March 2026
Another busy visit with new locations and several repeats, so let's start!
The night after landing was a Thursday and I was looking to attend a monthly show called Good Mood Comedy in the basement of Von Bar at the far end of Bleeker St (just yards from what used to be CBGBs). There was a cover fee but the stools by the bar were free, so that's what we booked. As I entered the bar someone asked me if I was there for comedy. I must have a sad, haunted look about me. He checked me in and was adamant that I should be buying any drinks at the downstairs bar, not the upstairs one. He assured me that they offered the same range. They didn't as it turned out, but I got something and, noting the conspicuous lack of punters, decided to take a seat closer to the stage than the not particularly well-placed stools at the bar.
It did fill out a little and I made it to through five comics, the best of which was a barnstorming Marito Lopez. Olivia Carter also did reasonably. When the sixth comic, who I don't particularly enjoy, appeared, I disappeared. I could feasibly have doubled up as the Grisly Pear's Midtown location was running a March Madness knockout competition for comics later that evening. Back in 2013 we attended a similar event run by Caroline's Comedy Club, the lineup for which, looking back at it, featured many comics who would find stellar success. However the two drink minimum requirement for a show listed as commencing at 9:30pm would have been a stretch given my level of tiredness. The next round of the knockout was the following Thursday. I would definitely make that one. Definitely.
On Sunday night the plan was to go to the Comedy Mob show at New York Comedy Club's East Village location, the one that used to be Eastville back in the day. We'd been to one of these in January, albeit at NYCC's Gramercy location. There had been no cover, drinks were only $6 cash and there was a smattering of decent talent. I'd noted that producer Kevin Hurley had made it through to the last 32 of the March Madness competition so I figured I could ask him how it had gone. There was no sign of Kevin when we entered. I approached the barman and checked that there were drinks deals in place. "It's 10 or 20 percent off" he said, adding "It'll tell me when I process it. Beer is $11.15 because I just put one through". $11.15 for a small bottle of beer you say? Wow that is tempting. Plus tax plus tip presumably. We decided that this made the visit untenable. The server was astonished. I mentioned that the drinks had been six bucks at the other location. "And that makes a difference?" he replied incredulously. Of course it does! It's a glorified open-mic and not even THAT glorified. We went round the corner to a pub called DBA and paid quite a lot for a beer but nowhere near what the club were charging.
I felt like I was due some comedy so made my way to Secret Sauce at The Beauty Bar. I arrived on time which is a school boy error as it always starts about 20 mins late. Producer Kofi Thomas was hosting and brought up Stand NYC regular Carolina Montesquieu and Kevin Casey White who I really enjoyed. Olivia Carter was up next, doing much the same as she'd done at Von, followed by one more comic. I decided that that was sufficient comedy and made for the subway. $11.15 my arse!
I had two (free) tickets booked for Frantic at Stand NYC the following night. Girlfriend has long since "consciously uncoupled" from Frantic, given its curious/erratic lineups, but I was expecting Liam from Edinburgh's Monkey Barrel to arrive in NYC from Las Vegas that afternoon and had promised him a beer. I didn't know what he had planned but figured he might also want to visit a comedy club. I WhatsApped him about the comedy possibility and he responded that he'd spent the entire previous night in A&E with his brother who fell down an escalator and had broken an assortment of bones. His NYC detour on the way back to Scotland was now cancelled. Bummer.
I'd barely entered the Stand when I saw manager Joe Harary escorting a departing Jim Gaffigan to the door. Seating opened not long after and we headed down to the (better) basement room. Joe was trying to corral the modest crowd into the first three rows but he waved me to sit wherever. I grabbed a word with him shortly after as he looped round the room. Jim had been on the earlier show unannounced. Apparently he'd call in quite often when he had something he wanted to work on. This time last year Joe had been in Austin, producing shows at SXSW. He'd been asked again but couldn't make it work.
Andrew Kim was hosting because someone hadn't shown up and I think it's fair to say that it's not his absolute forte. Natalie Cuomo, newly single if I heard right was up next, followed by reasonable sets from Matt Ross and venue-fixture Sienna HR. Tessa Belle was curious but the big success was Kam Patterson. The name was new to me but there was palpable excitement from the crowd when he was brought up (he's on SNL). He was very charismatic and I'll look out for him again. That was plenty comedy for one night, particularly as I was booked to be back at the venue 24 hours later.
