Going Up is, on its surface, a hilarious recruitment into the cult of comedy. But at its heart, the show is a bold confrontation of a toxic system, an examination of what it means to be a creative person in today’s world, and Sara’s own reckoning with the tiny voice in her head that tells her she’s not good enough. Combining sharp joke writing, scathing satire, original music and incredibly detailed handmade miniatures, Sara takes the audience on a wholly original journey through the darkness and into the light.
Sara has performed the show in cities all over the world including the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and more.
What people are saying about GOING UP
“Spoofing the cult of comedy in the language of Scientology, the wry, incisive stand-up Sara Schaefer adopts the pose, jargon and microphone of a guru in her new solo show about how to make it in the stand-up business. ‘Going Up’ (a riff on the Scientology term ‘Going Clear’), which has been performed a few times but will get a wider hearing in 2023, is ambitious and nimble, sneakily personal with enough inside-baseball jokes to make it a must-see for comedy nerds. The most impressive example of this, and the bit I am most looking forward to revisiting, is when Schaefer illustrates every kind of modern stand-up by doing the same genre of joke, over and over again, in a multitude of styles. It’s a feat of comedy as well as criticism that captures an entire scene in just a few minutes.” - The New York Times
“There is perhaps no comedian alive who is capable of being so effortlessly funny and so fully themselves without being reductive than Sara Schaefer. In her show, Going Up, she manages to dissect stand-up, calling into question its cultishness, exclusivity, lack of creativity, and impact on one's life and self-worth.” - Eric Farwell, comedy critic
“Schaefer herself has done spectacular work in almost every discipline of comedy and almost on every level, and now, with that wealth of experience and acclaim, is doing a perfectly biting satirical solo show on ‘how to become a comedian’.” - The Comedy Bureau
“Sara Schaefer’s live show is so f-ing funny. She does this whole show about a Scientology/Nexium/Tony Robbins style of comedy school that is hilarious! And cool. Yes, cool. I am dazzled by her as a writer and performer.” - Kathy Griffin
About Sara Schaefer
Sara Schaefer is a critically acclaimed stand up comedian, writer, and artist. Her Comedy Central Stand Up Presents half hour special debuted in November 2019 and she was the co-host of MTV’s late night show Nikki & Sara Live. Sara published her first book, Grand, in 2020 with Simon & Schuster. She has written for numerous television programs including Who Wants To Be a Millionaire, The Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, Would I Lie To You, and The History of Swear Words. She won two Emmy awards for her work at Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. In recent years, Sara’s satirical sketches have been viral hits, including Comedy Ad, Quarantine Barbie, How To Sell a TV Show in 3 Easy Steps, and MeResearch. The New York Times called her new solo show Going Up "ambitious and nimble” and “a feat of comedy.”
