I spent two evenings this week at Kickstand Comedy, and though I now feel like human garbage (show that doesn’t start until after 10 + early-morning obligations = instant cavewoman), I suggest without reservations that you do the same. For anyone who doesn’t know what I’m talking about, Kickstand Comedy is our city’s newest comedy performance space, and the only one—as many have said loudly and often—housed underneath a bike store (Velo Cult).

I’ve always had a fondness for improvised (get it?!) arts spaces, and on that front, Kickstand delivers. It is almost absurdly tiny and hidden. You have to sneak around Velo Cult’s bar and down a flight of raggedy-carpeted stairs, then past a wall of bikes, to find it. Inside, it’s simple and warm: black walls, mikestand, 45 velvet-topped theater seats (which were mostly full both nights I was there), and a ceiling-mounted camera that co-founder Dylan Reiff explained is there so that performers can watch playback of their work to make it better.

And that’s Kickstand’s purpose, he said in interview before last night’s slate of shows began, along with co-founder Garrett Palm. (Co-founding members also include Dan Weber and Nick Baird). Palm and Reiff intend for the space to be a spot where you can see experienced performers, and also test out material in “something like a comedy gym.” This week’s soft open—which started on Monday, with a Lez Stand Up-hosted open mic, and continues tonight with two mystery shows—is in keeping with that mission. Monday’s open mic was an exploratory set: Caitlin Weierhauser started things off by telling the story of the worst thing she’s ever done (I am protecting her funny-awful secret), which prompted a free-form exploration of regret from the performers who followed. It was a very funny, very unexpected thing to watch. One of the complaints I often hear about going to tons of stand-up shows is that you start to hear the same jokes after a while. If that’s how you feel, you should go to Lez Stand Up’s open mic. It is the greatest safe-space comedy cure for the Mondays—AND there are snacks.

I’d also be remiss not to mention last night’s first installment of Earthquake Hurricane, co-hosted by Bri Pruett, Curtis Cook, Anthony Lopez, and Alex Falcone, with guests Sean Jordan, Nathan Brannon, Whitney Streed, and Sean Connery. If you’re familiar with any of those people, then it should be no surprise that this show’s sets were uniformly great, although Curtis Cook’s was my favorite. Perhaps this is a personal problem, but I just love listening to someone yell about how inappropriate it is to listen to Death Cab For Cutie un-ironically. The timbre of his great, shouty set is captured by the above embedded tweet. Fine job, sir.

You can read more about Kickstand’s soft open in the paper that comes out next Wednesday. Luckily for us, Kickstand’s fine offerings will be happening weekly once the holidays are over, and I plan to be at many of them. If you enjoy laughing, so should you.

UPDATE: This post has been updated with a full list of Kickstand’s co-founders, which, in addition to Garrett Palm and Dylan Reiff, also includes Dan Weber and Nick Baird.