After more than 10 years, Phoenix comedian Anwar Newton will record a special on July 4

The July Fourth holiday will feature all of the usual kinds of celebrations — fireworks, barbecues and parades. But Anwar Newton will spend the holiday recording a stand-up comedy special.

The local comedian will be doing a show Saturday night at Valley Bar — and recording it. He joined The Show to explain why he decided it was time for a special after more than 10 years of doing comedy here.

Full conversation

MARK BRODIE: Anwar, what will you be doing for this one?

ANWAR NEWTON: July Fourth, the the nation’s 250th birthday, I’m just recording a comedy special. I’ve been performing comedy for like I said, over 10 years, and you always think that there’s going to be this big neon sign that says, “You’re ready. It’s time to record the special.” And after over 10 years in the business, I realized that’s never going to come and I need to just do it.

MARK BRODIE: So like how did you, how did you decide, like, sans neon sign saying, “Anwar, you are ready,” how did you come to that conclusion?

ANWAR NEWTON: I think I came to the conclusion in the same way that I do most of my projects. I got backed into a corner. So, it’s at Valley Bar, and I’ve been doing shows at Valley Bar since they opened. I had several showcase-style shows or creative concept shows, and I love putting on shows. I love coming up with new shows and putting them on.

And earlier this year, the venue asked me if I wanted to put on a show for July Fourth because I’ve done American-themed, social-political commentary, comedy around this time of year. And I said, “Sure.”

I knew it was just them throwing me a dead night to make something of it, but you know, that’s the business. And as the months went along, they were checking in. They were like, “Hey, so what are you going to do? Let’s put it on the website, let’s do it.” I finally was like, “You know what? I’m going to record a comedy special.” There were no months of planning or anything, I just decided to do it.

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MARK BRODIE: Wow. So this is all new material?

ANWAR NEWTON: This is all — it’s new material, and it’s material I’ve been doing for, working on for a few years. And the cool thing about it is that I realized that the material I’m doing now is relevant to right now. And the one thing I didn’t want to do is hold onto it for another year, sharpening it up, finding new things to put in it, and then the moment that um the relevance is kind of glued to passes.

I have a lot of material about the state of AI and how it’s affecting people, the president, social commentary. And all that’s going to change in a year, and these jokes are going to have to be changed too. And I like doing the jokes, and I want to put it in something that goes, “Hey, this was happening in 2026, and this is the album I made about it.”

MARK BRODIE: I guess it’s tougher to say, “Hey, remember like 18 months ago when we were all talking about this? Laugh about this now.”

ANWAR NEWTON: Right, and I see comedians do that. Like, they have jokes that they’ve written three, four years ago, and now they have to say, “Remember?” I’ve seen comedians they still talk about Black Lives Matter summer 2020, and it’s like that happened six years ago. But the joke is still good, but they do have to start it with like, “Remember.”

MARK BRODIE: Yeah, there’s more setup to it, right?

ANWAR NEWTON: Yeah, there’s more like work to get the crowd to go, “Oh, yeah, that did happen,” and it’s not it’s no longer like in their brain as fresh.

MARK BRODIE: What is it like doing political and social comedy satire right now in the summer of 2026?

ANWAR NEWTON: It’s a lot of fun. People are real squirrely about it. And I think that’s the fun in it all is because the public consciousness about the current state of of the country is so fragile, it’s more fun doing the tightrope walk. Whereas like, if you had like a universally accepted perspective on anything, you know, it’s kind of easy to make people laugh about it because you know they’re all kind of thinking the same thing.

But especially here in Arizona, you don’t really know what kind of Arizona is going to show up. Which makes it fun doing comedy here, because you kind of have to be ready for whoever’s in the crowd. But the fragility of everyone’s lives right now is what makes the comedy more fun for me to do.

MARK BRODIE: Do you find that you have to be, or do you find yourself sort of being cognizant of like walking up to that line but not crossing it and being maybe more conscious of it now because of that fragility? Or does that give you like license to just sort of smash through that line?

ANWAR NEWTON: I think you can do whatever you want, and then the people will let you know if they like it or not.

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MARK BRODIE: OK, so you mentioned you have some jokes about AI. What else will you be talking about at the special?

ANWAR NEWTON: I’ll be talking about how everything is kind of coming to an end. [LAUGHTER]

MARK BRODIE: Wow, it’s that kind of show. OK.

ANWAR NEWTON: How things are real bad. I talk about my life. I’m a father. I’ve got kids. And that was another reason to do this special is because the jokes about my kids, they’re getting older than when the jokes were really crafted. I have a joke about my son, and he’s gotten old enough that um I’m like, “Oh, that happened a long time ago.”

MARK BRODIE: With with his life.

ANWAR NEWTON: With his life, it’s like, “Oh, yeah, I should I’m still doing this joke about when you were this age, and you’re like this age now.” So that was one of the other things, like, “Oh, right, there’s more life and more experiences that my kids are going through that I can build new funny perspectives on.”

And it just kind of made me think of how to create these jokes I guess quicker. Because some people just sit and they they they fine-tune these jokes for like a year. And that they always say like, “That’s how you should do it. You should spend like this many sets like crafting this joke.” And and now that I’ve seen the passage of time through the lens of my kids, I just want to get to it quicker.

MARK BRODIE: Interesting.

ANWAR NEWTON: And and through that, it’s like, it’s scary because like, I do like spending a year like testing and testing and testing and doing it in front of different audiences, and now it’s just like, just go out there joyfully and put everything on stage, put the mess on stage and and figure it out. And I’ve been doing it long enough that I am not afraid of that.

MARK BRODIE: Do you get nervous at all doing political comedy right now? Do you worry about — you mentioned how you kind of never know who’s going to be in your audience. But I wonder if like, this is one you’re going to be taping, so people who aren’t in the audience are going to see it, hopefully, as well. What is that like to to do that kind of thing knowing what’s going to happen with folks like (Stephen) Colbert, folks like Jimmy Kimmel, folks like Kill Tony?

ANWAR NEWTON: You just kind of have to be fearless. And I think if you’re afraid of the fight that comes with saying something that needs to be said, then I don’t know, I have bad words to say about people who do that. I have pejoratives to describe people who are too cowardly to speak up.

And I think what’s going on on a large scale — not just in America but globally, some of the strife you’re experiencing, especially with AI coming around, people just being afraid of losing everything — it’s like, if I’m afraid to say something, then it’s like, all right, then maybe it should just ravage us and like wipe score the earth of society.

And if if I’m going to let that happen, well, let’s say I’m not afraid to speak up about that not happening. And whatever darts and swords and whatever comes my way is whatever comes my way, because it’s worth speaking up about.

MARK BRODIE: All right. That is Valley comedian Anwar Newton. He’ll be recording a stand-up special at Valley Bar on July Fourth. Anwar, always nice to talk to you. Thank you.

ANWAR NEWTON: Thank you.