From hot streaks and hot messes to cold feet and cold cases, no angle is off limits. Expect fiery arguments, frosty rebuttals, and plenty of ridiculous reasoning as our debaters try to prove that their side reigns supreme. One thing's for sure: this night will be anything but lukewarm. With performances by Michael Ian Black (Have I Got News for You), Ray Cordova (Astronomy Club), Jake Cornell (Hey Big Guy), Ariel Elias (The Late Show with Stephen Colbert), Mia Jackson (Life & Beth), and Zach Zimmerman (Surprise Me), and featuring guest host Ophira Eisenberg.
The popular comedy debate series invites two teams of funny folks from the worlds of stand-up and late-night television to tackle topics of great importance to pop culture, such as which pet is superior—cats or dogs—and is it better to be comfortable or fashionable? The verbal sparring and all-around absurdity only stop when the audience decides the winner.
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Past Performers include Elna Baker, Maria Bamford, Michael Ian Black, Guy Branum, Wyatt Cenac, Ronny Chieng, Jo Firestone, John Fugelsang, Janeane Garofalo, Jon Glaser, Ilana Glazer, Josh Gondelman, Dave Hill, Maeve Higgins, Mehran Khaghani, Julie Klausner, Hasan Minhaj, Aparna Nancherla, Kristen Schaal, Baratunde Thurston, Kevin Townley, Michael Showalter, Dan Soder, Bowen Yang, Sasheer Zamata, and many more.
Michael Ian Black is known for such seminal television programs as The State, Stella, and Michael and Michael Have Issues, all of which he co-created, wrote, and starred in. In addition to performing stand-up across the country, Black has appeared in many films and television shows, including Superman, Ed, Wet Hot American Summer, Burning Love, They Came Together, The Jim Gaffigan Show, Inside Amy Schumer, VH1’s I Love the '80s,The Good Fight, Another Period, Insatiable, Reno 911!, and Wet Hot American Summer: 10 Years Later. He has written best-selling books for both children and adults, including A Better Man: A (Mostly Serious) Letter to My Son, published in 2020. Black currently hosts the podcast Obscure and can be seen on CNN’s satirical news quiz show Have I Got News for You. His latest special, First Annual Retirement Special, premiered in August.
Ray Cordova is an actor, comedian, writer and producer. He is the co-creator, co-producer, and co-star of the Netflix series Astronomy Club: The Sketch Show, inspired by the improv ensemble of the same name. The Astronomy Club ensemble was the first all-Black improv ensemble at Upright Citizens Brigade NYC. Additional screen credits include Power Book III: Raising Kanan, Syd & Mike, Quirks, and And Just Like That…, among others. Cordova is a longtime talent and instructor with the Uprights Citizens Brigade, and regularly performs live at venues across the city.
Jake Cornell is a Brooklyn-based comedian, actor, and writer. He gained notoriety through his hilarious portrayals of characters such as a gay Brooklyn dad, a TikTok astrologer, and Kyrsten Sinema’s stylist. His ability to blend absurdity with sharp social observations landed him on Vogue’s list of the 8 Funniest Accounts on TikTok. He has also been featured in The Cut, Broadway World, and Logo TV. His show Man & Woman, co-created with Marcia Belsky, ran at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival summer 2022 to critical acclaim. Cornell’s solo show, Hey Big Guy, debuted in New York in 2024 to sold-out crowds ahead of a nationwide tour.
Ariel Elias was named a New Face in Comedy at the 2021 Just for Laughs Comedy Festival. She made her late-night debut in 2022 on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and has also appeared on Good Morning America, Sherri, The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, and The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel. She has been featured in The New York Times, Rolling Stone, and The Washington Post, and performs live from coast to coast in the United States and Canada. Her hour-long special A Jewish Star debuted on YouTube in 2025.
Mia Jackson was named a New Face in Comedy by the Just for Laughs Comedy Festival, and Atlanta's Creative Loafing named her the Critic's Choice Best Stand-Up in the city in 2017. On screen, Jackson has appeared on NickMom Night Out, Viceland, Comedy Central's This Week at the Comedy Cellar, and Funny AF with Kevin Hart, and she was a semi-finalist on NBC's Last Comic Standing. Her Comedy Central half hour special debuted in November 2019, and in 2021, she performed voiceover work as the narrator of My Celebrity Dream Wedding on VH1. Jackson has toured nationally with Amy Schumer and is a featured comic at festivals and clubs across the country, and has written for the series Life & Beth and I Love Us.
Zach Zimmerman is a comedian and writer. They have been featured on Wait Wait… Don't Tell Me!, The Late Late Show with James Corden, Watch What Happens Live with Andy Cohen, and After Midnight, and their writing has appeared in McSweeney’s, Vulture, The Washington Post, and The New Yorker, among other publications. Zimmerman’s debut essay collection, Is It Hot in Here? (Or Am I Suffering for All Eternity for the Sins I Committed on Earth?), was named a Barnes & Noble Best Book of 2023. Their latest comedy special, Surprise Me, premiered in 2025.
HOST
Ophira Eisenberg is a stand-up comedian, writer, and podcast host who headlines theaters and comedy venues across the world, tours regularly with The Moth Mainstage, and hosts the weekly parenting-comedy podcast Parenting is a Joke. Her new comedy special, I Used to Be Nicer, is available now. She also hosted NPR’s trivia comedy show Ask Me Another for 9 years. Her breakout memoir Screw Everyone: Sleeping My Way to Monogamy has been optioned for a television series, and her solo show Leaving A Mark: A Comedy About Scars won the Women in the Arts & Media Award for Solo Show Scripts and just finished a successful European tour. She recently returned from the Just For Laughs festival where she performed her third gala for CBC/Global Television.
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