2022

October 2022 - Dave Chappelle, Josh Johnson and a Haunted House

As I arrived in the city a few hours before my girlfriend, I had the opportunity to go to something ridiculous. Eventbrite revealed that there was a free BYO show in the backyard of a "haunted house" in Queens. I was intrigued by the prospect, especially as they claimed that they only ran a few shows each year. The anticipation was slightly dampened when it became apparent that it was simply a very normal house with a significant amount of Halloween tat draped across its frontage.

Once I'd made it to the neighbourhood I barely had time for food but there was an Ecuadorian restaurant a block from the "venue". I'm pretty sure I was the only non-Ecuadorian there and despite some language issues it was an enjoyable experience. The show wasn't quite so successful, but Cody Lewis was a new find and Matt Scott Benjamin was reasonable. I'll look out for both again.

Monday night's Frantic at Stand NYC had Sean Patton listed, plus a host of people new to me (including one unfortunate named Bo Johnson). I've come to the realisation that, as many of my favourite comics become successful, I had better put some effort into discovering the next batch to replace those ascending beyond my financial reach. Saying that, I've recognised a phenomena whereby the headliner at the Stand's 8pm Monday show is also listed at Frantic (at 10pm). As they understandably don't want to hang about for two hours to headline again, they often go on quite quickly during Frantic. This allows the lazy comedy fan to catch them without sitting through a whole pile of nonsense.

On this particular evening the show opened with both regular hosts Aaron (Berg) and Kerryn (Feehan) on stage at the same time. Understandably Aaron dominated proceedings and the new (to me) format worked pretty well. Marcello Hernandez was brought up to some fanfare. He's recently joined the SNL cast but I didn't warm to him. He was followed by Sean and then Luis Gomez. At this point our drinks were done, we had seen Sean and there was an annoying audience member, so despite all my talk of searching for new talent, we made an early exit.

Wednesday is usually a good evening for discovering weird comedy nights but the Stand's line-up was hard to ignore. The Daily Show's Michael Kosta was on (who I've never actually seen live) plus Maddie Wiener, Ian Lara and Vladimir Caamano, all of whom I actively like. Joe List and Onika McLean rounded out the bill and there were no one I was actively dreading. What could go wrong? Well.... Ian Lara could be replaced by Derek Gaines, bringing the evening's prospective rating down considerably. Maddie and Vladimir were the standout performers in the end. I would say it was $15 well spent, but the venue adds on a proportionally-significant $4.72 "service fee". Ouch.

I was flying solo the following evening so opted for a show (and venue) I'd not been to before, Standup Town at Jack Diamonds (a well-rated Midtown East bar). One of the things that influenced me in selecting it was that they published the full line-up in advance. The bar itself wasn't great but the backroom was reasonably set up, featuring as it did a ring light to allow performers to record their set at a decent quality. Hosting duties were split between a likeable Irish guy (Aidan Kelly) and an unlikeable American lawyer (Jeff Dylan) but there wasn't a huge amount of fun to be had. Rachel Darvas was tolerable and headliner Mike Bramante was entertaining - to the extent that I looked up his special on YouTube, only to find it almost unwatchably slow. I'm probably not going to be back.

Not an evening of comedy as such but Saturday was worth recalling. We had a disastrous dinner in Williamsburg which necessitated an emergency backup meal. We could get in to the Olive Tree so opted for a booking there and made our way across the city. Arriving at the corner of the busy block upon which the Olive Tree sits I was paying attention for barkers for either The Greenwich Village Comedy Club or The Grisly Pear, both of which are located further down the street. It's always fun to hear their pitch and what price they're optimistically charging - Todd Barry has a good story about this happening to him. One of them looked like he was about to make an approach and then stopped himself and said "Hey man. I've not seen you for ages". We were in a hurry to get to the restaurant but what I really should have done was stop and ask him who he thought I was. Regular readers of this blog, if such a thing exists, will know that this odd mistake happens to me on virtually every NYC trip.

Arriving at the OT we got a decent booth, giving me a view of the comics' table (there's effectively more than one now). Keith Robinson was sat at the very back and the afore-mentioned Todd Barry a little closer to us. After half an hour we were conscious of a large party of people arriving and it transpired that the centre of that group was Dave Chappelle. He was set to play a midnight pop-up gig at the Radio City Music Hall that night. I wondered if he'd get pestered by other patrons but they seemed largely indifferent to him. Girlfriend went to the bathroom a little later and he'd gone up after Keith to a very excited reception. The Comedy Cellar have a protocol in place to handle the situation where an unannounced drop-in is not to your taste. It's normally utilised for Louis CK but I imagine a few folk may have objected to Chappelle.

