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Chris Gethard, a Daily Show writer, and “surpise guests” are among the treats at Jena Friedman’s Entertaining the Bartender…
…Arj Barker performs at Hot Tub Variety; and Mark Normand (above) and Dan St. Germain each do 30-minute sets for taping at Lady with a Baby
Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:
[FREE] 6:00 pm: Weekly hour-long open-mic storytelling show, with audience members chosen from a bucket of names getting to tell tales for 8 minutes each at The PIT downstairs lounge along with host Jake Hart: The Dump
6:00 pm ($5 cover & $5 drink min.): The perfect show for short attention spans—open-mic stand-up with 4 1/2 minutes per set and 20 comics crammed into 2 hours—at the Greenwich Village Comedy Club (99 MacDougal Street) for John Morrison’s Village Motel
[FREE] 6:00 pm: An open-mic stand-up show running about 90 minutes at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City with host Chris Gaynor: Open Mic Mondays
[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): A monthly storytelling show from the wonderful Adam Wade (two-time Moth GrandSlam Storytelling Champion (2006 & 2009) and record-breaking 18-time StorySlam Champion; The New York Times Magazine; host of hilarious monthly storytelling extravaganzas Tales of the Cosmos and Whatever Happened to the Nerds?; for a sampling of Adam’s award-winning tales, please click here), along with a guest storyteller (not yet announced), at Under St. Marks: The Adam Wade from New Hampshire Show: Tales of Life, Love, and Little League
[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): Molly Knefel (Naked in a Fishbowl, co-host of John and Molly Get Along), an excerpt from Jaws: The Musical, and clown troupe Everybody Nose NYC performing at The PIT downstairs lounge hosted by all-gal improv troupe Gypsy: The Mélange
[FREE] 7:30 pm: Four improvisers form teams with comics they’ve never performed with before at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: The Kaleidoscope
7:30 pm ($10; sign-up starts at 7:00 pm): Open mic for stand-ups, storytellers, singers, poets, actors, and more, with 5 minutes per performer and 25 slots available, at One and One Bar’s Downstairs Nexus Lounge (76 1st Street, corner of First Avenue) hosted by Nathan P., followed by a raucous afterparty with dancing & drink specials from 10:00 to midnight: Inspired Word’s Open Mic Joint
[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($8): Chris Gethard (brilliant improvisor and comedic storyteller; star of Comedy Central sitcom Big Lake and Manhattan Cable Access’ The Chris Gethard Show; The Stepfathers, The Nights of Our Lives, author of new bestseller A Bad Idea I’m About to Do and Weird New York), J R Havlan (writer for The Daily Show), Sheng Wang (Comedy Central Presents), Emily Heller (Comedy Central; staff writer for Rooftop Comedy; for ruminations on pregnancy, please click here), Desiree Burch (Edinburgh Fringe Festival), music by Nicole Atkins (David Letterman), “and special guests” performing at the Ace Hotel lobby (20 West 29th Street, between Fifth Avenue & Broadway) for this monthly stand-up show hosted by wonderful dark humor comic Jena Friedman (former staff writer for David Letterman) : Entertaining the Bartender
[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($9.47 online or $8 at the door): Great lineup of Sean Patton (one of the finest stand-ups in the country; killer sets on Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central, VH1; co-host of Comedy as a Second Language, frequent guest-host of Whiplash), Arj Barker (David Letterman, HBO’s Flight of the Conchords), Jermaine Fowler (FOX’s new In Living Color), Kate Berlant (host of Crime and Punishment), Tyler Fischer (host of Fresh Fisch), and Max Silvestri (co-host of Big Terrific) performing stand-up at Brooklyn’s Littlefield (622 Degraw Street) hosted by Jared Logan (rising star; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, host of ComedyJuice): Hot Tub Variety
[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($8): Mark Normand (hilarious stand-up; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; co-host of Hot Soup and We’re All Friends Here) and Dan St. Germain (quick-witted & enormously likeable rising star; Jimmy Fallon, The Electric Company, MTV, VH1) each perform a 30-minutes set that’ll be taped posterity at Jimmy’s No. 43 (43 East 7th Street) hosted by Nikki Glaser and Sean Donnelly: Lady With a Baby: Norman and Germain
