Phoenix processes between Sunbelt-hub ambition and Maricopa County desert-sprawl identity. Downtown rooms fill with transplants chasing the tech-corridor dream, while Roosevelt Row hosts the artists who discovered affordable rent. Arcadia draws the established residents. Scottsdale-adjacent and Tempe add the regional layers. The comedy here reads the tension between growth-economy transience and Valley permanence. Open mics become neutral ground where both identities converge. Comics who grasp Phoenix's dual rhythm find audiences relieved someone recognized the city keeps its desert soul while the subdivisions multiply toward the mountains.