in March 2020, cold water was thrown on the trio’s plans to open a local comedy club, thanks to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. By 2022, Kennedy launched “Comedy Ghost Town,” a podcast examining Albuquerque’s decade-long absence of a comedy club. By the end of the podcast’s run, Kennedy, along with her wife Kelli Trapnell, decided to open their own comedy club and Dry Heat was born. 

Kennedy says the move will help expand the reach of Dry Heat.

“We get a chance to kind of branch out a little bit more and hopefully bring in bigger out of town talent that needs spaces larger than 45 seats,” she says. 

Berg says finally combining resources will help both Dry Heat and The Box. 

“I think it’s really important for our local comedy scene to have a place where they can regularly perform. There just hasn’t been a place that stuck around long enough to do that,” says Berg. “Having dry heat here, we can really sustain each other and sustain the comedy scene here in Albuquerque.” 

The Box will continue to host improv classes as well as its regular weekly improv shows. 

Dry Heat’s “grand reopening” is on April 1 and will include cocktails from Hollow Spirits as well as performances from a bevy of local comedians.

Dry Heat’s Grand Re-Opening

100 Gold Ave SW Suite 112
April 1, 7:00 P.M.
Tickets: $15
18+/Bar with ID