November 2018
On this seven night trip I had four nights to myself, which meant an awful lot of comedy!
The main target for the first night was a monthly show called Comedy at the Grocery. I had mistakenly believed that it was in an actual grocery store – in fact it was the back room of a normal pub on the Lower East Side, just a block from where Stand NYC’s Frantic Mondays pop-up have been playing over the summer. The usual entry fee is $5 (with no drink minimum) but it’s free if you pre-book via Eventbrite. The room was decent and the standard of comics reasonable, including a slightly distracted Nikki Glazer and a very impressive bloke called Dan Licata (who co-produces the Dan, Joe and Hot Toddy Show in Williamsburg). I’d happily go back.
The plan had then been to try to catch the end of Tickling The Ivories at a bar called Pianos just a few steps away. Despite the line-up for the comedy being displayed behind the bouncer on the door (who checked my ID bless him) when I got upstairs at the venue, all that was happening was a DJ was playing hip hop. I hadn’t planned for such an eventuality so was left wondering how to cram something else into the evening without a lot of travelling. I opted to visit the famous Monday night open-mic at The Sidewalk Cafe, a few blocks to the north. Edinburgh people might be aware of anti-folk artist Lach. He ran this evening for several years and still seems to be fondly remembered if the history on the wall (and graffiti in the bathroom) is anything to go by. There’s no entry fee or drink minimum though you are strongly encouraged to buy something. I expected it to only be musicians but about a quarter of the performers were comics. Each person gets 1 song or 4 minutes so things move along pretty quickly.
On Tuesday I wanted to do Ambush Comedy at the Two Boots Pizza location in Williamsburg but there was plenty of scope for shows before that. I started with an open-mic at a pub called
Otto’s Shrunken Head that I’ve been to before, run on weekdays (3pm) by a supportive guy called Jimmy Peoples. After that I popped in to The Grisly Pear on MacDougal St. Unbelievably they had almost run out of beer with only Guinness on draft and a fairly dire selection in bottles so I had one Heineken and watched precisely one-Heineken’s worth of comics. Although an inferior mic to Otto’s, it did at least have a better gender split. After that I headed along the street to the Olive Tree Cafe for some food and to see if I could spot any comics. Sam Morril, Joe List and Mark Normand were filming something at the comics’ table and I saw Bobby Kelly breeze through.
When I got to Two Boots (only a block from the L train’s Bedford Street stop) I noticed that the line-up on the board outside was entirely different from the published one, so I surreptitiously scribbled down the new names while trying to avoid looking like too much of a weirdo. There had been some mention of a free beer if you arrived between 8 and 8:30 (which I had) but it all sounded rather improbable. Right enough, a draft Octoberfest was being handed out (in an endearingly incompetent fashion) by one of the show’s producers. Despite the fluctuating line-up the comedy was extremely impressive with three different comics (Joe Zimmerman/Brett Hiker/Andrea Allan) getting the FSA (Fat Scottish Anorak) seal of approval.
Ambush finished around 9:45pm and perhaps feeling that I hadn’t made the most of the previous night, I decided to head to a show at Halyards that I thought started at 10pm. Halyards is a lovely spot but it’s a fair distance from Williamsburg (and even further from Manhattan’s UWS where I’d be returning to) but I went for it anyway. I got there about 10:30pm to find that there was no comedy, just some live jazz. I did think about drowning my disappointment in a solo beer and watching the coverage of the midterms that they had on but figured I’d just be even more tired after that and I’d still have the hour long journey home. Three comedy shows in a day would have to suffice.
By Wednesday I had adult supervision so standup consumption was going to be slightly reduced. I had noticed that Too Many Cooks (at Lucky Jacks – it took over the Ghandi Is That You? slot) were having a one year anniversary show with both Chris Distefano and Chris Gethard listed to appear. As that show didn’t start till 9pm it was going to be theoretically possible to catch a little of Let’s See, What Else? at nearby Poco. Sam Morril was on the bill and in the past the big name has gone on immediately after the hosts at the start. The last time we were at LSWE it was mobbed, possibly because they had a good happy hour downstairs till the start of the comedy. This time we were first in, which set alarm bells ringing. The range of drinks offered downstairs had reduced but there was still a happy hour on upstairs. As the hosts came on there was no sign of Sam but Mark Normand was hovering near the back. There was no announcement that he’d replaced Sam but we bailed out anyway after Mark’s set. My girlfriend headed home and I went along to Too Many Cooks. Other than Chris C and Chris D there wasn’t a huge amount to enthuse about and jeezo it was cold in there.