We had half-planned to go to Comedy At The Beauty Bar on our first Sunday but lingering jetlag, coupled with its relatively late start time of 9pm had dissuaded us. It was on the radar for our second Sunday but an email asking about a tentative line-up received a curt one-line response that it "was a secret". Consequently, we opted for the curiously-named Beanie Babe Comedy in the back room of a bar called Young Ethel's in Park Slope, Brooklyn. Don't worry, this isn't going to turn into a food blog but we had ANOTHER disastrous dinner nearby prior to the show, resulting in a rapidly-consumed slice of pizza on the sidewalk and a slightly late entrance to the gig.

There were two known names on the bill and no recognisable poison. The room turned out to be quite a good space, though only separated from the bar by a curtain which could be an issue if there were boisterous young people in it. The host, bless her, wasn't up to much, nor were the names unknown to me. Chloe Radcliffe distinguished herself reasonably but Dan Wilbur disappointed. 

The following evening had the potential to be a busy one. Monday Night Mob was on again from 7pm at Standup NY and Frantic (with Ari Shaffir and Josh Johnson billed) was scheduled at 10pm as usual. We had been to MNM once before and found its combination of free entry, drinks deals and short sets to be quite appealing. The standard of the acts does vary quite significantly but it's ideal to pop into on either side of dinner.

We arrived a little late but lingered in the bar area to discuss drinks specials with the barman. They offer two different bottles of 9% IPA for $5 each. Jeezo, those are evening-enders! Their red wine options were far from horrific so clutching the end of a bottle of red, we breezed into the venue with an entitled air. On our last visit they had been unyielding in their determination to sit us close to the stage. It's a glorified open-mic - I can definitely seat myself. We allowed ourselves about an hour of variable-quality entertainment before departing for some food. 

I was on my own as I arrived at Frantic just after the start time. Cynically I was definitely hoping that the previous week's early appearance of the headliner would be repeated. The greeter checked me in and motioned towards someone behind her with "Joe will take you to your seat". Joe turned out to be Stand manager Joe Harary who smiled on looking up and said "This guy can seat himself" before giving me a fist bump. I supressed a delighted giggle.

Host Kerryn had just been lit as I settled in to a backrow seat. Daphnique Springs was up first, followed by Marcello doing virtually the same set as last week's Frantic (but without the overexcited audience member gushing over him). Maddie also did much the same as Wednesday's show but she's so good that even repeated material is a treat. After an excellent Josh Johnson, no immediate sign of Ari and a woman chewing gum loudly with her mouth open a few seats to my right, my empty glass signalled that it was time to head. Josh was chatting to the greeter on the way out so I stopped for a second to tell him how much I enjoyed his set. He seems like a very pleasant young man.

After doubling up on Monday there was a chance of doing something similar on the Wednesday. I get emails all the time offering me free tickets to Comedians You Should Know at The Gutter in Williamsburg but its late-ish start means that we're always more likely to attend the closer-to-the-subway Ambush Comedy (coincidentally co-produced by VPYM Josh Johnson). We had tickets reserved to the latter and once the free tickets to the former were secured, we resolved to attempt both.

Despite arriving on time at its pizza shop location, we found Ambush absolutely mobbed. We politely declined their regular offer of free Miller Lite, purchased two cans of Montauk IPA and stood at the back. The plan was only to stay for around 45 minutes before heading to CYSK. Co-producer Brittany hosted, which wouldn't have been my absolute first choice, but I was delighted when she brought up Jeff Scheen, who I've enjoyed at The Beauty Bar before. He did reasonably, particularly as he had a couple of troublesome audience members to contend with. A girl in front of me, facing away from the stage, was only NOT chatting when she was stuffing pizza into her stupid fucking face. Eventually someone shooshed her, which she simply seemed puzzled by, reducing her chatting only marginally. When she was shooshed a second time she moved on to taking selfies, eating more pizza and just talking occasionally, all the while facing away from the stage. 

I couldn't help but think WHY ARE YOU HERE? Obviously you like pizza, I'm aware of that, but you seem to have no interest in the comedy or understanding of how to behave and are only detracting from the show. I noticed a girl in front of me lean over to the annoying girl's friend and from the body language surmised that she had asked "what is wrong with your pal?". I thought to myself YES, let's normalise that! Targeting the friends of arseholes, asking them to explain what the deal is with the arsehole friend.

The other problem area was behind me, standing right next to my not-the-most-tolerant-at-the-best-of-times girlfriend. This one wanted to be involved and although she was paying attention, she was shouting out way too frequently and ruining Jeff's rhythm. I caught my girlfriend's eye and she silently mouthed "I am going to kill her". After Jeff's best efforts, Brittany brought up Frank Conniff who I had not been aware of and will not be seeking out further. We chugged the rest of our Montauks and headed to The Gutter early, lest one of us commit a murder. Maybe Ambush need to start charging for tickets to try to cultivate a smaller but more comedy-savvy audience.

