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As the rest of the country counts down to the cool days of fall in the next handful of weeks, we’re still arm-wrestling over whether we’ll be facing another extended hot season like last year.

Reminder: We had 16 100-degree days in September and 13 in October, and the 80s stubbornly hung on through Thanksgiving.

We’re looking at temps inching toward the century mark this weekend, but we’ll be too busy laughing to worry about the heat.

From Thursday, Sept. 4, through Sunday, Sept. 7, five very different comedy shows are coming our way, including the debut of a comedian who has called Tucson home since devastating wildfires forced him to flee Southern California early this year.

The February move was the second time Joshua Turek had sought refuge in Tucson to escape fire in Cali.

“The first one was in 2020, the Bobcat Fire,” said Turek, who will make his Tucson debut at Club Congress on Saturday. “We were living in Glendale (California) and the air quality got so bad because that was when there was this big confluence of fires going all up and down the West Coast. We didn’t see a speck of blue in the sky until we got to Tucson.”

He was living in Malibu in early January when the Palisades Fire engulfed the Santa Monica Mountains framing his native Los Angeles.

His apartment in Santa Monica was spared, but smoke and ash from nearby blazes got into his apartment.

“We had to throw away a bunch of stuff, but we’d sort of been looking, my wife and I, to move,” he said.

The fire provided the escape plan.

“Tucson felt like a good refuge,” he said.

The first thing Turek did when he got settled in Tucson?

“I rode my bike up ‘A’ Mountain and interviewed a cactus for no good reason,” he said.

The video of Turek asking a towering saguaro such compelling questions as “Is grief the only thing that allows us to access the full spectrum of our humanity?” “I love your style. Tell us about your ‘fit.” And our favorite: “How do you get over heartache?”

Turek might mention the succulent encounter when he takes the Club Congress stage for the last stop on his “2025 Summer of Discontent Comedy Tour.”

“It’s gonna be reflections on the American dystopia and also my sort of existential crisis amid a global crisis,” he explained. “But that’s all very heavy language to say that, yeah, just someone trying to be honest with people. I’ve toured the country all summer and been headlining shows at comedy clubs across this nation and I feel like I’ve really sharpened my act into something where I’m finally starting to say what I want to say about the world, but hopefully in a funny way.”

Turek said the tour’s title sums up his feelings about where the country is headed, a sentiment his audiences seem to share.

“Everywhere I go, I ask the audience if they feel like we’re headed in the wrong direction, and they all concur,” said Turek, who has been doing standup a dozen years and has published two books of poetry including the months-old “Of Dumb Importance” that features a drawing of his saguaro interview on the cover. “I was just in Boise, Idaho, same thing. I’ve been going to larger cities. I was in Eureka, California, which feels like it’s like five or 10 years ahead on that road, sadly.”

No, Turek is not aiming for a political career, although there is a who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Iowa.

Tucson’s Turek is “just trying to bring people together.”

“I use all this heavy-handed language, but really, I want to bring people together and engage in this sort of strange ceremony that is stand up comedy.”

Turek’s show starts at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Club Congress, 311 E. Congress St. Tickets are $20 in advance, $25 day of show through

Jerry Seinfeld

7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 4, Linda Ronstadt Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.; tickets start at $58.50 through .

Seinfeld live is a lot like Seinfeld on the small screen: a bit crotchety, railing on life’s little annoyances like his dissertation to an Australian audience last summer on his disdain for tea.

“I hate tea,” he told them, as reported by . “I hate it! Tea does not understand how hard life is! All these names … darjeeling, chamomile, jasmine. What am I, in a whorehouse on the Bayou?”

Seinfeld mines the classic schtick from his namesake 1990s sitcom.

He’ll also likely mention something related to Pop-Tarts from his original 2024 Netflix movie “Unfrosted,” based on cereal giants Kellogg’s and Post’s race to create a breakfast pastry in the early 1960s. Despite its all-star cast — Seinfeld wrote and starred alongside Amy Schumer, Jim Gaffigan, Hugh Grant, James Marsden and Melissa McCarthy — “Unfrosted” only managed a 39% ranking on Rotten Tomatoes.

Nurse John

7:30 p.m. Friday, Fox Tucson Theatre, 17 W. Congress St.; sold out.

Real-life nurse and comedian John Dela Cruz brings his stage persona and all his wacky coworkers to the stage for a look at life in the hospital fast lane. Warning: It’s not pretty.

“The Short-Staffed Tour” is the rescheduled date for Cruz’s Jan. 10 show.

Tiffany Haddish

8 p.m. Saturday, Desert Diamond Casino Diamond Center, 1100 W. Pima Mine Road in Sahuarita; $43-$70 through ddca

Fans of late-night TV no doubt caught in late August when she kept the seat warm for “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” host Jimmy Kimmel. During her stint, she declared her candidacy for president and laid out a platform that included requiring Subway stores to offer pastrami sandwiches, listing credit scores on dating apps, allowing taxpayers to pay Uncle Sam with old gift cards, and banning elevator small talk.

The Emmy Award-winning “Girls Trip” star and standup comedian won a Grammy Award in 2021 for Best Comedy Album for “Black Mitzvah,” which played off her Bat Mitzvah at age 40.

John Cleese

7 p.m. Sunday, Fox Tucson Theatre; $58-$116 through foxt

“Not Dead Yet! — and the Holy Grail at 50” gives us a chance to ask the legendary British comic actor to dish on his Monty Python sidekicks and the behind-the-scenes antics of the 1975 film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail,” which will be screened as part of the event.

Cleese was last here in September 2021 with his “Why There Is No Hope Tour.” “Not Dead Yet!” follows a similar Q&A format, giving the audience a chance to probe those deep, dark secrets of comic genius — providing, of course, that Cleese can remember anything.

That’s the fine print in his tour publicity, which is understandable: The man is 85 years old; he can’t be expected to remember every detail from something that happened when he was 39.

Ha-ha’s continue next week

• Comedian Steve Treviño, who goes by the nickname “America’s Favorite Husband,” brings his “Good Life Tour” to Fox Tucson Theatre on Sept. 12; $24-$65 through .
• Rialto Theatre’s sister venue 191 Toole is bringing “Ashley Gavin: Hype Man” to its stage at 191 S. Toole Ave., on Sept. 17; $34-$43.30 through .