On Thursday we had booked tickets (for the very reasonable price of $10 each) to see Alex Edelman perform his Edinburgh Comedy Awards-nominated show at the Bell House. We got decent seats and although his support wasn’t up to much, we had high hopes for his hour. In the end we both came away from it a little disappointed. Maybe catching him in a smaller room at the Fringe would have been a better idea.
It was Sunday before I could overdose on standup again. In the afternoon I tried to go and have a look at Stand NYC’s new location (they promised it would be open “in the fall”) but there still seems to be some work to do. A show called Free Puppies was having its first birthday at Greenwich Village’s Lantern bar at the conveniently early time of 6pm and Sam Morril was scheduled to appear. Comedy at this venue used to mainly be restricted to open-mics in their basement room but they now have a performance space at the far end of the bar. The crowd enjoyed it but I thought it fairly hacky at times and disappointingly SM failed to appear again. However there was no cover (though they did ask for donations) and only a single drink minimum so it’s a bit mean to complain too much.
I headed across town to Old Man Hustle who had an hour long show listed as starting at 8pm as part of the New York Comedy festival. I don’t know what tie-in to the festival was meant to achieve, it just seemed like a perfectly normal night at OMH to me. Bob Biggerstaff was reasonable but there wasn’t much else to hold the interest.
Comedy At The Beauty Bar was only a short bus ride away so once the last comic (venue owner Eddie Farrell) was done I made my way over there. My one other time attending this night the show had started very late. I don’t know if I’d missed a section or lateness is a regular feature but only a couple of minutes after I got there about 9:40pm it kicked off. For a free show the line-up was very strong. The only name I could remember was one of the show producers Jeff Arcuri. I’d definitely look out for him. Somehow I was awarded a free beer halfway through the show. I don’t know how that happened but I didn’t refuse.
Trip Stats
Comedy shows seen – 11
Comedy shows failed to see – 2
Total ticket expenditure – $15
Number of times I failed to see Sam Morril – 2
May 2018
Our first comedy fix was at Wednesday night's Comedians You Should Know at the Gutter in Williamsburg. Originally I had read the lineup as including Judah Friedlander and Sam Morril so had booked tickets (just $5 each) excitedly. However as the day approached, the lineup appeared to be completely different. The headliner was Liza Treyger, who I do enjoy, but she's no Judah. It's an absolutely lovely room for comedy and the show went well so I've nothing to complain about.
In the meantime Judah had been added to Thursday's 8pm show at Stand NYC. The bill already included Ari Shaffir which frankly made it too good to miss. Monroe Martin was MCing which is an unusual role for him and right enough, he looked a bit nervous but got away with it by mainly relying on material. Ari was superb, covering school shootings and Judiasm (which is the show he's bringing to the Fringe).
It was going to be 3 nights of comedy in a row with our first ever visit to Bitches' Brew in the backroom of a pub called Halyards in Gowanus. I've wanted to try this night for a while but it's a fair trek from where we stay in Manhattan. However on this particular Friday we were attending a beer/wine/cheese event at the Bell House which is in the same block as Halyards, so it was a done deal that we would do both. We needed to get food between the 2 events (cheese wasn't enough) and this took longer than planned to the extent that we ended up arriving a few minutes after the show started and found the room absolutely rammed. Cursing our (my) lack of organisations skills, we opted to go back on another night.
I've seen Mike Albanese at Stand NYC before and very much enjoyed him so when I noticed that a free night called The Human Bird Comedy Show (on which he his listed as a compere) was happening on Monday, it seemed like the ideal opportunity to catch him and visit a new location for comedy (downstairs at an East Village bar called Drexler's).
Tushar Singh was the host and it was a reasonably successful night with Chris Scopo (new to me) generating the most laughs. The room is a little strange and the stairs precariously steep but I'd definitely go back.
We managed a brief visit to the Olive Tree Cafe for some food and to take a photo of where the comics wait before going on at The Cellar. Sam Morril was writing at a table and although I didn't speak to him, I did write "Joe Machi is the kid" in chalk on our table (Keeping Joe podcast reference).