The Gutter is a bowling alley and its back room is a terrific spot for comedy. The conditions of the free tickets were that you arrived in good time so we were sat in ideal seats with a pitcher of beer before the scheduled 9pm start. There were 1.5 acts of interest (Jeff Arcuri and someone called Martin Monroe who we were very much hoping was a mis-spelled Monroe Martin). There were no disasters on the bill but I did have a nagging doubt about host David Drake. I noticed that an unlisted Jeff Scheen had appeared at the back. I went up to say that we'd seen him at Ambush and tell him how much I liked his stuff. I should've apologised for the ill-mannered audience he'd just performed for.

The show started 15 mins late and DD did not do well. His face remained curiously static and mask-like throughout his entire 20 minutes. By the end of the set he'd really killed the room - I think it's his gig so he can do what he wants - but I didn't envy the other performers. I must admit I've had better nights. Connor Creagan was an interesting new discovery and mercifully we were right about Monroe but aside from that, there wasn't a whole lot to get excited about. When they announced that there were two acts to go and the penultimate one started underwhelmingly we figured that they must have swapped Jeffs (Scheen for Arcuri) to close and that maybe we should leave. I did feel a bit guilty about abandoning JS but we had seen him two hours before.

Trip Stats

Shows entered - 9

Venues knew to me - 3

Number of distractingly-awful audience members - 4

Expenditure - $19.72

September 2022 - Early Exits and Bookshop Comedy

This trip was a bit of a mixed bag, comedy wise, but let's get into it.

We arrived in NYC late Tuesday so Wednesday was our first opportunity. Ambush in Williamsburg looked good, listing as it did producer Josh Johnson, Shane Torres and one of absolute favourites Sean Patton. However, there were a couple of drawbacks on the bill and the show can run long and the room be quite warm, neither of which is great if you're a bit jetlagged. An alternative was found in a new-to-me show called The Village Idiot at a place called The Juke Bar in Manhattan. Other than Shane Torres (again) it was full of unknowns.

The comedy was in a side room of the basement bar. Worryingly they made no attempt to close the curtain to the bar when the show started so if you were in the bar, legitimately having a conversation, you were now, sort of, at a comedy show. The standard was pretty grim but Shane Torres was exceptionally good. When he finished, we were at the end of our fully-priced but quite small beer and that seemed like the ideal time to make an escape.

There was nothing hugely exciting on the horizon for Thursday but my girlfriend had access to almost-free tickets to Eastville's 8pm show. Again, there was a minor problem with the line-up but offsetting that were Myq Kaplan and more importantly Monroe Martin. I used to love seeing Monroe at Stand NYC but I don't see him listed so often in the city so perhaps he's relocated or is concentrating on the road.

We spent the afternoon in Brooklyn and gradually made our way to Eastville's vicinity, having a final stop-off at the nearby Hollow Nickel. There was an annoying woman there (this will be relevant shortly). When we finally made it to Eastville we realised a) There were going to be less than half a dozen audience members b) The annoying woman was one of them. We looked at the beer prices and decided that we didn't want to run up a huge drinks bill watching an atmosphere-less gig. At this point Myq Kaplan walked in using a stick. I felt a bit bad abandoning the gig when he'd obviously made an effort to get there but not bad enough to hang around.

On the Monday I was swithering between two different shows on the Upper West Side. The earliest one was a free show, (billed as three hours long!) called Monday Night Mob at Stand Up NY, a place I usually avoid as the drinks bill (again) can really mount up. However, there was a promise of "$5 specials" which is hard to turn down. The other one was a bar show at a pub called E's. As this second show started a little later, we decided to try to visit both.

After some debate with the Stand Up NY staff regarding where we should sit, we got $5 beers (which were a crazily-high alcohol percentage) and settled in. It looked like a pro-am night, so not quite an open-mic but bordering on it and was pretty well attended. One of the first people up was Matthew Benjamin who was coincidentally listed at our second show of the evening. We sat through a few other acts and by the time the beer was done we opted to switch to the bar show.

E's only decent draft was $9 before tax, so with tip and conversion to UK sterling, you're looking at £8.20 per pint. The performance area was at the back of the bar and wasn't a textbook example of a comedy-friendly space. The show started late and the compere and the first two acts were unremarkable. Knowing that one of the remaining acts was the bloke we'd just seen at Stand Up NY we made the decision that we'd rather spend the rest of the evening (and our dollars) back at the comedy club.

On returning the greeter started to explain the situation and I attempted to save him time by saying that we'd been in earlier and had left to go to another show. Initially he assumed we'd gone to The Westside Comedy Club but I said it was a bar show at E's. "How was it?" he asked. "Well, we're back here!" I replied in lieu of explanation. The wine was also $5 so we spent the rest of the evening there. I'd definitely go back to Monday Night Mob.

