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Riley Soloner stars in his sketch comedy Vacation Jason’s Island Flavors; Joe DeRosa headlines tonight and tomorrow at Carolines
Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:
[FREE] 6:00 pm to midnight: Six free hours of improvisation at The PIT upstairs theatre: Super Free Wednesday
[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up for 15 comics performing for 5 minutes each at Queens LIC’s Laughing Devil Comedy Club (4738 Vernon Blvd.)—with drinks at half price: Happy Hour Open Mic
[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up providing 3 minutes per comic at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre hosted by Max Corbel & Benel Germosen: Cracking It
7:00 pm-12:30 am ($7 for the entire evening): Magnet house troupes Dr. Champagne, Horses, Bloomer, Chet Watkins, Flower Girl, The Wrath, Nintendo, and Brick performing improv, followed by a free audience interactive show with The Wrath at 11:30 pm: The Magnet’s Megawatt
7:00 pm ($5): Katie Hartman (Skinny Bitch Jesus Meeting) and Kevin Shimko (Pyramid Scheme) perform improv with tonight’s guest troupe Gameface at The PIT downstairs lounge: Katie & Kevin & Friends
7:30 pm ($5): Expanding the UCB longform improv showcased on Harold Night is this weekly show at UCB East which tonight features troupes Graceland and Spooky Ghost: Lloyd Night
[TOP PICK] [$] 8:00 pm ($22 & 2-drink min.) A razor-sharp stand-up who’s performed on HBO’s Bored to Death and Down and Dirty, as well as FX’s Louie and radio show Opie & Anthony, starred in his own Comedy Central Presents half-hour special, created the comedy CDs The Depression Auction and Return of the Depression Auction, and co-hosts the weekly NYC stand-up show Righteous Kill headlining tonight and Thursday at the Carolines Comedy Club: Joe DeRosa
[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): UCBT star & Chris Gethard Show icon Riley Soloner stars in his own show (which I’m hoping to finally attend tonight): Vacation Jason’s Island Flavors…
…and in the other half of this UCB Chelsea double-bill, a small mob of young talent puts on a meta-musical:The 2017 Tony Awardz: A Parody of Musical Proportions
[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: Jared Logan (rising star; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, CNN, TBS, host of ComedyJuice), Phoebe Robinson (TV Guide’s 100 TV Shows To See Before You Die and 25 Biggest Reality Star Blunders, Huffington Post), Nick Maritato, and John Early perform stand-up “and then have a discussion about what’s going on in the world and the mysteries of life,” with tonight’s theme New Year’s Resolutions, at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Chris Laker: The Show
[$] 8:00 pm ($14 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Tom Papa (host of Jerry Seinfeld-produced NBC comedy The Marriage Ref; numerous appearances on David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno; three Comedy Central specials), Ryan Hamilton (Conan O’Brien, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, Showtime), Lenny Marcus (David Letterman, MTV), Robert Kelly (Louie, Comedy Central, Opie & Anthony), and Jeff Lamp (Jay Leno) performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): Tom Papa, Ryan Hamilton, and More
8:00 pm ($5):Natasha Rothwell (The Curfew, Hodapp & Rothwell) and Rachel Rosenthal (North Coast, ImprovBoston) perform duo improv at The PIT downstairs lounge: War Bride
[FREE] 9:00 pm: Victor Varnado (Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central, NBC’s My Name is Earl, Adult Swim, Comedy Central’s The Awkward Comedy Show; films Pluto Nash, End of Days, A Guy Thing), Kevin McCaffrey (David Letterman), Jane Borden (former Comedy Editor of Time Out New York, author of I Totally Meant to Do That), Sagar Bhatt, Stephanie Holmes, and Erik Bransteen performing stand-up at this free weekly comedy show at Lucky Jack’s Bar (129 Orchard Street) produced by Kyle Fincham, Lance Weiss, and Brendon Fitzgibbons: Gandhi, Is That You?
