Darkest Thoughts: The Berlin Comedy Game-Show Where the Audience Writes the Material

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Written By Aaron
Four comedians on a brick-walled stage with microphones, one pointing at the crowd, at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

TL;DR: Darkest Thoughts is the English-language Berlin stand-up comedy game-show where the audience decides what the show is about. You anonymously write down whatever you’re thinking about, and some of the city's best comedians turn those thoughts into live stand-up on the spot. After seven years in Berlin, the show moves to the Wilhelmshütte, the cosy indoor stage at Monbijou Theater in Berlin Mitte, every Saturday from 12 September to 7 November 2026. Doors 20:00, show 20:30. Tickets are €10 early bird or €15 general admission.

For seven years, we've been handing Berlin audiences a pen and asking for their worst, weirdest, most intrusive thoughts, then turning them into live stand-up on the spot.

It's called Darkest Thoughts, and after a summer nap it's back, with an upgrade.

Aerial view of the open-air amphitheater at Monbijou Theater in Berlin, lit up at night with a seated audience

From Saturday 12 September, Darkest Thoughts moves to Monbijou Theater.

An actual theatre. With an actual stage. By the river in Mitte.

We spent years doing this show in the back rooms of bars, so we're still adjusting to the fact that there's a green room now. None of us knows what to do with a green room anymore.

What is Darkest Thoughts?

Audience members crowded close together write their darkest thoughts on paper notes at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

Darkest Thoughts is an English-language improvised stand-up comedy game-show in Berlin. The audience anonymously writes down their thoughts, and some of the city's best comedians turn them into brand new stand-up, live and on the spot.

Host Brendan Hickey reads an audience note under a spotlit brick arch at a Darkest Thoughts comedy show in Berlin

Here's how a night actually runs. The show opens with a line-up of some of Berlin’s most experienced English-speaking comedians, each doing around ten minutes of stand-up, with a host holding the whole thing together.

Black-and-white shot of comedian Ori Halevy performing stand-up under a brick arch at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

Then comes the break, and that's your cue. You write down your darkest, weirdest, most unhinged thought on a slip of paper, or just whatever's been on your mind lately. Anything goes, and it's completely anonymous, so nobody ever knows it was yours.

Two audience members compare notes as they write their darkest thoughts for the comedians at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

We then collect your thoughts in a hat and mix them up, ready for the comedians to pull out at random on stage.

Host Ori Halevy collects notes in a basket from a smiling crowd under fairy lights at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

Then the second half begins. The comedians read your thoughts for the first time in front of a full room, and turn them into stand-up on the spot. They have no idea what's coming, and neither do you.

A female comedian reads a note aloud on a dim, brick-arched stage to a silhouetted crowd at a Darkest Thoughts show in Berlin

It's the only comedy show in Berlin where the material is you: your thoughts, performed for a room full of strangers who are all quietly waiting for their thoughts to come up next.

A packed basement crowd laughing together during a Darkest Thoughts comedy show in Berlin

It's the one show Netflix can't match!

Netflix doesn't know what's wrong with you.

We do.

You wrote it down for us.

The new Autumn home: Wilhelmshütte – Monbijou Theater

The illuminated timber Wilhelmshütte theater building at twilight, strung with fairy lights, seen from the path leading up to the entrance in Berlin

Monbijou Theater sits in Monbijoupark, right on the Spree, directly across the water from the Bode Museum and Museum Island. If you've ever walked the river in Mitte on a summer night and caught actors doing Shakespeare outdoors while the S-Bahn rattles past behind them, you've already met the place.

Audience seated at the open-air Monbijou Theater at dusk, with the domed Bode Museum on Museum Island lit up behind, in Berlin

They've been performing on that spot for more than twenty years, independent and run on a nonprofit basis, and it's one of the biggest open-air stages in the city, with around 100,000 people coming through every year. In summer they stage Shakespeare and Molière in the open-air amphitheatre. In winter they build little wooden huts and tell fairy tales. That’s where we are!

