Recent

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