NYC Comedy Picks for Monday 7/10/17
Chris Colfer (Kurt Hummel on Glee, a role that won him a 2011 Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor and three consecutive (2013-2015) People's Choice Awards for Favorite Comedic TV Actor; #1 New York Times Bestselling author of book The Land of Stories: The Wishing Spell) is tonight's guest of this NPR weekly comedy trivia show taped live in Brooklyn and hosted by the wonderful Ophira Eisenberg (NBC's The Today Show, CBS' The Late Late Show, Comedy Central, VH1, Showtime, bestselling book Screw Everyone, comedy album Bangs!): Ask Me Another (7:30 pm, $25, The Bell House at 149 7th Street; take R subway to 9th Street or F/G to Fourth Avenue)...
...and a monthly event that showcases physical comedy and "the weird, the beautiful, the gross, and, ultimately, the human" tonight features comics Leanna Grennan (above left), Eudora Peterson (above middle), Milly Tamarez, Jes Tom, and Chris Burns hosted by Arti Gollapudi (above right): Yourself, Your Body (7:30 pm, $7, UCB East at 153 East 3rd Street)
NYC Comedy Picks for Tuesday 7/11/17
Joel Kim Booster (Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special, Billy on the Street; for Joel's Conan set, please click here) records his first stand-up album, with help from comics Aaron Jackson, Josh Sharp, Patti Harrison, Matt Rogers, Bowen Yang, Henry Koperski, and Tiffany Topol tonight and tomorrow: Joel Kim Booster: Model Minority (8:00 pm tonight & Wednesday; $15—nab 2-for-1 tickets online using code BOGOBOOSTER; Ars Nova Theatre at 511 West 54th Street, off 10th Avenue)...
...and rising stand-up Katie Hannigan (Oxygen, Seeso, College Humor; complains about being 5' 3" by observing "The world is not built for a short woman," then pauses reflectively and adds, " ...or, really, any woman;" for a sample set, please click here) headlines for one night only at Carolines: Katie Hannigan (7:30 pm, $11 cover using discount code MOUSIE online (otherwise $18) plus 2-drink min., Carolines Comedy Club at 1626 Broadway)
NYC Comedy Picks for Wednesday 7/12/17
As producer, director, and/or writer, Judd Apatow has had a hand in many of the most beloved comedy TV series and films of the past 20 years, including HBO's Girls, Crashing, and The Larry Sanders Show, and movies Trainwreck, The Big Sick, Anchorman, Bridesmaids, Knocked Up, Pineapple Express, Funny People, The 40-Year-Old Virgin...and many, many more. Still seeking challenges, Apatow is now honing his skills as a stand-up comic, and will be performing at Gotham tonight and tomorrow with the goal of making you laugh multiple times per minute: Judd Apatow (9:30 pm tonight & Thursday, $25 plus 2-drink min., Gotham Comedy Club at 208 West 23rd Street)...
...and speaking of excercising muscles: Sean Patton is famed in NYC as one of the very finest stand-ups alive. What's less known is Sean's freshness, power, and depth as a storyteller. In this hour-long solo show he's honing for next month's Edinburgh Fringe Festival, Sean tells a myriad of tales about growing up in New Orleans, and somehow manages to tie together such themes as farts, balls, bed-wetting, and eternal love. Enjoy this extraordinary writer/performer in Sean Patton: Number One (8:00 pm; $10, Brooklyn's Union Hall at 702 Union Street; take R subway to Union Street)...
...or check out this bookish game show in which four writers each read their own work for seven minutes or less. An all-star panel of judges then selects the two best to compete in the finale, a vaguely-literary battle to decide the ultimate winner. Tonight's stellar judges are Aparna Nancherla (co-star of HBO's Crashing and Netflix's Master of None; former writer for Seth Meyers; Conan O'Brien, @Midnight, Comedy Central Half Hour, comedy album Just Putting It Out There), Damien Lemon (Comedy Central Half Hour, host of Comedy Knockout, MTV's Guy Code), Kashana Cauley (writer for The Daily Show), and Loryn Brantz (award-winning children’s book author of Feminist Baby and Harvey the Child Mime, and two-time Emmy Award-winning illustrator). And the contestants are all award-winning writers: Rakesh Satyal (author of Blue Boy and No One Can Pronounce My Name), Lisa Ko (author of The Leavers; included in Best American Short Stories 2016), Jamie Brickhouse (author of Dangerous When Wet: A Memoir of Booze, Sex, and My Mother; three-time Moth StorySlam winner), and Lauren Duca (columnist for Teen Vogue), all hosted by Adrian Todd Zuniga: Literary Death Match (8:00 pm, $15, Brooklyn's The Bell House at 149 7th Street; take R subway to 9th Street or F/G to Fourth Avenue)...
