Austin Comedy News: The Hideout's Outpost, Chappelle's Phone Jail and Ali Wong

The biggest Austin comedy story this month is about a building nobody can find. KUT reported on October 12 that the Hideout Theatre, which spent 26 years at Seventh and Congress, is still between homes. The building's new owner wanted to turn it into a bar. In Austin that isn't a plan, it's a reflex. The Hideout signed a lease on a new place in South Austin, that deal fell through, and the improv theater that outlasted half of downtown is now working out of an annex at 5555 N. Lamar Blvd., Suite B103, in an office park around the corner from a Goodwill.

KUT puts the new room at about 40 seats; a photo caption in the same story says 35, so bring a friend and settle it yourselves. The old place had two theaters, 89 seats downstairs and 49 up. Artistic director Roy Janik calls the annex an "outpost," and he wants the next permanent home to have a 200-seat theater, a second stage, classrooms and a coffeehouse. The Hideout is one of six local arts groups in Artspace's Immersion program, paid for by the Moody Foundation, which teaches arts people about real estate. Teaching improvisers Austin real estate is like teaching a cat to swim. It can be done, but nobody involved is going to enjoy the results.

What you need to know: the Hideout says most shows cost nothing to $20, there are no online ticket fees, and there's free parking in a big lot. Free parking, in Austin. They lost Congress Avenue and found the one thing Congress Avenue never had.

Across town, Dave Chappelle brings Karmageddon to the Moody Center on Monday, October 26, with a second night Tuesday that the venue says it added because of demand. It's phone-free. Your phone goes into a locked pouch, there are pat-downs, and the venue's page says anyone caught with a phone inside gets thrown out. The page also lists no age restriction, so somewhere a parent is going to spend the drive home explaining a great deal. A man who has spent years saying he can't speak freely will talk for two nights to an arena where everyone's phone is in jail. Say what you like about cancel culture, but it has never had better security.

The rest of the week is below. Ali Wong plays Bass Concert Hall on Thursday. Daniel Sloss is at ACL Live on Monday, so Chappelle's crowd has competition for the evening. And the Fallout Theater downtown has a Halloween variety show set in a haunted luxury high-rise, which is the scariest premise in town since the last property appraisal.

It's a funny town. It can fill an arena with people paying to hear a millionaire talk, and it can't find 200 seats for people making things up for twenty bucks. That's what they mean by a growing city: the rent grows, and the artists learn to improvise.