The Bird Comedy Theater

The Bird Comedy Theater is the Crossroads’ home for improv, sketch, and standup — a comedy theater with an on-site bar at 103 W 19th St in the historic Hemingway Building, running shows Thursday through Saturday, a free show every First Friday, drop-in improv at Saturday happy hour, and a full classes program. It swept The Pitch’s Best of KC 2024 (Best Comedy Club, Best Improv/Sketch Troupe, Best Open Mic, Best Theater Company).

Description

The Bird is a working comedy theater in the Wednesday-through-Saturday sense: house improv and sketch ensembles, standup showcases, an open mic that The Pitch named the city’s best, and a school that feeds the stage.¹² Its First Friday free show plugs it directly into the Crossroads art-walk rhythm.³ The weekly grid runs a Thursday Open Jam (7:30pm) and Open Mic (9:30pm), then Friday and Saturday improv (7:30pm) and comedy (9:30pm) shows, alongside recurring series such as The Truck Noises Show, The Bird Musical Comedy Show, and The Anarchy Fun Time Show; the in-house bar pours liquor, beer, wine, soft drinks, and snacks.¹ The performing company, the Bird Comedy Players, runs 15-plus members, and the school ladders from one-off drop-in classes up to sixteen-week advanced sessions, with an eight-week Intro to Improv at $178.¹⁴

Ownership and history

Period	Owner / operator
2021 → present	Founded as a partnership. Confirmed co-founder/co-owner: Bobby Miller Jr., “second-generation entertainer born and raised in Kansas City,” the theater’s technical director.5 Other co-founders’ names not surfaced in indexed press — no opening-announcement article exists in The Pitch archive.

Caution note: Brandon Durkes (cast page) founded a separate production company, “Bird in the Middle” (2017), and was an artistic director 2018–2021 — relationship to this theater’s founding is unclear; do not conflate.⁶

Tier note: Tier 1 provisional — the confirmed co-owner is born-and-raised KC; classification firms up with the full ownership roster.

Links

• Website: https://thebirdkc.com
• Phone: (816) 929-4383
• Socials: @thebirdkc (IG/TikTok) · @TheBirdComedy (X) · /TheBirdComedyTheater (FB)

See also

• Registry

Sources

Footnotes

1. The Bird — official site. https://thebirdkc.com/ — address, show schedule, classes, bar. ↩ ↩² ↩³

2. The Bird — news page (Pitch Best of KC 2024 sweep). https://thebirdkc.com/news/ ↩

3. Crossroads Community Association — venue profile. https://kccrossroads.org/explore-the-crossroads/the-bird-comedy-theater-2/ — Best Comedy Club/Improv since 2023. ↩

4. KCUR, “Kansas City comedy: stand-up, improv, classes” (2026-04-18). https://www.kcur.org/arts-life/2026-04-18/kansas-city-comedy-stand-up-improv-classes — asserts: eight-week Intro to Improv at $178; free First Friday shows; Bird House showcase (3rd Saturday). ↩

5. Moxie Talent Agency — Bobby Miller Jr. bio. https://moxietalentagency.com/talent/bobby-miller-jr/ — co-owner, born-and-raised KC, second-generation entertainer. ↩

6. The Bird — cast page, Brandon Durkes. https://thebirdkc.com/Cast/brandon-durkes/ ↩