[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Superb improvisors—and actual brothers—Will Hines and Kevin Hines make use of their intimate knowledge of each other to gracefully invent scenes (hopefully without any fighting) at UCB East performing as duo The Brothers Hines
9:00 pm ($5): Two-person improv scenes from Richard Templeton & Nannette Deasy, Colin Longstaff & Dawn Harris, and more at The PIT downstairs lounge hosted by Donna Lobello and tonight’s guest partner Patrick Cucuta: I Trust (Two-Prov)
9:30 pm ($5): Sketch troupe Boat performs 30 minutes of bits at Boat: Comedic Sketches…
…and in the other half of this UCB Chelsea double-bill, a two-man sketch show by Matt Dennie & Josh Sharp that very loosely springs off the real events of the title but is mostly meta-comedy. I would’ve preferred something meatier, especially given the fascinating subject—436 people killed by a tiger whose damaged teeth made it difficult to eat anything other than humans—but there’s lots of energy and performance talent here, making this a solid first-time effort: Maneater: The True Story of the Champawat Tigress
[TOP PICK] [$] 9:45 pm ($14 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Judah Friedlander (one of the quickest minds in comedy; 30 Rock, Meet the Parents, Along Came Polly, author of How to Beat Up Anybody), Jessica Kirson (Jay Leno, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, HBO, Showtime, Bravo, VH1, Logo one-woman show My Cookie’s Gone), Nick Griffin (David Letterman, Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents), Gregg Rogell (Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Louie, Comedy Central), and Greer Barnes (David Letterman, Chappelle Show, For the Love of the Game) performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): Judah Friedlander, Jessica Kirson, and More
[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): The wonderful Julie Sharbutt (improv shows Gravid Water, Mystic Improv, The Scene, Birds) and Zhubin Parang (writer for The Daily Show; improv shows What I Did For Love, HUNK, The Scene) perform duo improv “exploring a world of deeply felt character relationships while sitting in chairs” at The PIT downstairs lounge: Chairs
[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): The instructors of UCB’s classes include some of the finest improvisors in the country. In this new weekly show a bunch of them get on stage at UCB East, along with hosts Betsy Stover and Ari Voukydis: Hot for Teacher: The UCB Faculty Show
[TOP PICK] [FREE] 10:00 pm: Rising stand-up stars—Jared Logan, Mike Lawrence, Mark Normand, Dan. St. Germain, Pat Dixon, Emily Heller, Michael Che, Joe List, and/or Nick Turner—at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre: The Regular Suspects
[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: The wonderful Sasheer Zamata (Doppelganger) hosts as many as a dozen guests packed into 75 minutes performing stand-up, improv, sketch, and occasionally acts that defy categorization. The level of talent can vary wildly, but for some (like me), that’s part of the laid-back fun; and this is often one of the most amazing comedy shows in town. (Tonight’s scheduled lineup hasn’t been posted as of this morning, but for an update please click here.) Come support the experimentation, and periodic magical surprises, that this uniquely organic rollercoaster of a weekly show at UCB Chelsea makes possible—and don’t forget to toss $1 in the bucket on your way out: School Night
[FREE] 11:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up running until 1:00 am, with time divided evenly between performers (up to five minutes), at The Creek downstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with host Rob Stern: Bucket ‘O Buckets
[FREE] 11:00 pm: Your opportunity to perform on the stage of UCB East with improv veterans, hosted by UCBT Harold Night house troupe Grandma’s Ashes: The Improv Jam
[TOP PICK] [$] 11:30 pm ($14 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Uncensored stand-up from Big Jay Oakerson (Comedy Central Presents, HBO, Showtime, MTV), Mark Normand (hilarious stand-up; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; co-host of Hot Soup and We’re All Friends Here), Kurt Metzger (Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Presents, Ugly Americans), Andrew Schulz (MTV2′s Guy Code), Dan Soder (Comedy Central, VH1; for set about being a hypochondriatic drug user, please click here), and Wil Sylvince (Comedy Central, BET’s Comic View) performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): The Nasty Show: Big Jay Oakerson, Mark Normand, Kurt Metzger, and More
From legendary NYC comedy site Brooklyn Vegan: If you want to know what is happening in NYC comedy on a particular day, you gotta get hip to this dude Hy Bender and his site Best New York Comedy. The site is updated daily and features a super exhaustive look at what is happening in the NYC comedy world that particular day. The site is updated religiously…It is your daily comedy itinerary and it scares me how on top of his shit this guy is.
