The county’s newest recurring comedy show returns to the stage on Saturday. And no, guests don’t have to drive to Denver or book a flight to NYC to see the magic unfold.

A little bit “Saturday Night Live,” a little bit Front Range flair and entirely unscripted, Longmont Live brings musical improv, comedy and live music together for a fast-paced evening recorded in front of a studio audience.

Longmont Live will bring to the stage a one-night-only comedy concert of sorts, featuring two of the region’s sharpest musical long-form improv troupes: Too Intense and The RiP. The show starts at 8 p.m. at Longmont Public Media, 457 4th Ave., Longmont, and yes — laughs, cackles and snorts might just make it onto the broadcast.

The show is a co-production between Longmont Public Media and Longmont Out Loud, a performing arts company founded by Longmont-based theater artist Audrey Grace. While Longmont Live is a monthly show recorded in front of a studio audience on the last Friday of each month, Longmont Out Loud functions as the creative force behind it — booking performers, curating themes and bringing together artists from across disciplines for highly collaborative comedy events.

“My background is in theater and improv, and my passion has always been improvisation,” Grace said. “I started thinking about what hasn’t been done in Longmont and how I could bring something new to our community.”

That idea clickity-clacked into place when she looked around at what Longmont already had: a state-of-the-art recording studio at Longmont Public Media and a thriving ecosystem of improv talent in Colorado. From there, the concept for Longmont Live was brought to life in the form of a filmed, fast-paced, crowd-powered variety show where the audience helps shape the performance.

“I thought to myself: What if we created something like ‘Saturday Night Live,’ with a musical guest, a host and rotating comedy acts, all in front of a live studio audience?’” Grace said. “I wanted the audience to feel like part of the show, because they are. In improv, they help shape the performance in real time. So that’s really the heart of Longmont Live — doing something original, collaborative and hyper-local.”

Each month, Grace curates a fresh lineup of talent through Longmont Out Loud, drawing from both local artists and regional standouts.

“With every show, I want to bring something different to the community,” Grace said. “Maybe someone loves short form, or maybe they prefer long form — either way, I want them to feel like there’s something for them in the lineup.”

This month’s lineup features a musical double-header: Too Intense, a Boulder- and Denver-based musical improv duo with deep theatrical roots, will be joined by The RiP, a veteran improv troupe currently celebrating its 20th season. The pairing, Grace said, was intentional.

“I’m especially excited about this month’s show because both groups are musical long-form teams,” Grace said. “I’d been trying to book Too Intense for a while. They’re really in demand, and I was lucky they were available in March. Once they were confirmed, I thought it would be fun to make the whole show musical long form.

Grace said that the Denver comedy theater group Chaos Bloom put her in touch with The RiP, which also happened to be available.

“It’s turned into this amazing, curated night of music and improv,” she said.

Founded in Colorado Springs and now based in Denver, The RiP has been bringing unscripted musical mayhem to stages for two decades. Known for a high-energy blend of character work, storytelling and absurdity, the group sets itself apart by not only improvising songs and scenes, but doubles down by also performing all of the live music.

“We’re acting, singing and playing music all at the same time,” said co-founder Kaleb Kohart. “It’s musical chaos in the best way.”

The group got its start in the early 2000s, when Kohart and longtime collaborator Jordan Arrick formed the troupe out of the Colorado Springs theater scene.

“We couldn’t afford an accompanist, and, at the time, the improv scene in Colorado Springs was basically just us and one other short-form group,” Kohart said. “So we figured it out ourselves. I played a bit of guitar, Jordan didn’t, but we thought, well, let’s learn three chords and sing to it.”

Since then, The RiP’s format has evolved to include elements of narrative structure and long-form montage.

“It definitely adds a layer of difficulty when you’re playing your own accompaniment while improvising,” he said. “Most groups have someone off to the side playing piano. But for us, it’s part of the fun. It’s more work, but it’s also more satisfying — and it’s uniquely us.”