Tuesday night was to be our first visit to Stand NYC. There was an early show in the smaller, upstairs room called "Allagash Brewing Presents: inFamous Rays". Other than the fact that there were two people called Ray on the bill I didn't pay too much heed to the details. The headliner was to be Mark Normand but Jay Jurden and Josh Gondelman were also listed. Mark and Jay were great, Josh didn't show and the rest of the line-up were best forgotten, ESPECIALLY the two Rays. It's a monthly show and the Allagash tie up meant that (somehow) free beer was available but that wouldn't be enough to persuade me to return.

Wednesday was yet another visit to Ambush in Williamsburg. Once again, we politely declined their generous offer of a free Miller Lite in favour of cans of Montauk and once again we failed to win the pizza raffle. The main draw was Ian Fidance but producers Josh Johnson and Lucas Connolly were also listed and it was those three that had the most success. Ian was particularly good discussing a breakup and the consequent loss of a beloved cat called Beanz. JF Harris was also reasonable and will get added to the list of "not terrible" people.

The next night we were back at Stand NYC. Aaron Berg, Ian Lara, Onika McLean and headliner Shane Gillis - what's not to like? It was pretty successful, though Onika was a little flat and Shane did some material (Trump being funny) from his YouTube special. Other than the fact that they still don't have any decent beers available in the main room (requiring me to go upstairs to the main bar each time) we really enjoyed ourselves. And I still hold some sort of weird credibility there, possibly (or according to my girlfriend - certainly) due to mistaken identity.

Said girlfriend unexpectedly chose to go to a terrible play on the Friday evening leaving me comparatively little time to find something interesting on one of the trickier nights of the week. Tight Knit - A Comedy Show was ticking several boxes. It was around the right time, wasn't in the arse end of nowhere, was free and had at least one confidence-inspiring name against it - Josh Gondelman. On the plus side it was an interesting, if slightly over-lit, place to watch comedy (a bookshop called P&T Knitwear) and Josh was very good. On the minus side, there wasn't too much else of interest on the bill, but beggars can't be choosers.

On my way to the bookshop, I had been prevented from entering through the subway turnstile because Colin Quinn was exiting. When I met my girlfriend in The Olive Tree (above the Comedy Cellar) after our respective shows Colin was holding court at the comedians' table at the back. I didn't mention the turnstile to him. Good story Steve.

Trip Stats

Shows entered - 7

Shows left early - 3 

Shows not even started - 1

Expenditure - $35

May 2022 - Art, Canoes and Why Am I Famous?

This was a busy trip with nine shows across eight different venues, including a boathouse and an art gallery.

The day after arriving is never a time to get too ambitious (in case tiredness/drunkenness suddenly make its presence felt). We opted for the geographically handy (Hell's Kitchen) and modestly priced (zero) Bomb Shelter Comedy, downstairs at a pub called The Gaf West. I had a wee chat to the boy shepherding people downstairs. He was impressed that we'd been before (and come back) and once again attached a (surely unnecessary) paper wrist band to each of us. We got a really quite fully-priced beer in and headed to the seats. The line-up was scribbled on a black board. 

We weren't wowed by the host but the first comic up (Stephanie Holmes) was decent enough, before things went into a steady decline. There was a fair amount of noise bleed from upstairs and also from the waiting comedians mere feet to our left who must have imagined that they were invisible or at least inaudible. Once our drinks were done we made for the stairs. We saw maybe 6 comics. That counts. Tick.

Friday was to be deliciously speculative. Gowanus is a slightly grungy part of Brooklyn, home to some good venues (Littlefield/The Bell House) and several decent bars. It also has a canal which at one point was the most polluted stretch of water in NYC, so it's got that going for it. A new comedy night called Cuba Libre started up recently, basing itself in The Gowanus Dredgers Canoe Club Boathouse. Yup, you read all those words right. The line-up was full of unknowns, though there was one -1 on the list, plus someone called Gina Hyena. I mean, come on, you're not serious about your comedy with that stage name.

Tickets were only $5 but the alcohol situation was worryingly vague. There would be beers available for a donation. What sort of beers? How many? The last time I let myself get embroiled in this sort of situation I ended up drinking a can of Budweiser at Camouflage Comedy and that sort of shit is not happening again. We stopped at a nearby liquor store to buy some emergency screwcap wine. The lady robustly scolded me for asking for a paper bag, screeching over-dramatically "on Earth Day!". She tried to sell us a $15 magnum which would definitely have been a bad idea.

We did get some beer from their modestly-stocked cooler and settled down in what has to be one of the weirdest places I have ever watched a comedy show. Perhaps inevitably (we were sitting in a concrete building surrounded by canoes) the standard wasn't great, though Alan Massenburg was promising. After four comics the only ones left were the -1 and Gina. That seemed like the ideal time to depart. Because I bought the tickets through Eventbrite they still send me emails about upcoming shows and as I type this, Hari Kondabolu is on tonight's show! There was no sign of anyone of his standard when we were there!

