MERCED, Calif. — Dejan Tyler has been doing stand-up comedy for 20 years.
But his first time performing in Merced a few weeks ago was different. The venue had a TV from the 1970’s with a grey static screen. Next to it, was a worn mustard yellow couch.
“When I walked in, I was scared because I [had] seen the TV and the first movie that I watched, that I wasn't supposed to watch, was Poltergeist,” the 47-year-old said.
In another corner sat a twin size bed with 90’s movie posters plastered on the wall.
Tyler said “that looked like my room when I was 12.”
Moving toward the stage, it had a brown recliner, big green plants and a window frame — no window pane — on the wall.
Tyler’s reaction? “This chair is giving me anxiety because one of my first girlfriends, her dad, had a chair like this.”
Of all the thoughts swirling in his head about the comedy show’s venue, the most shocking thing – he said – was the actual drive to Merced.
“From Sacramento to Merced, you smell 17 different flavors of as****e,” Tyler told the crowd, who burst out laughing.
The show Tyler was a part of is called Offline Comedy. Shows pop up a few times a month around the Central Valley. This time, it took place at a film studio, which explains the creative props and setting.
These kinds of shows have two rules.
First, they are hosted at a “secret” location each time. Second, people get a text with the address only on the morning of the event. And no phones are allowed.
The secret locations are usually odd on their own.
Andrew Nosrati, the creator of the comedy show, said the pop-up has hosted shows at gyms, hair salons, bookstores, a dog park, and even inside a laser tag room.
The reason guests are asked to turn off their phones is so that they can be fully present in the experience – rather than distracted with a notification.
The comics are raunchy and edgy – and alcohol is encouraged.
But the shows are good for more than a few drunken laughs.
“You're selling people experiences in 2025 to try and make it something that leaves an impression,” Nosrati, 37, said. “[Something that] combats what they have in their pockets and their hands.”
Comedy shows water a ‘creative desert’
Nosrati, a substitute teacher in Turlock, created Offline Comedy as a passion project. A couple years ago, he started spreading the word about his shows by talking to hairdressers in their salons, and hosting pop-up shows next to the dryers at a laundromat.
He’s betting that holding these types of shows adds to life in the Central Valley. He says the Valley can use a little bit more work in the arts and entertainment department.
“We were never like a super vibrant happening community,” Nosrati said. “There wasn't always things to do... I want to do things differently.”
He says people crave the kind of connection that the weird experiences were bringing to them. For other creative people in the region, it showed them what was possible.
“A little bit of absurdity opens up people's minds to all of the different things that they can do,” he said. “It's a nice change up to the status quo, the nine to five.”
Most shows are hosted at small local businesses. And this has a purpose in itself. Locals who attend are exposed to new parts of their town they may not have noticed before.
Micah Diele, the owner of Studio 99, a film studio, said going to these pop-up has certainly exposed him to more of his city.
“There's a lot of gas stations, you know what I mean,” Diele said. “But on the other side of it, there's a lot of good people and I think that's what gets overlooked a lot.”
Shows embrace the Valley’s purple politics
Nosrati says comedy also helps open up minds around politics and preconceived notions about others. At the recent show in Merced, he challenged both of those topics.
“I'm a Christian Middle Eastern,” Nosrati said on stage, a chuckle forming in his mouth. “I think my family just did it when we moved to Turlock. We're just like we got to figure this out!”
His jokes also deviated into poking fun at the stereotype about Christians voting for President Donald Trump.
“The problem is if you stare blue-eyed Jesus in the eyes for long enough, you start to see a MAGA cap up there,” he said, drawing a tense round of giggles from the group.
These tense moments in comedy are all part of the art, Nosrati says.
And it works for Merced County, a truly politically purple area – a term used where no major party has a solid hold on voters.
In the last elections, for example, while most voters in Merced County picked Trump for president, Democrat Adam Gray won the House District 13 contest.
Congressional races over the last two terms in this particular part of the country have been some of the closest.
At these shows, Nosrati brings everyone together. At any given pop-up, one can find people belonging to all generations, like millennials, generation z and baby boomers. Politics and comedy are a good match, he says.
“It's just a person with their thoughts and all of us either rejecting them or accepting them,” he said. “It's so raw and beautifully American.”
Stand-up comedy breaks everyday routine
As the show concluded on a recent night, the audience filled the room with applause – hollering, and even throwing out a blood-curdling scream.
Tyler, the experienced comedian, tells KVPR that what he saw at his first show in Merced is the community getting a little brighter.
“People come and have a good time and they go home and they spread that good vibe to their friends and family,” Tyler said.
Patrick Eley, another comedian who performed on the same night, said he thinks it’s important for rural areas like those in the Valley to see comedy in person. It connects people in a way technology can’t, he says.
“People are paying attention to a real person saying real things and not just watching it on TV and you could probably tell this is different than watching an Instagram reel,” Eley, 41, said. “It's better and there's a different energy.”
Mark Taylor, a 28-year-old high school teacher in Merced also says the shows help break up the mundane routine in most people’s days.
Where they typically go to work 9 to 5 p.m. – at these shows, they can add to it by grabbing a beer together, and giggling over jokes about their hometown.
“I think it gives us something to be proud of, like stuff that's going on here,” Taylor said.