For Saturday’s show, the group plans to kick things off with one of their recurring signature bits: “Celebrity Charity Song,” a full-cast number styled after dramatic 1980s celebrity anthems like “We Are the World.” Except instead of singing to save the planet, they’ll champion something that definitely doesn’t need saving.

“We’ll get a suggestion from the audience and turn it into a big, overproduced anthem for a cause that absolutely no one asked for,” Kohart said. “We’ve done songs about saving cockroaches, saving Teslas. It’s our way of channeling that overly sincere, melodramatic energy into something completely ridiculous. And from there, that song becomes our inspiration for the rest of the show.”

Kohart added: “That’s the idea behind musical long form. We’re trying to build to these emotionally heightened moments where speaking just isn’t enough anymore, so we sing. But because it’s all improvised, you never know when those moments are coming. That’s what keeps it exciting — for us and for the audience.”

Joining The RiPs is Too Intense, the musical improv duo of Rosey Waters and Melissa Schenter Connor, accompanied for this performance by pianist Ira Liss. The group, known for its blend of theatrical storytelling and spontaneous songcraft, grew out of a shared love for character-driven comedy and a hunger to push improv into new musical territory.

“I’ve been a professional theater actor for my whole adult life,” Waters said. “Then I started doing improv comedy about six years ago, and I really liked the challenge of having no script to fall back on. I took some intensive workshops in Chicago, and that’s where I found out about musical improv. I loved singing and had always made up songs, so I knew this was going to be enjoyable for me.”

Waters met Schenter Connor at The Improv Collaborative in Boulder, where the two were placed on the same team. It didn’t take long before they discovered a shared interest in musical formats and decided to create a duo of their own.

“Since Melissa (Schenter Connor) and I both come from a theater background, we focus on having strong characters and building interesting relationships, which always leads to humor,” Waters said. “Then when the characters start singing, it adds an amusing level of playfulness to the performance.”

For Saturday’s show, the duo will be joined by Liss, who Waters has known and performed with for more than a decade.

“Ira (Liss) and I have worked together in Playback Theatre for over 10 years, which is a form of improv where the audience shares true stories and the performers act them out on the spot,” she said. “When I started exploring musical improv, I asked Ira if he wanted to try playing for it, and he agreed to go along for the ride.”

Despite the polished sound, everything the audience hears on Saturday night will be made up in real time.

“People are sometimes surprised,” Waters said. “They accuse us of planning the songs ahead of time. Rest assured, all scenes and songs will be made up right there in front of you. That’s part of the magic. We’re having fun on stage, and when we’re having fun, the audience always has fun, too.”

One of the most unique aspects of Longmont Live is its broadcast format. The show is filmed with a three-camera setup and later airs on Longmont Public Media’s local cable channels, YouTube and Roku. That means audience members are not only helping shape the show in the moment — they’re also part of something that lives on in Longmont’s creative culture.

“It’s not something you find elsewhere around here,” Grace said. “So not only are you part of the moment, but the performance becomes part of Longmont’s cultural history. That’s something special.”

For those new to improv, Longmont Live offers a front-row seat to the artistic process in motion — surprises, mishaps and all.

“The beautiful thing about improv is that you get to see the creative process unfold in real time,” Grace said. “I think of it like watching an artist paint — you’re seeing the work take shape, brushstroke by brushstroke. The audience gives suggestions, and the performers build something from that spark.”

Grace continued: “It’s very different from stand-up comedy, which is polished and rehearsed. In improv, the performers and audience are discovering the show together. There’s this sense of ‘we’re all in this’ that creates a really special connection. Even little blips or surprises during the show add to that live experience, and the audience is always rooting for the performers. It’s joyful and unpredictable and very human.”

Tickets for Longmont Live are available online at longmontoutloud.com or at the door. Attendees are welcome to bring their own beverages and picnic. Doors open at 7:30 p.m. and the show begins at 8.

Light refreshments will be available by donation. Saturday’s show will also feature a musical performance by guest artist Jeremy Marshall.

Longmont Live is staged at Longmont Public Media, located at 457 Fourth Ave. For more information, visit longmontoutloud.com.