...or listen to scientists, geeks, and comics—including Raj Sivaraman (stand-up; co-host of Universe City podcast), Gail Thomas (Moth StorySlam winner), and Jean Le Bec (Moth StorySlam winner)—tell tales related to science, with this month's theme Painful Moments, hosted by Ben Lillie & Erin Barker: The Story Collider: Painful Moments in Science (7:00 pm, $10, The Kraine Theatre at 85 East 4th Street off Second Avenue)
NYC Comedy Picks for Thursday 7/13/17
Next month is the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, the largest annual arts event in the world, and a bunch of NYC comedy luminaries will be performing shows for it. Tonight provides excerpts from the Edinburgh productions of Jena Friedman (wry dark political stand-up; Stephen Colbert, @midnight, The New Yorker, Adult Swim, Netflix mockumentary Undecided; former staff writer for David Letterman, former producer for The Daily Show), Mindy Raf (brilliant one-woman show Keeping My Kidneys; MTV's Girl Code, College Humor; author of YA novel The Symptoms of My Insanity; often performs as singing alter ego Leibya Rogers), David Carl (hilarious, charismatic rising star; Point Break Live, Gary Busey's One Man Hamlet), and hosts The Reformed Whores (raunchy comedic singing duo Marie Cecile Anderson & Katy Frame; CBS, IFC; have opened for Weird Al Yankovic, Alice Cooper, and Lynyrd Skynyrd; albums Ladies Don't Spit and Don't Beat Around the Bush): Bon Voyage! We're Going to Edinburgh! (8:30 pm, $5, Brooklyn's The Cobra Club at 6 Wyckoff Avenue)...
...or enjoy a comic excavation of teen angst artifacts (journals, letters, poems, lyrics, home movies, stories, and more) shared by their original authors before total strangers at this popular monthly show: Mortified (8:00 pm, $10, Brooklyn's Littlefield at 635 Sackett Street; take R subway to Union Street)...
...or go for an oddball blend of nerdism and sexuality via this over-the-top comedic play paying homage to the tropes of Harry Potter via burlesque, produced & hosted by Cherry Pitz (a.k.a. sharp storyteller Cyndi Freeman; The Colbert Report, Moth StorySlam champion, two-time FringeNYC award winner, star burlesque performer): Hotsy Totsy Burlesque Tribute: Harry Potter and the Cursed Pastie (8:00 pm, $15 (buy in advance, this will probably sell out), The Slipper Room at 167 Orchard Street)...
...and if you can stay out late on a Thursday, come see this debut that tries to bring a Brooklyn alt comedy vibe to a Manhattan stand-up show, with tonight's guests Jo Firestone (one of the most relentlessly inventive comics in the biz; staff writer for Jimmy Fallon; star of Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special; radio host of WFMU's Dr. Gameshow, co-author of #1 bestselling Punderdome: A Card Game for Pun Lovers), John Early (Netflix's The Characters and Wet Hot American Summer, NBC's 30 Rock, Comedy Central's Broad City), Bowen Yang (Comedy Central's Broad City; member of sketch group Pop Roulette; co-host of podcast Las Culturistas), Bardia Salimi (Stephen Colbert, CBS' Madam Secretary, Comedy Central, MTV), and Lena Einbinder (The Chris Gethard Show, The Special Without Brett Davis) hosted by Alyssa Stonoha: Taste Flavor (11:00 pm, $5, UCB East at 153 East 3rd Street)
NYC Comedy Picks for Friday 7/14/17
Tonight, tomorrow, and Sunday, the PIT Loft hosts the Second Annual Story Fest, a series of 14 storytelling shows featuring such NYC talents as Adam Wade, David Lawson, Robert Weinstein, Gastor Almonte, Jake Hart, Robin Gelfenbien, Gianmarco Soresi, and festival organizer Harmon Leon. Notable shows today include Jamie Brickhouse and Joe Charnitski at 7:00 pm (two darkly comic autobiographical solo shows by Moth StorySlam winners), Tale at 8:00 pm (includes the superb David Lawson (Flyer Guy), and (Mostly) True Stories at 9:30 pm (includes terrific comic Lou Perez (Head Writer for We The Internet TV) and retired talent agent Sandi Marx (7-time Moth StorySlam champion): StoryFest 2017 (7:00 pm-Midnight, $10 per show, The PIT Loft at 154 West 29th Street)...
