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June 2026

Our trip coincided with something called the NY Laughs Festival. The Stand seemed to have a hand in its organisation and the kickoff event, a free outdoor show, was happening in Union Square, just a couple of hundred yards from the Stand's location. The idea of an outdoor show attended by randoms set alarm bells ringing but the lineup (Emma Willmann, Usama Siddiquee, Mark Normand, Caitlin Peluffo, Matthew Broussard, Chris Turner) and the cost price (did I mention it was free?) were enough to get us reserving tickets.

We turned up slightly late to find that there wasn't really any comedy taking place, just some crowd wrangling. We gave it a wee while and eventually chose to abandon. There had been a follow-up email from the organisers offering free tickets to some of the other shows over the four-day festival - presumably those that hadn't sold as well as they'd hoped. Rather than heading home defeated, I checked to see if the show at the actual Stand location that had started a few minutes before was still bookable. It was. Result.

Five minutes later I was purchasing my beer inside the club. Manager Joe was sat down at the front of the bar chatting to someone. I swung past him and said that I was about to head downstairs and tell whoever was seating the room that he had said that I could sit where I wanted. He seemed confused for a second and then looked at me as if I was mad. "Yeah obviously. Sit wherever". I headed for the showroom and secured a prime, back row seat as Emma Willmann was delivering the line that she looked like pronouns.

I saw Jaye McBride for the first time, an English comic who I don't need to name and one or two others. Oscar Aydin closed the show. It was far from a full room, even with the last-minute offer of free tickets. I felt a bit bad for him.

Consulting the NY Laughs website and with their freebie code in hand, it became apparent that Judah (Friedlander) was on in the upstairs room at the Stand the following night. Make hay while the sun shines - another free show was booked. I got a decent seat near the door and settled in. Tata Sherise hosted and brought up varying standards of comics. Matthew Broussard was enjoyable and Sherrod Small closed extremely successfully. Judah did put in an appearance. He had some new stuff about hating Long Island but quickly fell back on questions about his presidential run. The crowd seemed nervous about interacting so this didn't come to much.

We had thought about visiting a Williamsburg room the following night. Originally a satellite location of Chicago's Second City group, it now seems to have been partially (or entirely) rebranded as Brooklyn Improv. On our previous visit to NYC we had secured free tickets to a show that had been cancelled last minute, presumably as a result of low sales. Saturday's show had Judah, Tessa Belle, Nick Smith, Che Durena and Jackie Fabulous listed. The ticket price was modest and there was a two drink minimum, but how expensive could that be? As girlfriend hadn't attended the Stand the previous night, she was keen to see Judah. Our vacillating ended when an offer came in for free tickets. Sign us up.

We timed our arrival assuming that the doors opened 30 minutes before show time. Mistake. They opened an hour before, so we were kicking our heels in a 90% empty room. The venue feels more like a small theatre than a club. The "bar" has the look of a waiting area and the actual show room has a high curved ceiling, quite the opposite of what you'd want for a "club". A pint of Lagunitas was $12 plus tax plus (minimal) tip. The credit card bill revealed that this equated to £10.54. Ouch.

Just before the show started some annoying audience members inspired us to move seats to actually quite nice high tops at the back of the room. A nameless host arrived and did some of the most inept crowdwork I've ever seen. "Are you two a couple? Just out for drinks? I love that for you. Are you together? How long? I love that for you." Fuck me sideways it was rubbish. Nick Smith was on for AGES, Che Durena was passable but we lost the will to live just as Tessa Belle was being introduced. We still had Jackie Fabulous to come and hadn't seen hide nor hair of Judah, so we made our escape. What a disaster.

The next night presented a significantly more appealing proposition. The Fat Black Pussycat Lounge (our favourite of the four/going on five Comedy Cellar venues) with a stacked lineup. Marie Faustin hosting plus Ian Fidance, Ricky Velez, Modi, Phil Hanley and Ethan Simmons-Patterson. Marie was great, Ian was swapped out for a very successful Jared Freid, Ricky (who I hadn't seen since 2013) was excellent, as were Phil and Ethan. Modi's pedestrian tales of film sets and showbiz went down badly and I was, frankly, delighted. Overall, it was an exceptional evening, all for $18 cover.

Monday night would normally be a visit to Frantic at the Stand but since I was in the middle of quite the run of stand up (Thursday to Thursday) and because the Knicks playoff was happening, an event I was hitherto entirely uninterested by but had become embroiled in when it became a city-wide requirement, I had to let that one go.

I follow Matt Ruby on the socials and he had previously mentioned a bar show at Alphaville in Bushwick called Wild Card Comedy. It's a fair old trek from the Upper West Side of Manhattan but I like discovering new rooms/nights so made the effort. The fact that Sean Donnelly and Myq Kaplan were listed didn't hurt. The bar seemed like a friendly place and the back room had a decent high stage, reminiscent of the one at The Gutter in Williamsburg. The hosts (Zahid Dewji and Napoleon Emil) did OK together, bouncing off each other in a relaxed fashion. Myq was decent and I got to update my NY Comedians list with a handful of new names. Sean had been standing ready to go on for a while before they brought up someone who was clearly not him. He looked like he stomped off in a grump - I'm sure he's got better things to do with his time than appear at bar shows in the sticks - but he came up next and did solidly enough.

Wednesday night had been pencilled in as a visit to the new (to me) Greenpoint Comedy Club. Comedians You Should Know had moved their show there from after 10 years at The Gutter. I was hopeful that free tickets might be offered on the day to their mailing list if they needed bodies and that's exactly what happened. I got an email from (producer?) Mike Lebovitz confirming my ticket. Game on, that's $20 saved. The lineup wasn't extraordinary but I wanted to see the room. The start time was brought forward so that people could watch most of that evening's Knicks game. I was already on my way to the venue when I got another email from Mike stating that "the Knicks game is killing us". Fair enough. I headed back to the flat to watch said game. I'm all about the basketballs now.

Thursday was lined up to be the fortnightly show Landline at Wild East Brewing in Gowanus. Again, it's a bit of trek but host/producer Andre is very pleasant to talk to. I timed my arrival almost perfectly. I enjoyed Zach Peterson and Hannah Jones and Andre's hosting is always enjoyable. 

Friday and Saturday are usually good nights to take off from comedy so it was Sunday before I was back in the groove. Secret Sauce is easy to get to, free to get into and normally of a reasonable standard. My carefully-judged, slightly tardy arrival was met with a very busy room but I managed to sneak into a corner and find a seat. Malik El, Salma Zaky and Carey James all got pass marks.

Monday night could, in theory, have been Stand NYC again but the lineup wasn't that great, I'd seen a decent amount of comedy already and I am quite old, so you can guess the rest.

Trip Stats

Shows entered - 8

Shows binned/aborted- 5

New Venues - 2

Expenditure - $18