March 2018
Given that we were in NY for seven nights and one was lost to arriving late and another to a surprise birthday event, I was pretty happy cramming in five different shows.
From about a month before we’d seen adverts stating that Judah Friedlander was doing a long set at the Village Underground for $15 per head. It’s far from being my favourite venue but that was the location and there was a promise of 60 minutes of new material i.e. not in his Netflix special. The start time of 8pm on a Monday night also meant we could theoretically combine it with the 10pm show Frantic Monday at the Stand NYC.
We arrived at the venue in good time and got the better of the two seats at our table for four (the Cellar and the Village Underground have some very stupid seating configurations). Joyelle Johnson and Janelle James opened for him and neither made much of an impression. Judah came on after about 45 mins, did some typically-excellent crowd work, tried some new stuff and then quite quickly went back to the Q&A format about his presidency that he mined so successfully in his special. At about the 1hr 45 mark he seemed to be coming to a close and figuring we could beat the exiting crowd and maybe just scrape into Frantic before Aaron’s standard blistering opening, we made for the door. I’ve never not enjoyed a World Champion show but the whole package that night was a little under-whelming.
After a quick taxi ride we managed to take semi-decent seats about 30 seconds before the start at the Stand NYC. Other than the compere the initial appeal of this particular show had been that Ari Shaffir and Nikki Glazer were to appear. By the day of the show Ari had disappeared from the bill but Nikki was still there, as well as the ever-dependable Mark Normand. Aaron Berg came on and as usual he had evaluated/insulted the entire front two rows within the first minute. The show was a little up and down with no Nikki or Mark and a surprisingly average Joe List but on the flipside, the fantastic Pete Lee did a short set to get the crowd ready for the recording of a stand-up set by Aaron. Mike Albanese was new to me and someone I’ll definitely look out for again and there was one other comic of interest who I’m still trying to track down.
I’d never actually visited the West Side Comedy Club but had an oddly pessimistic feeling about it. However it’s about eight blocks from where we stay and has had a number of names drop in since its 2017 opening (Seinfeld and Bill Burr) so we opted to try their Tuesday night show, Anything But Your Act. It was only going to be $7 cover and a 1 drink minimum. The seating layout reminds me a bit of the Broadway Comedy Club (this isn’t a compliment) and we passed on the first set of seats we were offered, favouring something nearer the door in case the show (where comics can try out anything apart from their normal act) didn’t deliver. The first disappointment was one of the acts starting to do covers of famous songs with a guitar. It wasn’t really clear whether the show was underway or he was just providing background music. Regardless, he was shit. The next thing to annoy me was the manager loudly chatting to someone behind me for at least two minutes while an act was on. Oddly unprofessional. After about 45 minutes and nothing particularly interesting happening we headed for freedom. It’s going to take quite a line-up to get me back there.
When my girlfriend is with me the comedy has to be of a certain standard. When she’s not there I can travel for miles just to watch some absolute nonsense. As there was a dreadful play on that she wanted to see in Greenwich Village, I was able to indulge whatever comedic whims I fancied. I thought about travelling to Gowanus, Brooklyn for the well-regarded Fancy Show, but the journey home can take a while so opted for something a little closer at a venue called Old Man Hustle on the Lower East side of Manhattan.
However before that I had some time to kill so called in at The Grisly Pear on Macdougal, just along from the Comedy Cellar, to catch the end of an open-mic. There were a couple of little snatches of interest and one bloke, instead of paying for the mic, had brought along a pizza which was descended upon by the few that had stayed till the end. Once that was done I headed over to Old Man Hustle and found it to be a tiny, skinny bar with maybe 14 seats and standing room for another 10. I assumed that there was a back room where the comedy would happen but no, it turned out that the comedy would all be on approximately six square feet of stage at the end of the bar. On the face of it this seems like an impractical idea as some people in the bar will want to chat and that will disrupt the comedy but everyone seemed either to be there for the stand-up or polite enough not to talk during the one hour show. The room had a nice ambience even if the comedy wasn’t of that high a standard, the exception being Wendi Starling.
I didn’t speak to him about it but what I think has happened is that a comic has bought a bar and decided to put comedy on every night (at 8pm). It’s a little bit like Monkey Barrel in Edinburgh but way less professional. He also puts himself on the bill quite often and who can blame him.