The Stand's shows, Frantic and New Joke Night aside, are all firmly priced. However the prospect of Mark Normand, Sean Patton and Ian Lara for $30 all in seemed appealing. There were three or four others billed but nothing that would move the dial. Things got off to quite a poor start with an unlisted Derek Drescher hosting. I don't really understand the appeal but he's a semi-regular booking at the club. Mark took a while to get the crowd, probably because he was focusing on material about his child, Sean Patton did well and Ian Lara was mysteriously absent. I enjoyed Jamie Wolf after a slow start but as we neared the end of the show, I wouldn't have classed the evening as an out and out success. Fortunately Dave Attell appeared next.
I've only seen Attell once, at the Stand's 11th birthday party, and I had such a fond memory of his performance that I wondered if I had romanticised it somewhat. Similar to watching Billy Connolly, I can't really remember any of what he said during this performance (or the last) but I do know that it was painfully, acutely funny. I was told once by Judah Friedlander that Attell was the most talented comic in NYC and I don't think it's debateable. What a comedian!
The following afternoon girlfriend had a terrible matinee to attend, so I took myself off to an open-mic at the nearby West Side Comedy Club. The last time I'd tried to visit, the venue had been in darkness but the server in the restaurant upstairs cheerfully confirmed that it was taking place. I made my way down and found the mic's host onstage and four others waiting to go on. Given that each comic gets five mins each, it was a relatively short visit but one additional comic arrived at the end and spent a good part of his time complaining about his boss preventing him from getting to the mic.
Wednesday is normally a good night to see standup but I was struggling to find anything compelling. BKMade in Brooklyn had gone from advertising open-mics at 6 and 8pm during the week to labelling the 8pm performance a "showcase" and charging $5 for it. As I have a soft spot for their curious, slightly ramshackle venue, I decided to embark on the trek out there. The last time I visited they had given me two $15 tickets for their weekend shows so I took one with me in the hope that I could trade that against the cover charge. I was the first punter there, but the guy at the door assured me that they'd be starting about 8:10pm. I opened my first can and took out my phone. They switched the background music from robust hip hop to the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Ah yes, music for old, white people.
About 8:15pm another guy came out to tell me, still the only audience member, that they'd be going ahead soon. Shortly after that, it transpired that only two acts had signed up (?), that they'd do five mins each and that that would be the extent of the show. Ten minutes later it seemed like we were done. One of the pair mentioned to an older (by which I mean my age) bloke that I was from Edinburgh. He decided that he'd do five minutes and began a rambling 20 minute set about his childhood and what the surrounding area used to be like. We all shook hands and made our way into the night.
We had a bit of a dilemma on Thursday. There was ANOTHER Comedy Mob show at the very friendly time of 5:30pm. It was at the venue that we had the good experience at before. So would it be $6 cash drinks or server prickishness? We decided to risk it. Kevin was at the door. I'd noticed that he wasn't listed in the last 16 for March Madness. He explained that he did well, his opponent did OK and when it came to the audience decision, he was pretty confident but then he found out that he had very much misjudged how well he had gone down. I asked him if there were drinks specials. He turned to the girl behind the bar with an uncertain look on his face. You should definitely know this mate. It is QUITE a major factor in the show's appeal.
After confirming that beer and wine were $6 cash, the very pleasant server explained that the pricing could be influenced by which bar person you get. Tell us about it. We moved towards the performance space where comic Tayler Yarish was seating folk. "Are you feeling front row-ish?" he asked. "We had trouble agreeing seating last time Tayler" I said, adding "Let's not fall out early". He let us sit where we wanted. It wasn't the absolute best show. Tayler was very good, one guy had a couple of decent minutes on Trump and a middle-aged woman called Anne was worth catching. Kevin closed, utilising his producer's prerogative to run as long as he wished. With him moving on to crowdwork and us having a dinner reservation, we quietly slipped out before the wrap-up.
Later that night I had a ticket for the last 16 of the March Madness competition. Same deal as before - 9:30pm start, two drink minimum. Same deal as before - I could not be arsed.
I didn't really understand why but we had been offered free tickets to a Sunday night show called "Tonight at the Improv" at Second City in Williamsburg. I had wanted to visit for some time but as most of their performances are improv, I'd never managed to make it work. But when I clicked on the link in the email, it offered me either $30 tickets or $0 tickets for the show with Caitlin Peluffo and Petey DeAbreu. I choose $0 please. There was a two drink minimum but they'd have to be pretty extortionate to offset the free entry. We arranged our day to take in nearby venues, only to receive an email abruptly cancelling the performance.
