RISE Comedy

Opening as Voodoo Comedy Playhouse (2011)

Stephen Wilder opened Voodoo Comedy Playhouse on October 26, 2011, at 1260 22nd Street in Denver's Five Points neighborhood, establishing Colorado's primary dedicated improv comedy venue. The space features a full bar and presents shows five nights per week across improv, sketch, and stand-up.

Hit and Run Musical Improv

Voodoo Comedy Playhouse became home to Hit and Run Musical Improv, Colorado's premier improvised musical team and Denver's longest-running improv show, which built an audience through the venue's consistent programming.

Rebrand to RISE Comedy

The company rebranded from Voodoo Comedy Playhouse to RISE Comedy at some point after its 2011 founding, retaining the Five Points venue, programming model, and training center.

Alumni

RISE Comedy alumni have appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, BoJack Horseman, Better Call Saul, The Office, and Parks and Recreation.

RISE Comedy programs improv, sketch, and stand-up from its Five Points Denver venue, operating as Colorado's most comprehensive improv training center alongside a weekly performance schedule. Hit and Run Musical Improv's long-running tenure at the space reflects the company's commitment to sustained ensemble work.

Hit and Run Musical Improv: Denver's longest-running improv show, performing for 19 years as of 2025 and creating hundreds of fully improvised Broadway-style musicals from audience suggestions, each accompanied by a live in-house musician composing spontaneously. The ensemble holds the title of Colorado's premier improvised musical comedy team and performs exclusively at RISE Comedy's Five Points venue. RISE Comedy Festival: an annual multi-day comedy festival, with the 2026 edition scheduled for July 24 through August 1, featuring improv, stand-up, and sketch programming. Main Stage improv shows and Hideaway performances round out the regular programming calendar.

RISE Comedy, founded on October 26, 2011 by Stephen Wilder under the name Voodoo Comedy Playhouse, established the Five Points neighborhood as a center for comedy in Denver, offering a permanent home for long-form and musical improv, sketch, stand-up, and clowning in a city without a major institutional improv anchor. Wilder, an alumnus of iO West and Second City Hollywood with three decades of performance experience, built the venue's training center around faculty who trained at iO Chicago, Second City, the Groundlings, Annoyance, and UCB, creating a Denver program with direct ties to the national improv network. Alumni of RISE Comedy have appeared on The Late Show, Better Call Saul, and Parks and Recreation.

In 2016, Wilder co-founded the Diversity in Colorado Improvisation group, which catalyzed an ongoing shift toward greater inclusivity in the Colorado improv scene. The annual RISE Comedy Festival has grown into a regional gathering point for touring and local comedy artists, and the venue's five-nights-per-week programming schedule has made it the most active comedy performance space in Denver.