Spesh brings the wild world of alt-comedy into the mainstream

Comedian Ahmed Bharoocha walks on stage at the Lyric Hyperion in Silver Lake to a sold-out show. The audience erupts with loud cheers as he grabs the mic and takes in the moment of his first special. As director Andrew Max Levy pops in from backstage to stop filming and hush the audience and they come to a sudden stop. The director and the comedian embrace each other and Bharoocha thanks the audience for coming out.

And just like that, Spesh, a newly formed, L.A.-based production company and distributor of alternative comedy specials, wrapped the final shot of its third special of the year.

“I think we want to get it more regularly, like one a month would be our 2026 goal,” said Sean Casey, producer of Spesh.

“Three in a year seems low for what we want to do,” added Mike Bridenstine, general manager of the Lyric Hyperion and producer with the company.

Located in Silver Lake, Spesh strives to zag while everyone is zigging, said Jake Kroeger, one of the producers behind the alternative comedy troupe.

Conversations about starting the production company began in 2024 and went into 2025 among Casey, Bridenstine and Kroeger. The three have been around the L.A. comedy scene for years and felt like it was time for a shake-up. They noticed streaming platforms were filled with specials that all looked and felt the same, stylistically speaking, creating a landfill of repetitive comedy.

Through Spesh, their goal is to bring alt-comedy — humor that breaks traditional rules — to the mainstream. They wanted to rewrite the playbook and bring that type of comedy out of 75-seat black boxes behind coffee shops.

“For an art form that’s supposed to be breaking the rules, there sure are a lot of rules,” Bridenstine said. “People are ready for something new,” he added.

The two specials they’ve produced have stayed true to the parameters they set for themselves. They have helped establish their ethos with two big swings.

The crew from Spesh hangs out with comedians Ahmed Bharoocha and Simon Gibson in the back room at the Lyric Hyperion.

(Karla Gachet / For The Times)

Their first special, Emily Browning’s “Temporary, Beautiful,” was released Sept. 4. The improvised 70-minute show follows her making balloon animals while riffing with audience members about romance, bad roommates and a re-creation of the bag scene from “American Beauty.”

“Teeny Tiny” by Joey Greer was released Sept. 15. The off-the-wall special, filmed with a grainy ‘90s filter, follows the comedian playing with the conventions of comedy, sketches and live performances throughout his hour.

Like those two specials, Bharoocha’s will be released on YouTube.

When Spesh approaches performers, it doesn’t want to hear their dream comedy special that Netflix hasn’t found. They want to hear the weird ideas that no one even wants to hear.

“A lot of times you see a comedy special and you see a comedian in an absolute biggest space that they could possibly get ahold of and we know that that’s not how everybody’s living it day-to-day,” Casey said. “We wanted to see specials that looked like the shows that we’d go to and we put on, and that our friends go to.”

Their goal is to capture a moment in the lives of these comedians that showcases their material right before they launch into the mainstream.

“We really want to, not only highlight comedians that we think are special, but we really want to give a platform to what their voice could potentially express in the most wonderful, hilarious way,” Kroeger said.

They’ve tested concepts on stage that haven’t worked; sometimes comedians themselves have realized their act needs more finessing.

Ahmed Bharoocha, right, greets his wife, Abby Londer, and children, Rukaiya and Walter Bharoocha, after his performance at the Lyric Hyperion.

(Karla Gachet / For The Times)

The creators of Spesh say their job is to curate a playlist of comedy specials from must-see comedians to uplift their careers — to give them space to comfortably be themselves in front of an audience and a couple of cameras. “Selfishly, I would love it if better comedy got into people, and for these comics, I think they would like to be seen by an audience who likes comedy,” Bridenstine said.

When Casey asked Bharoocha, a 41-year-old comic from Santa Barbara, if he wanted to film a special, he didn’t have an hour ready to be filmed.

“Actually, when I said yes to the special, I didn’t realize it was a full hour,” Bharoocha said. “When I finally realized that, it just made me hit the mics, hit the shows and just start sharpening up and getting it ready for the special.”

Initially, Spesh wanted to produce a comedy special filled with his animal jokes. As conversations went on, Bharoocha and company moved on from the idea and his hour turned into jokes about secret handshakes and his culturally diverse upbringing — but still with a good amount of jokes about the animal kingdom.

Bharoocha is excited to show the internet his style of comedy, but said there’s no added pressure — he just had fun with it.

“I’ve been doing stand-up for 21 years now, and my take on specials has evolved,” Bharoocha said. “I don’t necessarily have any certain expectations for it. It was more like, I wanted to capture an hour that I was really proud of.”