Sunday was to be Comedy at The Beauty Bar. It's a weird Gramercy Park/LES bar that is also, sort of, a beauty salon. You know, one of those bar/beauty salon places. We've all been to one. I've visited a few times before with mostly positive results. The room is decent, the drinks are cheap and there is no cover charge. What's not to like? 

Jeff Scheen was a pleasant host. I googled him and his management's website says "His off beat humor and affable demeanor pairs well with expressive yet stupid face" which is just terrific. Ryan Donahue also got a tick and Andrea Allan (who I am Facebook friends with but I think she might be friends with tens of thousands of people) and Liz Cassidy (who was new to me) were both excellent.

Monday night at 8pm was to be our first visit to The Stand. A lot of the acts, maybe all the ones of interest, were also on the free 10pm show (Frantic). However, and I'm not going to bitch about it again, there are certain drawbacks with that show, not least that it can really run on, so we opted to pay $15 for the conventional offering. The main draws were Ari Shaffir, Phil Wang and Vladimir Caamano. I've written before about how one of two possible things is happening at The Stand. 1. My considerable fame as a top-level comedy reviewer has made its way across the Atlantic. 2. They think I'm someone else. Make your own minds up. We were the 2nd couple down the stairs to get seated. The bloke doing the seating took the first pair to a table and started to tell us to wait before spotting everyone's favourite reviewer and immediately motioned that we could sit anywhere. Once we were sat down, it transpired that we'd need to retrieve beers from upstairs and while I was away the boy came over, shook my girlfriend's hand and thanked her for coming. I wish I knew who he thinks I am.

The show was adequate. The compere was not great but we were chuffed when he brought on an unlisted Ian Lara. As it turned out he was probably in place of Vladamir who did not appear. Ari was decent enough and I quite enjoyed Jon Rudnitsky who was new to me. No one else really appealed and Phil Wang was also missing.

Girlfriend was off to a terrible play on Tuesday which allowed me to go to something weird. I could easily have been persuaded to visit The Fat Black Pussycat. They had a mid-evening show with Sam Morril and Matteo Lane (who I recently saw at the Soho Theatre in London) supplemented by Lenny Marcus and Ethan Simmon-Patterson. Finally, Jackie Fabulous, who presumably went down the same naming route as Gina Hyena, was billed. However I was too slow in reserving a ticket and while I could have queued and probably got in, there were other options available.

There's a show called Art Gallery Comedy that is $10, BYOB and takes place in an art gallery in Chinatown. I'll grant you that it's not as strange as being surrounded by canoes but I liked the sound of it and it was to be headlined by Mark Normand who I have a lot of time for. There was one -1 on the bill and the rest were unknowns. Old Man Hustle is only a couple of blocks away so I swung in past there to see if they had a late show that I could turn up for after the gallery but they had Aaron Berg doing a solo gig in their tiny space and their normal "almost an open-mic" shows were off.

I was first in to the gallery and found it to be just 30 seats (three rows of six plus a few at the side) set up amidst colourful, abstract and almost certainly ludicrously-priced art. A couple came in after me and the woman asked if it was OK to sit beside me. Seriously? There are 30 seats in here, 29 are available and you want to sit in the only one that's beside me? Turns out they wanted to keep seats for friends so I moved to the back row rather than make new chums. She then offered me some of her mulled wine. Pretty sure she wanted to have sex with me. By the time things kicked off we were up to an audience of about 20.

Josh Stokes was the host and did fairly well. I had seen Jordan Jensen in the past and not particularly enjoyed her but to be fair, that could have been five years ago and guess what? People can actually improve. The rest of the billed unknowns didn't amount to much and then a series of unannounced acts came on, like really quite a lot of people. I even saw Jeff Scheen (from the Beauty Bar) skulking about but he never made it to the stage. Most of these unknowns were unremarkable, though Courtney Bee was OK and Shafi Hossain had a good joke about goats. It was getting quite late and I was worried that Mark had cancelled and bizarrely been replaced by a pile of, let's say, lesser comics - quantity in place of quality. The host did explain that Mark was late and much later than the scheduled show end he finally took to the stage. It was a short, workman-like performance. I had noticed before that he doesn't like to look at anyone in the audience, so he'll just perform to an imaginary crowd in the distance. With only three rows of seats he was effectively looking over our heads and it was jarringly apparent.

Wednesday was meant to be our long overdue return to Comedians You Should Know at The Gutter in Williamsburg. However Ambush Comedy (in the slightly less salubrious setting of a pizza restaurant in the same part of town) offered a much better bill. Caitlin Peluffo, who I love, plus Khalid Rahmaan, Victor Varnado and Sam Evans were all listed and Liz Cassidy (Beauty Bar's new discovery) was hosting. We arrived a little late, got tolerable seats and turned down their (kind) offer of a free can of Miller Lite. Liz basically did the same material she had performed three days before but Sam and Khalid were excellent and Victor was fine. We sat through a few other acts, realising that Caitlin would be closing. However I saw Andrea turn up (she used to co-produce the show) plus another person who I had really struggled with 24 hours earlier at the art gallery. Accepting that we were still some way off seeing Caitlin and would definitely have to sit through the "struggle", we opted for an early exit.

