A close-up side-profile photograph of Virginia Pelley speaking into a handheld microphone during a live stage event. Illuminated by a strong white spotlight on her face with subtle red stage ambient lighting, Pelley holds the silver condenser microphone in her right hand while gesturing outwards with her open left hand. She wears a dark baseball cap with a mesh back and curved brim, along with a casual t-shirt, set against a dark, out-of-focus background.Virginia Pelley Credit: switchbladesister / Facebook

Comedy is supposed to be the last bastion of free speech, but the culture of Austin, Texas’ Comedy Mothership has unfortunately, occasionally, passed the mic to mediocre comics who’d rather juice the algorithm than actually work on writing smart jokes. This show might be an antidote.

Billed as a safe space to tell dark jokes, the comedy deviants coming to Ybor Heights brewery and distillery Deviant Libation promise to “stand up, raise hell, and never punch down.”

Five comics, including Jerod Walker (co-host of the “Something Planet” podcast with John H. Murray), the charming Jeremy Lamont, Unholy Comedy co-founder Lauren Gray, journalist Virginia Pelley, and Michael Murillo, who’s been writing about comedy for Creative Loafing Tampa Bay since 2009.

Tickets for Comedy Deviants: An Alt Stand Up Comedy Show happening Saturday, Aug. 29 at Deviant Libation in Tampa re still available and start at $10.

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This article appears in August 27 – September 02, 2026.

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Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief…
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