[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): At UCB Chelsea, one of the very best sketch shows of 2012. It’s a noir mini-play written & directed with immense wit by Michael Trapp (Stone Cold Fox), who with this script demonstrates he’s a rising star with a surefire career in the biz. And beyond the pages, Michael’s put together an all-star cast, including John Murray (simultaneously gripping and hilarious as a hardboiled detective with an absurdly short attention span), Brandon Scott Jones (who delivers an unforgettable scene with John that’s worth the trip all by itself), and D’Arcy Carden (who abandons her usual laid-back persona here to be smoking hot). These are all total pros who are virtually assured careers in TV and film. Catch them while they’re honing their craft and waiting to be noticed in one of the most consistently fun shows in NYC: Death Wears Stilettos…
…plus in the other half of this double-bill, a (mostly) one-man show by George Kareman titled Incredibly Extreme and Extremely Incredible
8:00 pm ($5): Making great use of UCB East’s previous incarnation as an indie movie theatre, tonight features screenings of select films running five minutes or less—most of them funny—crafted in the style of TV pilots. The shorts receiving the most audience votes get to continue with additional episodes, while the others are “canceled” at Channel 101
[TOP PICK] 8:30 pm ($5): “Jews in comedy have been ignored for too long. To combat this trend, The Magnet’s Jewish house team members have formed a Jewish super-group that will be performing around Jewish high holidays. Their Jewish shows will be based on Jewish monologues from a Jewish Rabbi about the upcoming Jewish holiday—which this week is Rosh Hashanah.” What else needs be said? Come and support The Chosen Ones
[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Sketch comics Matthew Robert Gehring (Louie), Matt Weir (We’re Matt Weir), Jenny Jaffe (College Humor Live), and Natasha Rothwell (Just For Laughs Festival) each show off their solo character work for this unique show at The PIT upstairs theatre, hosted by Sam Martin & Matthew Robert Gehring: Comedy Expo
[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Two UCB Chelsea house sketch troupes try out fresh material: The Prom (which includes such stellar talents as Sasheer Zamata, Amber Nelson, Stephen Soroka, Siobhan Thompson, and Ari Scott), and Onassis (which has seldom been strong on the writing side but includes superb actress Lauren Conlin Adams): Maude Night: The Prom & Onassis
[FREE] 9:30 pm: Following a club format, hosts Nore Davis & Andrew Short perform stand-up throughout for a total of 25 minutes, two comics each perform a 15-minute set, and then a seasoned headliner closes out the show with a 20-minute set, all at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: On the Road
9:30 pm ($5): The only open-stage show for entire groups of improvisors and sketch comics, running weekly at UCB East hosted by Austin Rodrigues: Bring Your Own Team: Improv/Sketch Team Jam
[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): Twelve improv comics who are “friends of Dorothy” perform at The Magnet hosted by Andrew Fafoutakis: There’s No Place Like Home: A GLBTQ Event
[FREE] 10:30 pm: Improv students are welcomed onto the stage at The PIT downstairs lounge for this weekly open access show hosted by Gary DeNoia & Keith Huang: Base Jam
[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: Some of the finest comics in the world—who are no longer being announced in advance, but it’s virtually always a great lineup—at UCB Chelsea probably hosted by someone wonderful: Whiplash
[FREE] 11:00 pm: If you’re an audience member who loves stand-up, Monday at 11 should be Whiplash! night (see listing above). If you’re a comic who couldn’t get booked on UCBT’s all-star show, though, you can opt to instead practice your skills at this exceptionally supportive stand-up open-mic at The PIT upstairs theatre hosted by Jared Reed: Fresh
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