Critical Hit! Live Stand Up Comedy

Critical Hit! Live comedy every Saturday in Oakland

Voted "Best Comedy Night" in the 2025 East Bay Express reader poll

Critical Hit! is Oakland's best live comedy show at a board game store! Come hang out with us every Saturday as we roll back the shelves, pull down the stage, turn on the spotlights and put on a hell of a show!

Every week we bring you some of the best comics from the Bay Area and beyond. And we're BYOB!

Comics on Critical Hit! have appeared on Conan, Comedy Central, Funny or Die, SNL, the Tonight Show, and movies including D**ks: The Musical and Sorry To Bother You.

Over ten years of shows we've gotten to work with some of our favorites including After Midnight's Taylor Tomlinson, SNL's James Austin Johnson, The Dork Forest's Jackie Kashian, plus John Roy, Hampton Yount, Dave Ross, Kiry Shabazz, and more!

$12 online, $15 at the door or last minute.

Early Bird tickets available for $7.50 until a week before showtime.

Check us out on Instagram @criticalhitcomedy!

Some basic facts about the show to keep the search engines happy: we’re centrally located in North Oakland on historic Telegraph Avenue. We’re a perfect destination for a trip to Temescal/Koreatown, with easy access to other fun neighborhoods including Downtown Oakland, Elmwood, Rockridge, and Piedmont.

We’re a short bus, BART, bike or car ride away from UC Berkeley, making us a popular destination for Cal students. Our great public transit access and okay parking situation means that people come to see us from all over the East Bay, and sometimes from SF and beyond!

Critical Hit is equally good as a group activity, a date night, or a solo adventure for people just looking to get out of the house. We’re a favorite spot for locals, but also a great destination for tourists. And just in case search engines are still reading, you could also describe us as Oakland nightlife, Oakland entertainment, East Bay comedy, Oakland comedy, and affordable events Oakland!

About the show

Critical Hit! is hosted by Adrianna McCain, Erik Krasner, Hayden Greif-Neill, and Tirumari Jothi at It's Your Move Games & Hobbies in Temescal. We've been a local favorite since 2013 -- eleven years and counting!

Every week, we invite some of our favorite comedians to perform. Along with the producers, you can expect to see about 3 fantastic comics and a headliner who'll do a longer set at the end of the show.

Doors open at 7:30pm and the show starts at 8pm. We highly encourage you to arrive before 8 so you can get seated before we turn down the lights and start the show.

The show ends between 9:30pm and 10pm.

About the venue

It's Your Move Games & Hobbies is a community minded, independently owned and operated game store in Oakland's Historic Temescal District. It's Your Move has great popular and local games for sale and for rent with space to play!

Audience testimonials

"The comedians were TERRIFIC (with mostly clean jokes) in an intimate and relaxed atmosphere." - Mari B.

"What an amazing bargain for top-flight entertainment! ... I was blown away by the quality of the comedians and the energy from the crowd." - Sean C.

"New line ups every week with diverse talents, highly recommend." - Charmphera L.

More information

Still have questions, comments, concerns, or suggestions?

The best way to get in contact is to message our Instagram page. We try to respond to messages within a few hours.