Nothing else happened till Sunday when the prospect of seeing Phil Hanley, Alex Edelman and Nathan Macintosh was enough to get us reserving tickets for the Fat Black Pussycat Lounge. I've decided I'm done with the Comedy Cellar's MacDougal St and Village Underground venues but I actively enjoy the FBPC Lounge and am still opened-minded about their Bar performance space. James Mattern was the host and I won't be seeking him out anytime soon but Nathan and Alex were great, Akeem Woods was a good new name for the list and Phil Hanley was absolutely on fire! I've seen him a couple of times before but this was WAY past any previous performances. It's not exaggerating to say it was my favourite stand-up performance of the year so far. He has a special coming out shortly (I think on Youtube) which I'm certainly going to look out for.

Monday's line-up at The Stand was good again and as with the previous week, we had to decide between coughing up $15 for the 8pm or running the risk of the 10pm Frantic show. Predictably we went for the safer bet. Mark Normand was on, plus the very reliable Josh Johnson, the force of nature that is Aaron Berg, two unknowns and Janeane Garofalo who I hadn't seen for years - probably since The Stand existed in its previous location. Prior to the show being called I was waiting in the Stand's upstairs area and had time to note that the Legion of Skanks podcast that records in the second room has a VERY distinct looking fanbase, though not distinct from each other. I'm sure they're all nice chaps but there's a definite "incel" vibe about them.

Once the show went in we were OBVIOUSLY allowed to seat ourselves. Seating boy then came up to my girlfriend and very apologetically asked her to move as they had a big group to accommodate. The compere left me cold and Janeane went down fairly poorly. Mark, Aaron and Josh were predictably good which just left, as I tweeted at the time, "one of those young people who make amusing videos for the internets". To say he was having a go at standup is possibly unfair. For all I know he may have been doing it all his (short) life. However he was REALLY quite bad at it - I would realise that we'd switched subjects which would then make me try to remember where the previous topic had ended and consequently make an educated guess at where the laugh should theoretically have been. Until he gets better he's going to do dismally in front of sizeable, paying crowds instead of quietly failing at open-mics and anonymous, poorly-attended bar shows.

That should have been it for the trip but on our final night we were out locally and the chance to attend "Not Ripe Bananas", a new material night, at the West Side Comedy Club arose. On my one previous visit to this club I had been disappointed but I was aware that the management had changed and had meant to give it a second try. The NRB show, with its no cover, no drink minimum seemed to present an ideal, low cost opportunity. Tickets were bookable but there was no real organisation in place. A comedian who had yet to go up was nice enough to point us to an empty table and explain that we could either source drinks from the restaurant upstairs or order them online and a server would bring them down. Peering at my phone screen, trying not to distract the comic on stage, I couldn't work out why everything was $18. Cocktails. Wine. Even beer! Except you got two cans for $18. $9 for a can wouldn't have been the most outrageous price I've paid for a drink in a comedy club but what if I only wanted one? Or three?

The room's layout has been improved and is actually a reasonably decent space. The standard of comics varied - only Brian McFadden plus one Texan bloke whose name I missed made an impression. But I would probably return, at least for the new material night. My girlfriend pointed out that somebody, not us, but somebody could theoretically smuggle in their own booze, given that there were no staff operating in the performance room. Like I said, not us.

Trip Stats

Shows Entered - 9

Expenditure - $62

Venues new to me - 2

Single best performance - Phil "a mouth is a mouth" Hanley

January 2022 - Please welcome Omicron to the stage!

This trip was possibly even stranger than the one in November. More masks on the street, more restrictions indoors and longer queues for the many, many testing sites set up along almost every street.

We were booked for a two week trip and even before departing for the US had decided to have a more restrained time than usual. What that translated to was five bouts of comedy, split across only two establishments. Many bar shows had ceased operations over the festive period as, to quote one producer, "everyone has COVID".

First up we had a pre-booked New Year's Eve show. As the date approached I was getting an increasing number of emails (including from the Comedy Cellar itself) announcing that there was last minute availability, and in the case of The Stand, that discounts were available. We were to be at The Fat Black Pussycat for the not inconsiderable sum of $40 plus a mandatory $10 service fee for wait staff. Not being one for stadium-style comedy gigs that $50 may be the most I've ever spent on one show.

The line-up was solid with both Todd Barry and Daniel Simonsen listed and no known poison. We arrived early but had to hang around outside as The Fat Black "Lounge" was sharing an entrance with the Village Underground and an 8pm show there needed to be seated before our 8:30pm seating could begin. You would normally enter via the bar of The FBPC but they were using that area as a fourth venue for the evening and it was all set up for those punters. I've had some issues with the bouncers at this venue before but they were efficient and good-natured on this occasion.

