Some people may visit a psychic to ask questions about their future, but few people choose to do it in front of an audience at a comedy show.
This is what attendees at The Crow Comedy Club do at “Read the Room,” a monthly tarot comedy show. The show combines Los Angeles-based psychic Jovan Illa’s tarot readings with Comedy Central veteran Orion Levine’s comedic insights. On stage, Illa sits at a table where she lays out her tarot cards. Levine sits next to her on a stool, ready to chime in with a punchline at any moment.
Nicole Blaine, owner of The Crow, created “Read the Room” after hiring Illa to give tarot readings at a community party for the club’s one-year anniversary in 2023.
“[Daphne Ruiz from my team] found her through a Google search, and after I watched her interact in a group setting, I immediately went, ‘Oh, this is a show,’” Blaine said.
Audience members who want a reading, like Meghan Scibona, put their name in a bowl. When called on stage, they ask questions on topics ranging from romance to their future, listening to Illa’s psychic tarot card reading and Levine’s humorous riffs.
“I’ve been into tarot for about a decade and I’ve been obsessed with comedy for 15 years,” Scibona, who also practices comedy, said.
Some audience members have been to the show multiple times, like Jim Hands, who also does stand-up comedy.
“Jovan and Orion do a really great show here, and The Crow’s a great place,” Hands said. “Jovan gave me a reading a little bit back in April and said that it was probably time for me to leave work. And I did wind up retiring.”
Some audience members were drawn to the show because of its uniqueness. Bartender Dylan Weiner said that he made sure he was scheduled for a shift on show night.
“I saw it on the schedule like a month ago, and I was like, ‘Give me that shift,’” Weiner said. “Every show we do here is super fun and I love being here regardless, but this is a very special show.”
Before “Read the Room,” Blaine had produced other tarot comedy shows and said she considers herself “obsessed” with psychic readings. She said she has been going to psychics for the past 25 years.
Illa has been doing tarot readings for about 10 years.
“I really love tarot. I enjoy it, so this is super fun, and I feel like I get to help people,” Illa said. “And partnering with Orion, it’s like helping people but entertaining them at the same time. And there’s a really fun, uplifting sense of community.”
Audience members got vulnerable with deeply personal questions, like a woman who asked about her alcoholic father or a man who said he feels numb going through life.
Illa and Levine handled each question delicately, which some may not expect at a comedy show.
“Because it has this tarot card element, the intention isn’t always to be funny,” Levine said. “There are moments in every show that things get serious, and we’re dealing with somebody’s… trauma or a breakup or something that’s serious and devastating to them, and we bring it into this new light.”
One young audience member asked if she would get into New York University, her top choice for college.
“You have a resting rejection face,” Levine joked.
Once Illa looked into the cards, a disappointing answer was revealed.
“It looks like you wouldn’t get the kind of attention that would require for you to feel good about the experience. It’s like a blessing in disguise. But I could be wrong,” Illa said.
“She’s almost never wrong,” Levine said, receiving laughs from the audience.
Both Illa and Levine ended the reading with words of encouragement, expressing that life will unfold in the best way for her.
The show was a mix of vulnerability, humor and a sense of community.
“I think that they both have a very strong mission, genuinely, to help people. And one of them is through tarot, and one of them is through comedy,” Blaine said.