Having had comedy ripped from under me, I felt I was due a show. Secret Sauce at the Beauty Bar stepped up again. This time I timed my arrival to just after host Kofi had got under way. He brought up a black South African guy, a Filipino called Patricia and Atsuko Okatsuka. She claimed to have just flown in - I'd seen her listed on shows at the Stand later on in the week. She's a curious performer, certainly very memorable but not one I'm in a hurry to see more of. I waited to see if the next performer held any interest (they didn't) and made my escape through the bar to the soundtrack of I'm Free by Scotland's very own Soup Dragons.
This trip seemed to be all about repeat visits because I was back at the Stand on the Monday for the third time (and second at Frantic). Aaron Berg was listed, as was Marito Lopez, who you could unfairly nickname little Aaron. They're both short, muscular men with a confrontational, un-PC approach. Aaron hosted in absolute fearless fashion. The crowd were very much up for his energy which resulted in many moments that I am not going to relay here. First up was Kerry Feehan who waited, I think, five seconds before mentioning how much she's earned from her Only Fans. Spoiler: One million USD. Tom McGuire and Mark Schiffman were both OK. Manager Joe was dipping in and out of the room, briefly sitting at the back, and then coming to sit right beside me. With a girl doing comedy magic on stage, he came back to my side and whispered "What do you think?". I voiced the legitimate concern that comedy is hard and magic is hard and trying to be good at both seems like a hell of a stretch. Most people can't do one. He replied that he was trying to vary the lineup a bit. I waited for a few more comics but as Joe had confirmed that Marito wasn't actually appearing, I made my exit and annoyed girlfriend by telling her that she'd missed Aaron at his absolute appalling best.
Tuesday was our final night. While Ambush in Williamsburg has been on hiatus, producer Lucas Connolly had been running a show called Park Slop in a Two Boots pizza restaurant in upscale Park Slope. He'd emailed out a month of lineups and this evening was to have Hari Kondabolu, so I'd had it booked for some time. Park Slope isn't exactly handy but it was a free show and I'm a fan. On arriving I noticed Hari at the back of the restaurant, eating his performer's complimentary pizza. I figured/hoped that he wouldn't be there hours before his set. I didn't catch the host's name but he wasn't up to much. Lucas came up next, struggled a bit and spend a fair while asking the audience what he looked like. Hari followed and I'm not sure how good a time he had. It was a small venue, only partially filled and I don't think the environment (a pizza restaurant functioning independently of but concurrently with a comedy show) was the preparation he was looking for ahead of an April trip to Anchorage. He left the stage and Lucas and the host guy came back to try to rehang the black backdrop that had peeled itself off the wall. Figuring the rest of the night would be diminishing returns, I took my leave.
Trip Stats
Shows attended - 10
Aborted shows - 4
New Venues - 2
Expenditure - $30
January 2026
There was an awful lot of comedy this trip - maybe even a record - so this is quite long. And no, I can't MAKE you read it. I'm not your real dad.
I had the first night to myself and had planned to visit a free bar show called Just Edgy Enough in a place called the Whiskey Cellar. I tried to research what to expect from the venue and this was when alarm bells started to ring. It appeared to be a location that you could bring a party to. I was reluctant to embark on a three subway journey in order to pay a lot for a can of possibly rubbish beer and watch unproven comedians. Those days are gone.
The next night (Wednesday) was a slightly safer bet. I fancied giving Bushwick's Tiny Cupboard Comedy Club another try. It's a fair slog to get out there from where we stay and the comedians were unknown to me but at least it was a professional comedy environment. I felt a bit more optimistic, sufficiently so that I even purchased their "90 day passport", allowing me complimentary access to any performance that wasn't sold out. The show started 15 mins late and there were four listed acts plus a surprise fifth. The standard was far from great and certain elements of the audience seemed to believe that they were part of the conversation. By the end I was a bit dispirited, not least by the fact that the beer list had become eye-wateringly expensive. It can't have been like that on my previous visit - I would definitely have remembered.
Thursday night was to be an edition of Comedy Mob at New York Comedy Club's original location. Before it changed (coincidentally to another New York Comedy Club outpost) we used to go to Stand Up NY and watch Monday Night Mob. This particular Comedy Mob show had a lot going for it. No cover fee, 1 drink minimum (at a discount to the club's usual prices) and a nice, early 6pm start. We were greeted by organiser Kevin Hurley who vaguely remembered us. I quoted an incident from their old SUNY run and then teased him about his long term but now abandoned fondness for a man bun. Realising that we were Scottish he called over one of the comics (John) who turned out to be from about a mile away from where I grew up. Curiously he seemed nervous that there were Scottish people in the audience and said he'd have to change his act.