...or if you prefer stand-up, check out this roaming monthly show that tonight features Liza Treyger (above left; fresh, fierce, fearless stand-up; Seth Meyers, Comedy Central Half Hour, Chelsea Lately), Krystyna Hutchinson (above right; co-host of popular Guys We Fucked podcast, Carson Daly), Joe Pera (hilarious deadpan stand-up; killer set on Seth Meyers; Conan O'Brien; Comedy Central, Adult Swim; for a very special one-minute set at Carolines, please click here; for Joe's Kaufman awards submissions, please click here and here; co-host of the Dan + Joe + Charles Show), Langston Kerman (cast member of HBO's Insecure; Adam DeVine’s House Party; written for Chris Rock's hosting of the Oscars and Comedy Central's Problematic), Noah Gardenswartz (Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central Half Hour), Rob Cantrell (Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, HBO, VHI, FX's Totally Biased, documentary Metaphysical Graffiti, High Times), and Nick Vatterott (Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Half Hour, MTV, Second City) hosted by Lucas Connolly (Comedy Central's South Beach, host of The Secret Loft Show; wish him a Happy Birthday!): Camouflage: A Comedy Show (9:00 pm; $5-$10, depending on how early you arrive—includes Free Pizza and, in honor of Lucas' birthday, Free Cupcakes!; Brooklyn's Big Irv's at 381 Hooper Street)...
...and Katie Hartman (above; brilliant, fearless dark comedy writer/performer; sketch groups Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting and Hartman & Carl, PIT Saturday night improv group Gypsy Danger) hosts an extreme character, sketch, and stand-up show with Brett Davis (HBO; creator/host of weekly Manhattan cable TV show The Special Without Brett Davis; co-host of The Macaulay Culkin Show; winner of the 2015 Andy Kaufman Award), Charla Lauriston (former writer for Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt; MTV, creator of webseries Clench & Release), Clay McLeod Chapman (author of books Nothing Untoward, Rest Area, and Miss Corpus), Laura Von Holt (Jezebel), and Sapphire Jones (Wasabassco Burlesque; host of the BossAss Bitch podcast): Fridays on Ice (10:30 pm, $15, at The New Ohio Theatre at 154 Christopher Street, inside the Archive Building)
NYC Comedy Picks for Saturday 7/15/17
A show celebrating the app that redefined online dating, with the lovely and quick-witted Lane Moore (above left; HBO's Girls; Sex & Relationship Editor of Cosmo; writer for The Onion, McSweeney's) going on a live Tinder safari for guys while a packed audience watches her every choice with fascination. Offering comments and suggestions during the adventure are tonight's guests, comedy legend David Cross (above right; Mr. Show, Arrested Development, Modern Family) and Ashley Nicole Black (staff writer for Full Frontal With Samantha Bee). This show will almost certainly sell out, so I recommend nabbing tickets ASAP for Tinder Live (8:30 pm, $15, Brooklyn's Littlefield (635 Sackett Street; take R subway to Union Street)...
...it's Day #2 of a 3-day storytelling festival at the PIT Loft, with 6 shows running a total of 8 hours. Notable events include MTA Storytelling Show at 5:00 pm (what could be better than NYC subway and bus tales?), The Virgin Chronicles at 7:30 pm (Raquel D'Apice (above middle), Anthony DeVito, and Josh Homer reveal how they lost their virginity), Solo Show 3 at 9:00 pm (tales from Adam Wade (above right), Gastor Almonte, and festival producer Harmon Leon), and ASS at 10:30 pm (Jake Hart (above left) hosts comics confessing terrible stuff they once did: "There's no redemptions, no moments of regret, just stories of people doing bad things"): StoryFest 2017 (4:00 pm-Midnight, $10 per show, The PIT Loft at 154 West 29th Street)...
