Off the Cuff Comedy

Founding (2004)

Off the Cuff Comedy launched in January 2004 at the Grind Coffeehouse in Cedar City, founded by performers with ties to Southern Utah University who sought consistent improv opportunities in a region with limited access to such programming. The company built a regular Friday-night show format that has run continuously since founding.

Ongoing Run

Operating from 913 South Main Street in Cedar City, OTC Comedy has presented its unique blend of short-form and long-form improv every Friday night for more than twenty-two years, establishing it as the primary improv institution in southern Utah.

Off the Cuff Comedy presents a distinctive blend of short-form and long-form improv formats in Cedar City's weekly Friday-night comedy space, serving the Southern Utah University community and the broader Cedar City area.

Off the Cuff Comedy presents its weekly Friday Night Show every Friday at 8 p.m., a recurring audience-driven improv performance that blends short-form and long-form formats and has run continuously since 2004. The Red Rocks Improv Festival, OTC's signature annual event, takes place each September in Cedar City and brings more than 20 improv companies from across the country to Southern Utah for a three-night run; the festival reached its 15th annual edition in September 2025. The company also performs regularly at Southern Utah University as part of the A.P.E.X. Event Series, connecting the troupe to its university community roots.

Off the Cuff Comedy grew out of the Improv Sports club at Southern Utah University, where founders Dave Armour, Mary Armour, Richy T. Steadman, T.J. Penrod, and Wendy Penrod began performing together. Steadman contacted Jonathan Holiman, owner of The Grind Coffeehouse, and secured a regular Friday night venue slot, with OTC's first public performance taking place in January 2004. The company subsequently moved to a dedicated space at 913 South Main Street, becoming Southern Utah's longest-running improv theatre and maintaining an essentially unbroken weekly performance record for more than two decades. Nearly every current cast member holds alumni status from Southern Utah University, preserving a direct institutional link to the company's founding community.

The Red Rocks Improv Festival has grown from a local event into a nationally recognized gathering: writer and director Brian James O'Connell, who has attended more than 100 comedy festivals, described it as one of the best in the country. The festival's 2025 edition drew companies from across the United States to Cedar City, a city otherwise known for the Utah Shakespeare Festival, establishing OTC as a significant node in the national improv touring circuit. The company's 20-plus years of continuous Friday night programming has made it a fixture in Cedar City's cultural life and a point of institutional memory for Southern Utah's performing arts community.