We got drinks - $6 for a modestly-sized bottle of Dogfish IPA instead of the usual (insane) $13 and tried to pick seats. Comic Tayler Yarish was seating people in, I'm going to say it, a somewhat officious manner. We held back and eventually Kevin intervened, allowing us to sit where we wanted. The standard varied but the host was decent, one big, beardy guy was excellent and Kevin closed pretty successfully.
Friday isn't normally a day to prioritise comedy but monthly show Kweendom was offering a bill including David Mills. I'd seen his name on a few NYC lineups over the last three or four years but I wasn't clear if he'd relocated from London or was just popping over. We arrived at the venue, Pete's Candy Store, in good enough time to secure a pile of drinks at the arse end of their happy hour, hopefully seeing us through a decent percentage of the show. Regular host Bobby Hankinson kicked things off but aside from Jonnea Herman there wasn't a lot to enjoy. We hadn't seen DM and were worried that if he didn't appear, the show would not have been the best use of our time. Fortunately, he closed with his usual mix of cattiness and filth. Based on his tales he's now based in NYC.
On Sunday we were scheduled to see Miles Jupp at the Soho Playhouse. I first saw Miles in Aberdeen in the 90s when he was still a theology student at Edinburgh University. It was one of many gigs my friends and I would attend that were hosted/booked by a guy called Brandon Reed. Remember that name. The Soho Playhouse show was in a modest space downstairs, attached to the bar. We found seats and I headed back to get drinks. A guy beside the bar looked vaguely familiar. I thought he MIGHT be Richard Bucknall, who has his own management company. He used to organise a Comics vs Industry golf match during the Fringe but I hadn't seen him for a while. Returning to my girlfriend I did some googling and confirmed that Richard represented Miles. I went back to the bar and introduced myself. He was very pleasant, though it was hard to tell if he actually remembered me. He suggested we wait around after for a drink.
Miles was excellent. It was his On I Bang show that he's been touring the UK, about a seizure he suffered as a result of a brain tumour. At the end we waited around as the crowd dispersed. Eventually Miles appeared, Richard bought us a beer and we chatted. When I mentioned the Brandon Reed gigs from the 90s, Miles asked if I knew what became of him. He is, and this is utterly astonishing, now sanctioned by the UK government for producing pro-Russian propaganda. He has his own Wikipedia entry (under his actual name of Graham Phillips) and it's really worth a read. Miles and Richard had been out to comedy every night of the run. I wasn't clear if it was always as a punter or Miles had done some sets. As we left the venue and prepared to bid them goodnight, I remarked that it was snowing. "Ah, but is it lying?" queried Miles with a glint in his eye. Always nice to meet a fellow David Kay fan.
Monday night frequently involves a visit to The Stand for their free Frantic show and this wasn't to be any different. I chatted to manager Joe Harary on the way in, remarking that the Legion of Skanks guys had Sam Morril and Mark Normand on their podcast in the main room. Joe replied "yeah but I'm up here" i.e. on the ground floor, as if that responsibility precluded him from nipping downstairs and catching any of the show. I manage to cram in 7 acts before my drink was done. The exotically-named Josh Ocean Thomas was the best of the bunch. I'll look out for him.
I've never been to Top Secret Comedy in London but I've heard good things and bad about it. Late last year they opened an outpost in NYC, in the old UCB location in the East Village. Tuesday night had a new material show called Neal Brennan and Friends. The initial lineup of friends was Dan Soder and Gary Vider, so we happily bought tickets. Then Gary disappeared and was replaced by Rachel Feinstein, which is not a fair swap. Andrew Santino was added, who I didn't know much about, but a quick Google revealed that he'd played at the Riyadh Comedy Festival, which tells us at least something. Even if we only saw Dan Soder, the tickets were cheap, the beer was cheap and there was no drink minimum. How badly could it go?
On arrival we queued up for drinks in the odd bar space. I say odd because it was quite a wide serving area with three sets of draft taps but only one barman. We were ushered into three separate lines, each in front of a set of taps. The barman then moved between each set/queue. Maybe there was a fractional serving efficiency in this arrangement, rather than just a single queue? The show was sold out, so they knew how many people to expect. Might it not have made more sense to hire another bartender? Conspicuously they HAD hired security. It was a shame his skills didn't extend to pulling the odd pint. Just before we were able to order the one palatable draft they had available, the keg kicked and we fell back on two modesly-priced but freezing cold glasses of red wine each.