Elevated view of a packed audience surrounding costumed performers on the wooden open-air stage at Monbijou Theater in Berlin

In the Wilhelmshütte, one of the theatre's two wooden fairy-tale huts (named after Wilhelm Grimm, of the Brothers Grimm), somewhere between the Shakespeare and the actual fairy tales, they've agreed to let us hand strangers' intrusive thoughts to comedians. Considering their normal line-up, we're not entirely convinced anyone there even read the show description.

The Wilhelmshütte theater building glowing with warm fairy lights at night, seen through bare tree branches, in Berlin

For a show that spent years in the back rooms of bars, this is a real step up. Prime time Saturday night, a proper room, seats built for actual humans. It might be the fanciest thing that has ever happened to a show about your worst thoughts, and we think you’re going to love it!

When, where, and how to get there

Darkest Thoughts runs every Saturday from 12 September to 7 November 2026, on the indoor stage at Monbijou Theater, Monbijoustraße 3b, 10117 Berlin. Doors at 20:00, show at 20:30. Tickets are €10 early bird or €15 general admission, and it's in English, all of it.

 

Getting to the park is easy. The nearest S-Bahn stations are Hackescher Markt and Oranienburger Straße, both a few minutes away. The M1, M5 and M6 trams stop at Monbijouplatz right by the park, and from Museum Island you can cross the footbridge straight into Monbijoupark.

The hut is tucked away behind the theatre, so this walk is worth a quick read before you set off:

  • On Monbijoustraße, stand facing the theatre. To the right of the building you'll see a pedestrian walkway, Am Zwirngraben.

The lit Monbijou Theater sign above the wooden street-front entrance at night, with bikes and a scooter parked outside, in Berlin

  • Head down Am Zwirngraben, past the theatre's entrance that’s on your left.

The Monbijou Theater street entrance in daytime under its striped awning, with costumed performers and people gathered outside, in Berlin

  • Follow Am Zwirngraben until a second path opens on your left just after the theatre’s entrance. You should start seeing signs for the Märchenhütte.

A wide daytime view along Am Zwirngraben with beer garden benches and a striped food stall on the left, a crowd down the path, and a red arrow pointing left

  • Turn up that path. On Google Maps, that spot is marked by the adidas Urban Gym. Follow it about 40 metres along the back of the theatre until you reach a set of stairs on your left. Up the stairs are the two old fairy-tale huts, Jacob and Wilhelm, sitting on the roof of a wartime bunker. Yours is the Wilhelmshütte.

The illuminated timber Wilhelmshütte theater building at twilight, strung with fairy lights, seen from the path leading up to the entrance in Berlin

Come a little early, partly for a drink, partly because the good seats go fast.

Grab a seat, write down the thing you'd never say out loud, and let a professional deal with it.

See you by the river!

Aaron, Brendan and Ori
Epic Comedy Berlin

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Not free on a Saturday? We run English comedy in Berlin a few nights a week. Click here and scroll down to see our other shows.

FAQ

  • Darkest Thoughts is an English-language improvised stand-up comedy game-show in Berlin. The audience anonymously writes down their darkest thoughts, and some of the city's best comedians read them cold and turn them into live stand-up on the spot.

  • In the Wilhelmshütte, a wooden fairy-tale hut at Monbijou Theater, Monbijoustraße 3b, 10117 Berlin. It sits in Monbijoupark on the Spree, across from the Bode Museum in Mitte.

  • Every Saturday from 12 September to 7 November 2026. Doors at 20:00, the show starts at 20:30.

  • €10 for an early bird ticket, €15 for general admission.

  • Yes, the whole show is in English. You don't need any German.

  • No. You write your thought on a slip of paper anonymously, and that's it. The comedians do all the performing, and nobody ever knows which thought was yours.

  • Saturdays fill up, so it’s better if you book ahead. Ticket’s are available online right until showtime. Otherwise you can chance it at the door.

  • It's tucked behind the main theatre. From Monbijoustraße 3b, take the walkway Am Zwirngraben to the right of the theatre, pass the entrance, and turn up the path on the left (marked on Google Maps by the adidas Urban Gym). Follow the signs to the Märchenhütte about 40 metres to the stairs on your left, then head up. The nearest S-Bahn stops are Hackescher Markt and Oranienburger Straße.

Aaron
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