...and if you have a good time at the MTA Storytelling Show (directly above), consider then jumping on the subway to Brooklyn for poetry about the MTA...plus transit-related stand-up from Josh Gondelman (Emmy & Peabody Award-winning writer/producer for HBO's Last Week Tonight with John Oliver; Conan O'Brien, The New Yorker; stand-up comedy album Physical Whisper), Joel Kim Booster (Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special, Billy on the Street; for Joel's Conan set, please click here), Alise Morales (Managing Editor/Video Producer of Betches), and Alyssa Limperis (MTV, Vice, Lifetime, Conde Nast's The Scene): MTA Love Poems (7:00 pm, $5, Brooklyn's City Reliquary at 370 Metropolitan Avenue—take the G to Metropolitan Avenue, L to Bedford Avenue, or J/M/Z to Marcy Avenue)
NYC Comedy Picks for Sunday 7/16/17
It's week #2 of a 4-Sunday series of free outdoor comedy shows in July at NYC parks. This afternoon's lineup features Myq Kaplan (above middle; one of the quickest minds in comedy; finalist on Last Comic Standing, semi-finalist on America's Got Talent; David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Seth Meyers, Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents, comedy CDs No Kidding, Small, Dork, and Handsome, Vegan Mind Meld, and Meat Robot), Sherrod Small (above right; writer/performer on TBS' Are We There Yet?, Comedy Central, VH1), Langston Kerman (above left; cast member of HBO's Insecure; Adam DeVine’s House Party; written for Chris Rock's hosting of the Oscars and Comedy Central's Problematic), Gary Vider (America's Got Talent 2015 finalist; for great Conan O'Brien set, please click here; for more jokes, please click here), and Leighann Lord (HBO, Comedy Central, Lifetime; frequent co-host of StarTalk Radio podcast; author of Dict Jokes): Laughter in the Park (2:00 pm-4:00 pm, Free!, the East Village's Tompkins Square Park by the 7th Street entrance)...
...it's the final day of a weekend storytelling festival at the PIT Loft, with 5 shows running a total of 7 hours. Notable events include VHS Presents at 5:30 pm (comics David Lawson (above left), Angel Yau (above middle), and Elann Danziger screen embarrassing videos they made years ago to hype themselves and share anecdotes about them) and Singeling at 8:30 pm (tales of dating, plus advice from professional dating coach Erika Elton (above right)): Story Fest 2017 (4:00 pm-11:00 pm, $10 per show, The PIT Loft at 154 West 29th Street)...
...or see this unique show in which animators spontaneously bring the jokes of guest stand-ups to visual life with lightning speed & wit. Tonight's comedy lineup consists of Dave Hill (one of the most original and hilariously sharp alternative comics in the country; @midnight, Inside Amy Schumer, Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, This American Life; host for HBO and Cinemax; host of WFMU's The Goddamn Dave Hill Show; bands Valley Lodge and Diamondsnake; books Tasteful Nudes and Dave Hill Doesn't Live Here Anymore; comedy album Let Me Turn You On), Joel Kim Booster (Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents special, Billy on the Street; for Joel's Conan set, please click here), Noah Gardenswartz (Conan O'Brien, Comedy Central Half Hour), Will Miles (co-host of Comedy Night at the Knit; TruTV, The Chris Gethard Show; Steve Martin's Comedy MasterClass; comedy album Good Year), Molly Ruben-Long (Someecards; co-host of Well Behaved podcast), and Mara Wiles (Viceland’s Flophouse), produced by Sam Varela & Brandie Posey and hosted by Ian Fidance: Picture This! (7:30 pm, $10, Brooklyn's Union Hall at 702 Union Street; take R subway to Union Street)...
...or join Sasheer Zamata (cast member for three seasons of Saturday Night Live) as she hosts Wyatt Cenac (former star correspondent for The Daily Show; writer for South Park; albums Comedy Person, Brooklyn, and Furry Dumb Fighter; host of Night Train), David Cross (comedy legend; Mr. Show, Arrested Development, Modern Family), Cocoon Central Dance Team (delightful trio of immensely talented comedic dancers/actresses and rising stars Eleanore Pienta, Tallie Medel, and Sunita Mani), and Maria Heinegg (host of The Worst Thing podcast) performing stand-up or dance, plus music from DJ Donwill, all at Sasheer Zamata Party Time (8:00 pm, $10, Brooklyn's The Bell House at 149 7th Street; take R subway to 9th Street or F/G to Fourth Avenue)...and finally:
Go out tonight; but set your recording device to HBO at 9:00.
Copyright © 2017 Hy Bender
Email: hy@hyreviews.com