I had remembered the room, perhaps incorrectly, as having comfortable seats on a continual, gentle slope - akin to what you might get in a cinema. Yeah, that's changed. The front two thirds of the room was on a single level, then there was a step up of maybe a couple of feet and then the back third. The front section was jammed full of cheap plastic chairs, barely in lines and way WAY too close together. It reminded me of the sort of shit Free Fringe venue you sometimes still get on places like the Cowgate. The seating is just chucked out dismissively as if the organisers are telling the public "YOU sort it out". We found a bit of space towards the back. Amusingly a woman, incensed by the idiocy of the seating, took a chair and simply threw it behind her, on top of the nest of densely packed rows. There it sat for, I think, the whole show.
As people filed in around us the congestion became worse. They had started to put a few rows of seats out in the back raised section, a section that offered a better view of the low stage but was bafflingly not being used. You KNEW it was sold out but you decided to cram everyone into the front, lower section of the room, yeah? I asked the guy seating people if we could move. He said "no". I swithered about leaving there and then, but we'd already seen Dan Soder arrive. If he was on early we could just leg it after that. When seating boy left his post we unilaterally moved ourselves into the quieter, back section.
I had expected Neal to host but it turned out to be Matt Ruby. He did reasonably and brought up Andrew Santino first. He's like an Aldi Bill Burr but I got on fine with him. Luckily Dan was next and was tremendous. He told a story about his family and then ruefully admitted that he'd need to change it because it wouldn't pass compliance for a broadcast special. He briefly brainstormed ideas on how it could be fixed. We saw Neal Brennan sidle into position to come on next. We necked the last of the wine and squeezed past Neal whispering to Dan on our way to the deserted bar area and the sweet release of the pavement outside. Cackling with relief, we vowed that that would be our one and only visit to Top Secret NYC. As my mum used to say, "it's a piece of nonsense".
The last time we were in the Olive Tree, the restaurant attached to the Comedy Cellar and the location of the famous "comics' table", we managed to get seats at the bar, beside said table, and enjoyably eavesdropped over the course of an hour. That was the plan this time too, but on arriving we realised that all the bar seats were taken - there's only half a dozen or so. We initially accepted the offer of a table but other than possibly a few snippets of a nearby Colin Quinn expounding on something, we weren't likely to pick up much. We made a discreet exit. Incidentally their new room, the one in the old McDonalds, is still under development. The sign on the hoarding around it described its completion as "Spring 2026".
Not more standup Steve? Yes, more, I'm afraid. Thursday I set off for Landline Comedy in the back area of Wild East Brewing in Gowanus, Brooklyn. I'd been once before to this fortnightly show and had a nice chat afterwards with host (and producer?) Andre Medrano. After sourcing my beer I saw him hovering around prior to the start so I went up to say "hi". He recognised me but had to be reminded of my name. The show went well with Brett Hiker and Liz Miele doing best.
As with the previous week, we wouldn't normally plan comedy on a Friday. Given that an icy blast was hitting NYC from that evening, the temptation to spend much time faffing about outside was not high. But I'd seen an email saying that Judah Friedlander was appearing on one of the Funny People At bills at Bedford Falls, a decent pub over on the Upper East Side. The tickets were $23 each which was just about do-able if Judah was actually on. I say that because in the past, when the guy behind Funny People At was at Old Man Hustle, the bills were, to put it candidly, "subject to change". I've chatted to Judah a few times and we follow each other on X so I sent off a DM to double check he was expecting to be there. In the meantime we got an offer of free tickets for the gig. This changed things. We can't not go if the tickets are free. I reserved two but there was still an issue. Everywhere on the tickets it stated that the show started at 8pm but the invite email said 9pm. We couldn't risk turning up for 9pm and finding out that we'd missed most of the show, so we resolved to aim for 8pm.
I should have said that there were a few other names on the bill, though nothing of note. Except.... there was to be Alonzo "Hamburger" Jones. He is, apparently, a catchphrase comedian. I'm not sure I know what that is. Yes, some comedians have catchphrases but apparently his catchphrase ("Hamburger") was a big part of his act and would occur frequently. I can tell you're impressed. He'd been going since the 90s and was about to release his first special. Not a prodigious work rate but who am I to judge? BTW I typed that in Miles Jupp's voice. And he wears a hat. So we had a lot to look forward to.