Liz Furiati, general manager and frequent executive producer on assorted comedians' specials, was on the door. I approached with "Hi Liz. A mouth is a mouth", a phrase she would frequently mock Phil Hanley with on the Keeping Joe podcast. She cackled evilly and proclaimed that I had made her end of year. We got great seats (in contrast to some of the other Cellar venues but we'll get to that) and I would have taken a picture of the decked-out room but by now our phones were safely tucked away in sealed envelopes, as is the norm.

Ian Fidance was ridiculously energetic as the host, Harrison Greenbaum was good as ever but I didn't take much from new-to-me Zarna Garg. Todd Barry was next and excelled. As with last time I saw him he gently remonstrated with the crowd when they didn't sufficiently enjoy a joke, but later in his set when he fluffed a punchline conceded "that one might be on me". 

I was delighted but a little surprised when Daniel Simonsen was "passed" at the Cellar. His style has always been very distinctive and could never really be described as mainstream. However his set of mainly self-deprecating material, specifically focusing on how awkward he was and how that generated discomfort in others was arguably the biggest hit of the evening. Other than my big fan-boy crushes, I can't think when I last enjoyed a comic that much. Finally we had Greer Barnes who, despite being of a decent age, I had never seen before. He went on some improvised tangents with mixed success but the whole set was delivered with an almost mesmerising amount of charisma. My girlfriend commented that she'd like to see him in a play. I'd be very keen to see him perform again but properly, not in a play. All plays are dreadful.

We had dinner booked in the Olive Tree afterwards and despite looking fabulous was very quiet. Matteo Lane was heading past us at one point so I told him we had tickets to see him in London in March. He seemed pleasantly surprised but didn't dwell on the matter.

I could claim that we were so buoyed by the success of this evening that we booked The Stand for the following night but that would be a lie, we had booked it a couple of days before. However we were refreshed and excited to see more standup. The main attractions were Sean Patton and Adrienne Iapalucci but Ian Lara was also on the bill. Again, another selling point was the absence of anyone we actively despised.

In its old location The Stand was my favourite New York comedy club but since its move to bigger, glitzier premises my main complaints have centred around their irregular drinks availability and the frequency with which my credit card is declined at the end of the evening. Thankfully all drink options were selectable so after ordering two beers (Tiny Juice IPAs from Five Boroughs Brewing since you ask) we settled in.

Onika McLean (new to me) was a very acceptable host and both Ian Lara and Oscar Aydin performed well. Disappointingly Sean Patton and particularly Adrienne Iapalucci were a bit flat. There was some whining about the audience lacking energy which always gets on my tits. It's like telling a girl to cheer up. It's unlikely to be anything other than counter productive. Gavin Matts went further and opted for a surreal rant on the topic of the audience's lack of interest that just drove the show further into the ground. He was the last act and I was more that happy to leave but they surprised us with an unlisted addition. This did pique my interest initially but the act, Max Manticof, was wholly underwhelming so I don't really understand what was happening there. On the bright side, my credit card worked.

I've been to The Stand's free Monday night show many times and very often have the same experience. I get excited by the prospect of seeing Aaron Berg host, Kerryn Feehan hosts instead, I get grumpy about her lack of talent, watch the show for a bit and then leave, usually without seeing Aaron. Did that happen this time? Let's wait and see.

As well as Kerryn and Aaron, the bill featured Sean Patton (again), Mark Normand (one of my faves), Josh Johnson who I like, Derek Gaines who I don't, Gavin Matts (fresh from his ill-advised Saturday night detour), Max Manticof (hmmmm) and the unknown Hannah Berner. We did briefly flirt with the idea of turning up 15 minutes late in the hope of missing Kerryn ("I'm a declining 8") ruin the show right from the top, but we figured the risk that we would instead be missing Aaron was too great.

We got seated close to the door (always handy) before being told that hardly any beers were available downstairs. Of course! Saturday night's success couldn't last all the way through to Monday. I went upstairs and brought our own down. Inevitably Kerryn was the host and as always she complained that the crowd "weren't getting it" when they were simply reacting appropriately. Sean Patton came up first and did pretty well, followed by a decent Josh Johnson (who I just found out writes on the Daily Show) and then Mark Normand. He started by announcing that everything he had to work on that night "was shit" but he absolutely stormed it, despite looking at little scraps of paper almost continuously. He referred to the audience at one point as a "hot crowd", confusingly at odds with the host's evaluation.

As Mark left the stage to thunderous applause making way for Max Manticof and with our beers done, rather than replace them, a thought occurred. We had only seen three actual acts but given that they were most of the names we were looking forward to, wouldn't it be best to cut our losses and run? Upstairs as we were closing out our tab Mark strolled by and we congratulated him. He seemed genuinely pleased at how well it had gone. Following him outside (not in a creepy way) we saw him disappear off in the direction of Union Square at a brisk jog, possibly to ward off the bitter cold. He wasn't dressed very sensibly. Young people these days.....

