The service starts with organ music. Congregants are offered a program listing the officiants. Mega-Pastor Greg Kyte. Arch-Prophet Adam Broud. Lord & Savior Caleb Wall. The service plays out in this order: a lesson, message, music, sermon and benediction. There isn’t an altar, but there is a deep-red curtain behind the officiants. There are stools instead of pews. “Feel free to stick around,” Kyte tells the crowd in his introduction, “and let your soul get tarnished.” This is the setting for Comedy Church in Salt Lake City and the theme of this particular performance is mental health. The recurring comedy show, which started in Utah, has traveled to Texas, Arizona, Colorado, New York, even Canada. Kyte has done stand-up comedy since 2002. At that time, he was transitioning out of being a “zealous” evangelical Christian he was so devout at one point, he even transferred from the University of Washington to Brigham Young University to “convert all the Mormons to the real Jesus.” As his dedication to his faith faded, Kyte turned to comedy. “It was hard to not notice the similarities between a stand-up comedy show and a church service,” Kyte said. “So I kind of had this idea that was brewing for years of doing a show that somehow tied into my background in evangelical Christianity.” Another thing Kyte noticed: A lot of material from Utah comedians touched on religion, God and spirituality. So Comedy Church took shape in 2018 and has since been reflective of an actual church service, so much so that there’s a disclaimer at the beginning of each show. “The initial success of Comedy Church was not so much that we drew in huge crowds,” Kyte said, “it’s that the comedians that we had on the show as guest comics, they loved the show.” Each performance features comedians from all religious backgrounds. Among them is Utah comedian Anna Tibbitts, an active member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. After each set, Kyte and Broud interview performers about their history and thoughts on religion and the show’s theme for the night. “There [are] probably more parallels between a stand-up comedy show and a testimony meeting at a Mormon church,” Kyte said, “because you’ll have multiple speakers who come up [and] have a particular message that they’re trying to deliver.” Broud, a former Latter-day Saint, joined Comedy Church in 2020 and now runs the shows with Kyte. He jokes that the duo is trying to form a “cult” with its show. In the lesson portion of their mental health-themed show in September, the two talk about their own experiences through the lens of religion. “I felt like most of my mental health issues in religion came from perfectionism, trying to be just the perfect little Christian boy,” Broud tells the crowd, which cheers in agreement. “For instance, I used to get these anxious thoughts all the time that at the time I called promptings, and I now know them as the beginning stages of generalized anxiety disorder.” The lesson portion ends with a hilarious, anything-but-peaceful meditation guided by Kyte. It’s set to vaguely religious background music from Wall. When the show’s two featured comedians Brandon Henderson and Andy Gold take to the stage, their jokes are only made stronger by the interview that follows. When asked about his belief in a power bigger than him, Gold said he’s made peace with the fact that he doesn’t need to define it. He’s just fine with the mystery of it all. “I don’t understand why a sunset is so beautiful. I can’t explain why music moves us the way it does,” he said. “The mountains are gorgeous. There’s so many things that I experience every day that touch me at a level where it seems meaningful.” The show promises equal doses of laughter and seriousness. The music special between the sets is a raucous song from Wall. The chorus, “I’m a b for Jesus,” has people singing along irreverently. Comedy Church, Broud said, is about having a common language for something many people have experienced: religion. “You go to church, and you all speak the same language, because you all have the same stories, books and background in a lot of ways,” he said, “but after you leave religion, you still have that culture, that language of idioms, and you have no place to take that.” The next Comedy Church show is Sunday at Wiseguys comedy club at The Gateway in Salt Lake City.
https://www.sltrib.com/artsliving/2025/11/15/comedy-church-traveling-show-with/