Humor and music combine during a new event series in Palm Springs!
Comedian Rhapsody is a monthly gathering of world-class comedians and musicians, taking place at Spirit Animal. Host Avery Pearson—a comedian, actor and musician with credits ranging from Saturday Night Live to Netflix to the Comedy Store—invites his talented friends to join him at the grand piano and create some musical comedy.
Catch the next edition of Avery Pearson’s Comedian Rhapsody, this time with special guest Josh Wolf, on Saturday, June 13.
During a recent Zoom chat with Pearson, he said the idea for Comedian Rhapsody stemmed from joke-song sessions.
“When I was a kid, I used to hang out with my buddies, and we would just stand in circles in parks and make up dumb songs together,” Pearson said. “We would just go around and around, and whoever had the funniest line won, so I just love comedy songs. As I got older and became a comedian, I just decided, ‘Well, I’ve got all these incredible friends who are world-class comedians; let’s see if they can do it, too’—and it turned out they could.”
The run-down of the show is quite simple: “The comic comes on; they do a set; and then I interview them; and then we sing an original comedy song,” Pearson said. “I’ve been doing it like that in L.A. for the better part of 10 years, and I’ve toured it in New York and at a bunch of festivals.”
Now that Comedian Rhapsody is in the desert, Pearson can live out his dreams of becoming “the next Frank Sinatra.”
“My parents have a place in Palm Desert, and I was always like, ‘I just want to have a Frank Sinatra moment, and have a place in Palm Springs where people can come watch a fun comedy music show,’” he said. “It’s easier to book something in Palm Springs than in L.A., because people are like, ‘Oh, cool, Palm Springs—sounds good!’”
Thanks to a connection with Adam Levy, who runs Spirit Animal, the show found a perfect home. At the venue, the show is presented in the round—meaning the performers are in the middle of the audience, instead of being on a stage.
“Normally, I do the show, and it’s kind of presentational where I’m onstage, and it’s me and a piano, and then the guest comes on,” Pearson said. “(Levy) is so fun that, when I walked in, in the lobby, they had this huge white piano at Hotel Zoso, and so we took it and put it in the middle of the room. Now it’s totally experiential in-the-round theater. I’m really getting everything I ever wanted.”
“It’s like if your best friend was a world-class musical comedian, and you hung out in his living room, and he brought over his friends. That’s the vibe that I want to create, and so that’s what I do.”
Avery Pearson
If you attend Comedian Rhapsody, you may end up being in the show!
“I’ll make up songs about the audience, and I’ll involve them in songs that I write, and then have them sing the choruses, interview them, and call back different moments throughout the show,” Pearson said. “It’s like if your best friend was a world-class musical comedian, and you hung out in his living room, and he brought over his friends. That’s the vibe that I want to create, and so that’s what I do.”
Pearson admitted that the world of musical comedy is a bit niche. He explained how he got his start.
“I got a job as a door guy at the Hollywood Improv, and they had a piano onstage, and I just started playing before the shows,” Pearson said. “Different comedians would start bringing me up and riff with me, or do their set while I’m underscoring it, and it was just, like, a very natural progression.”
As joke songs grew in popularity, Pearson saw a way to make a career in both art worlds.
“Later on, when The Book of Mormon came out, or Avenue Q, I’m just like, ‘Oh, my God, this is a real thing,’” he said. “There was also that great community when it was Garfunkel and Oates, and Tenacious D and Weird Al—all these great comedy-rock bands. Just being able to sing and laugh at the same time was super-novel to me. You’re just rocking out to the most ridiculous thing ever, and singing. I was like, ‘OK, how can I apply that to my life?’”
He began by writing humorous takes on serious issues in his life.
“I came up as an actor, and you’re always telling someone else’s story,” Pearson said. “I was a really insecure kid, and didn’t have a lot of friends until I found the arts and stuff, so I said, ‘Screw it; I’m going to write songs about my insecurity.’ I thought I was overweight as a kid, so I made fun of that in different ways. I always thought I was cooler than I was … so I wrote the song about comparing my life to wanting to be a Porsche, but I’m actually more of a Hyundai. … I got prediabetes, and I wrote a song called ‘Diabetes,’ and that helped me get through that. The best songs are the ones where someone in the audience just goes, ‘Oh yeah, yes to that.’”
Pearson recalled his first-ever Comedian Rhapsody guest: Tiffany Haddish.
“She calls herself ‘The Last Black Unicorn,’” he said. “She has this mole, and kids made fun of it when she was a kid, and they called her a unicorn, and said that she was ugly. That’s what they picked on, so she decided that she was going to become ‘The Last Black Unicorn’ and use it as a superpower. That gives you chills, right? We wrote this origin story song called ‘The Last Black Unicorn,’ and it was incredible when we did it. She’s so talented, and when we actually did it, she improvised the whole thing, and it just came out perfectly. We recorded it, and it’s actually at the end of her book, The Last Black Unicorn. If you go to the end of the audio book, the song is playing.”
Pearson is excited for Comedian Rhapsody to be a part of the Coachella Valley comedy scene.
“There are communities coming out and supporting the festivals there, and coming out and supporting Adam’s venue. I think everyone loves comedy, and everyone wants to experience really good comedy, so I think (the Coachella Valley) absolutely has all the tools, and it actually is a blossoming thing,” he said. “I’ve done shows in Joshua Tree, and I’ve done the casinos … and there are absolutely a ton of places. It’s an awesome spot where there are really strong comedians who are really hilarious and telling personal stories, and very relatable. It’s a great scene. I really love coming out to it, and whenever I come visit my parents in Palm Desert, I try to go out and do a set at one of the various spots.”
Of course, the local comedy scene needs audience support.
“You will see people who are starting and are on their way to get to a bigger platform in Palm Springs,” Pearson said. “Someone’s gonna pop, and they will do well—so go out and support local comedians, and you’ll be like, ‘Oh my god, I saw that guy back in 2026,’ or, ‘I saw her back in 2025 when she was opening for this guy.’ … You guys support your local team, so you absolutely support local comedy.”
Avery Pearson’s Comedian Rhapsody, with special guest Josh Wolf, will take place at 7 p.m., Saturday, June 13, at Spirit Animal, at 150 S. Indian Canyon Drive, in Palm Springs. Tickets start at $49.87, and include two drinks. For tickets and more information, visit www.spiritanimalclub.com. Learn more about Avery Pearson at instagram.com/averypearsonkeys.