As I implied earlier, I like to try to visit as many different clubs and shows as I can but that wasn't possible or advisable on this trip, so Thursday saw us back at The Stand. The headliners were Ari Shaffir and Dan Soder but I was looking forward to seeing Emma Willmann. Once again we got seated near the door next to a bloke on his own who excitedly told us that Dan Soder was on (we know) and that he was from Billions. He's not FROM Billions. He was a successful comic before landing the Billions role. We ordered beers (no issues with availability this time) as did Dan Soder's Boyfriend. 

Onika McLean hosted again and was even better second time round. Joe List, who I can take or leave was up first to no great effect. There was still no sign of our beers and on querying were told that "it can get backed up when it's busy". We've watched you seat a couple and provide them with pizza and cocktails before you can get two beers to our table?! The relatively anodyne Francis Ellis was next so I used that as an opportunity to go upstairs and get our own. While doing that I heard one of the club staff who often says hello to us promising some people at the bar that he could definitely get them in. He then apologised for not recognising us earlier but with masks on everyone looks the same. Getting back downstairs I found that the wait staff had JUST beaten me to it, so we had 4 drinks on our table. However it was another few minutes, probably nearly 40 from ordering, before DSB got his beer.

Ari was great, Mike Vecchione was listless and Emma was decent. As predicted the guys from upstairs did appear and got crammed in beside us in a space that didn't feel particularly COVID-safe, though that wouldn't be the worst example on the trip. Dan closed the show and while I've seen him better someone in the crowd was AWFULLY pleased. On the way out staff lad (whose name I should probably know by now) apologised to my less than thrilled girlfriend about the tightness of the seating at the end.

Our final show was to be at the Comedy Cellar and by that I mean the original MacDougal Street location, rather than the smaller but more sensibly laid out FBPC of our NYE show. I hadn't been to the MacDougal room for a while and I think had suppressed the memory of how poorly it's laid out. However the usual argument dominated the debate on attending - the line up was good. We had bankers in the form of Sam Morril, Chris DiStefano and Caitlin Peluffo, supplemented by Jon Laster, Dan Naturman and Gianmarco Soresi (all unknown quantities). What could go wrong?

We arrived in good time and I immediately noticed that Subhah Agarwal had been added to the line-up. She's a -1 on my "NY Comics" spreadsheet so that's not ideal.  We got seated almost directly in front of the stage, except that I was facing another couple who were about two feet in front of me. I could easily touch them without leaving my seat, plus the two people to my right, plus the people behind me. When a staff member asked me to move even closer to the table to allow the people behind me into their non-existent space I thought "nah, fuck this". My girlfriend asked if we could move elsewhere and eventually the staff member relocated us to a spot to the left of the stage. This time neither of us were facing the stage and my girlfriend was about three feet behind the mic stand. I was all for leaving at this point but my girlfriend persevered and got us moved again. This time she could see but I was facing a wall but if I turned about 120 degrees I could see the stage. A girl to my right asked if I could lean forward otherwise she had no view. This place is a nonsense.

Jon Laster started as the host and did reasonably, though he had to contend with a steady stream of waitlist people arriving for the first 10 mins. Dan Naturman came on and really tanked. The crowd seemed quite restless and touristy. I got the impression they were turning up to tick off a "thing to do in NYC" rather than as fans of comedy. Whenever a US town was mentioned there'd be whooping from somewhere in the crowd. It got tedious. Dan went on for what seemed like hours and when Jon brought Gianmarco up he described the room as "weird". Gianmarco was animated but not to my taste and once Subhah had been inflicted upon us, I was having a pretty terrible time. At least we were finally about to enter the "good" part of the evening. Except Raanan Hershberg then came on. I panicked that he was replacing one of the good three but our server assured us that he was an add-on. I've seen him a few times before, often at bar shows, and he's fine but I was getting really hacked off by this point.

Eventually Caitlin was brought on and what a breath of fresh air she was. I'm not sure why she's not better known but it can only be a matter of time. Sam was up next and was oddly low energy and lacking in focus. Maybe he was on medication (I know he's suffering with a herniated disc right now) or he was just scunnered (excellent Scottish word) with the room but he was not his usual self. He certainly wasn't drunk as he's entertaining as hell on his drinking podcast, We Might Be Drunk. Chris closed and was fine if unremarkable. He's playing the Beacon Theatre in NYC next month with tickets starting at $49 and I'm going to say that that was not a performance consistent with that price point. Again, maybe he was just fucked off with the crowd.

We went upstairs to the Olive Tree afterwards for a drink and when Caitlin walked by I thanked her for being so good that night.

Trip Stats

Shows Entered - 5

Expenditure - $104 (a new record!)

% of times I was happy with The Stand's drink service - 33.3

Single best performance - Daniel Simonsen