Volunteer-Run Nonprofit Launches Cape Comedy Series – A New Cultural Venture For The Region

The Cape Cod Comedy Carnival Brings Two Touring Headliners to the Tilden Arts Center, August 29

A new Cape Cod nonprofit, The 1140A Corporation, launches its recurring comedy series with Comedy Cellar comedians Brendan Sagalow and Mike Cannon – tickets from $38

WEST BARNSTABLE, Mass. – The 1140A Corporation, a new Cape Cod nonprofit, will present The Cape Cod Comedy Carnival on Saturday, Aug. 29, at 7 p.m. at the Tilden Arts Center Auditorium at Cape Cod Community College. The one-night double-header features two of New York’s busiest touring headliners, Brendan Sagalow and Mike Cannon, both nationally-touring Comedy Cellar regulars, each performing a full hour, with Jason Choi opening. Double-header tickets from $38 are on sale now at 1140A.com; single-set seats start at $24, waitlist open. It is the first production of a nonprofit founded to make the Cape a stop on the national comedy tour again at prices locals can manage.

Sound bite for pickup: The Cape Cod Comedy Carnival: two Comedy Cellar headliners, one Cape Cod stage, one night only. August 29 – on sale now at 1140A.com.

For founder Max Makowski, the show is a deliberate act of restoration. “When I was a teenager here in the 1980s and ’90s, the biggest names in comedy and music came through Cape Cod, not as a quick stop, but as a real date on the tour, at a price someone working a minimum-wage job could actually manage,” Makowski said. “That disappeared. I started this to bring it back: top touring comedians, in beautiful and intimate rooms, and built as a nonprofit so the artists themselves are the ones who benefit.”

The performers are among the most active on the national circuit. Brendan Sagalow and Mike Cannon each have an independently released hour-long special (“Thin Lips” and “Traumatized Animal,” respectively). Video of their comedy has drawn tens of millions of views, their combined online following runs to over half a million, and both are fixtures of the New York podcast scene. Opening the night is Jason Choi, a finalist at the Boston Comedy Festival, chosen as New York’s Funniest at the 2025 New York Comedy Festival, who made his network television debut in 2026 on CBS’s “Comics Unleashed.”

The 1140A Corporation is run entirely by volunteers; the only costs taken out of any event are venue costs, insurance, and the artists’ expenses. It pairs the booking with something a bigger market cannot: an intimate, high-quality Cape venue, and the Cape itself. “The venues here have a quality and an intimacy that is genuinely hard to find, and hard to book, in a big city,” Makowski said. “There is a real appetite across the Cape for more of those accessible touring dates. The goal is to make Cape Cod a place the best comedians want to come, and a place locals can afford to see them.”

The performance seating is fully reserved and assigned. Double-header tickets from $38 are on sale now at 1140A.com; single-set seats start at $24, waitlist open.

About Max Makowski
Max Makowski is a filmmaker whose feature films premiered at Sundance and screened at Cannes; he created a drama for CBS with Hugh Jackman producing, directed for “Queer Eye for the Straight Guy” and Nike (with Wieden+Kennedy), and now lives on Cape Cod.

About The 1140A Corporation
The 1140A Corporation is a Massachusetts nonprofit presenting company, run entirely by volunteers. The only costs taken out of any event are venue costs, insurance, and the artists’ expenses. It was founded to bring professional performing arts back to Cape Cod at prices the community can manage. The Cape Cod Comedy Carnival is its inaugural production, the first of a planned recurring series.

Event: The Cape Cod Comedy Carnival
Date: Saturday, August 29, 2026, 7:00 PM
Venue: Tilden Arts Center, 2240 Iyannough Rd, West Barnstable, MA 02668
Tickets: Double-header from $38 on sale now at 1140A.com; single-set from $24, waitlist open
Media contact: Wendy Mohyann · The 1140A Corporation · info@1140A.org · 508-385-3499
Max Makowski, directly: max@cape-cod.co
Press kit (high-resolution posters, photos, bios): https://1140a.com/press