We arrived about 7:50pm and made our way to the quite appealing performance space. A disinterested chap was listlessly moving things around. This didn't look good. I asked him if the show started at 8pm and he said that it was 9pm start and we should wait in the bar. I mentioned how the tickets said 8pm and he told me that I was wrong. I got my phone out and showed him the listed 8pm start time and after a long pause he responded that he would "feed that up". Rather than hang about for an hour to possibly only learn the comedic limitations of repeated use of the word "Hamburger", we made a prompt exit and perfectly timed catching a bus home. Brilliantly, the next day Judah DMed to say that he'd never been booked on that show and if he was listed, it was a mistake.
Are we not done yet? Hell no! There are three more shows to go.
Girlfriend had secured a ticket in the ballot to a terrible play so I had scope to see something late Saturday afternoon. The Tribeca Comedy Club, not an organisation I was familiar with, was offering free tickets to a 6pm show on the Upper East Side at a place called Room 52. The only requirement was that you had to buy one drink from the bar. You could legitimately query why a comedy club named after a wealthy area on the very bottom, left hand corner of Manhattan should be running shows on almost the top right hand corner. I arrived at the very unassuming entrance and realised that the performance space was two floors up. I climbed the stairs and entered the bar area. The drinks weren't cheap but I didn't plan to have more than one. Eventually we were shown into the show room. It reminded me a little of the ballroom in the Voodoo Rooms in Edinburgh. The host did his best with what was initially quite a small crowd. First act on stage was Harrison Greenbaum. He's proper! I was delighted to see a very accomplished comic at a show I did not have a lot of hope for. I stayed for about half a dozen acts. One had done a Fringe run in 2023. As another act was brought to the stage I escaped and headed home, pretty pleased with my random punt.
The storm hit on Sunday, dumping about 8 inches of snow on the city, making travelling to comedy treacherous (and that's assuming the performance went ahead).
I was unsupervised on Monday and had thought about going crazy. There was a 6pm open mic at the Gutter in Williamsburg, an 8pm open mic at a recently-opened, comedian-owned place called BK Made in Bushwick and that would allow a short hop to the Tiny Cupboard's 9:45pm show. The Gutter show would have involved two walks across McCarren Park and given how much snow lined each pavement and blocked junctions, this seemed more trouble than it was worth. I opted for a more modest evening - the 6pm mic at BK Made followed by the 8pm Tiny Cupboard show.
I arrived at BK Made to find the mic had already started. The guy at the door tried to get me to add my name to the list but I whispered that I was just there to watch. It's a tiny, thin rectangular space with the seats (and indeed the stage) just yards from the door. They've been open since October 2025 and have only being doing one paid show per night on Fridays and Saturdays - the rest of the time they concentrate on open-mics (they're also now putting on "Best of the Mic" shows for $5 a few times a week). This 90 minute mic was split across two hosts and it was a pleasant enough, friendly environment. As it was coming to a close I made a move to sneak out and door guy stopped me, thanked me profusely for coming and gave me a couple of discount codes for their weekend shows.
I (foolishly) decided that my best route to the Tiny Cupboard was to wait for a nearby bus. The walk to the club would have been manageable in normal weather, but it was about -13C and the windchill was taking it to -20C. Plus some of the pavements were still inches deep in snow. However standing still on a street corner, scanning the road for an oncoming bus was proving uncomfortably challenging. The bus time came and went and after a few more minutes I needed to take some action. I started following the bus route to the Tiny Cupboard, figuring I could try to catch it if I could see it approaching. I couldn't feel my hands or feet as I stumbled along snow-covered pavements, shivering. The streets were eerily-quiet and stubbornly bus-free. It occurred to me that if I slipped and fell and broke something I would probably die. And you know what? I would have deserved it.
Twenty minutes later I turned the corner and was greeted with the sight of the Tiny Cupboard. My 90 day passport was accepted without checking and I took my seat alongside the three other audience members (we would peak at six). Again, we started 15 minutes late and had four acts, two of which, Bryan Vogt-Nilson and Dan Pulzello were very good. As I started the not inconsiderable trek back to Manhattan's Upper West Side, I felt that all that faffing about in the freezing cold was worth it given the standard on show. And my passport is still valid for my next trip!
Trip Stats
Shows entered - 11
Shows I stayed till the absolute end - 6
New venues - 4
Expenditure - $90ish (there were some donations)