Smalltown Society

The Uppercut — Smalltown’s Comedy LAB
Wednesday, May 27 | 7:30 PM | 
The Clinic, Castro Valley

Smalltown Society presents The Uppercut, a monthly gathering for anyone passionate about the craft of comedy—whether you’re brand new or looking to sharpen your next set.

This isn’t your typical open mic. The Uppercut offers dedicated stage time and the option for instant feedback from a supportive room of fellow comics and comedy lovers. Whether you’re into stand-up, sketch, character work, or something experimental, this is a space to take creative risks and test new ideas in good company.

Led by James Strawser, a local comedian with over a decade in comedy, The Uppercut is rooted in the belief that funny thrives in community—not in isolation.

No judgment. No pressure. Just a mic, a room, and people who love to laugh.
Try something new. Bring something weird.

All levels welcome. All styles encouraged.

How to Find The Clinic: We work out of a space in First Presbyterian Church, but are not a part of the church. To find our office, park in the lot behind Trader Joes, near the Gymnasium. Find the string lights and you will see a door that has a sign that says “Clinic”.

EastBayCreatives NewVoicesInComedy CreativeCommunity

Introducing Ideas LAB - An open mic for ideas
MAY 13/7:30pm
@ The Clinic

Smalltown Society is launching a new kind of LAB: a space for the ideas you’ve been carrying, wondering about, dreaming through, or trying to bring into the world.

Ideas LAB is a gathering for brainstorming, collaboration, conversation, and creative possibility. It’s a place to bounce a new idea, share something half-formed, ask better questions, connect with others, and begin moving an idea from your head and heart into existence.

At Smalltown, we believe creativity is not just about songs, poems, films, or paintings. Creativity is also how we imagine new ways of living, building, organizing, healing, gathering, and seeing the world.

Bring an idea for a project, event, business, artwork, community effort, movement, invention, story, or anything else that might generate positive change for our communities.

You don’t need a finished plan. You just need a spark.

🌹REQUIRED READING FOR THE FALL OF EMPIRE 🌹

In a world obsessed with speed, consumption, and endless extraction, Simone Weil asks a quieter, and far more dangerous, question:

What does it mean to be truly rooted?

This month’s featured book is:
The Need for Roots
by Simone Weil

Written in the shadow of war and collapse, Weil’s masterpiece explores the spiritual crisis beneath modern society: uprootedness. She argues that people do not live by bread alone, but in belonging, meaning, beauty, responsibility, memory, and connection to place and community.

Long before conversations around alienation, empire, ecological collapse, and disconnection became common, Weil saw clearly what happens when human beings are severed from land, labor, culture, and one another.

This is not a nostalgic call backward. It is a radical invitation to rebuild society around human dignity instead of profit, attention instead of distraction, and obligation instead of domination.

Read this if you’ve ever felt that something essential has been stolen from modern life, and if you’re searching for language for what comes next.