Best New York Comedy

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Catch Scott Adsit perform duo improv for one night only with Julie Sharbutt (Gravid Water) at The PIT; details here

Dave Hill tells hilarious stories at “Yum’s the Word” (with free ice cream cake!) and “Big Effing Deal: A Terrible Mistake”…

…and John Lutz (above) and Scott Adsit perform as genius improv duo “John & Scott”

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:

[TOP PICK] [ALMOST FREE] 6:00 pm ($1): Cammi Climaco (co-host of Ask Me Stories) hosts this weekly hour-long open-mic storytelling show, with typically six audience members chosen from a bucket of names getting to tell tales for 6-7 minutes each at The PIT downstairs lounge: Cammi Climaco’s Storytelling Open Mic: Six by Six

[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up for 15 comics performing for 5 minutes each at Queens LIC’s Laughing Devil Comedy Club (4738 Vernon Blvd.)—with drinks at half price: Happy Hour Open Mic

[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up providing 3 minutes per comic at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre hosted by Max Corbel & Benel Germosen: Cracking It

6:00 pm (no cover, 1 drink min. for both comics and audience members): Open mic stand-up providing 5-7 minutes per comic, running 2 1/2 hours. Arrive 30 minutes before the show to get on the signup sheet. This is a fine opportunity to perform at the only comedy club in the East Village: Eastville Comedy Club Open Mic

7:00 pm-12:30 am ($7 for the entire evening): Magnet house troupes Dr. Champagne, Flower GIrl, Featherweight, Chet Watkins, Bloomer, The Wrath, Nintendo, and Brick performing improv, followed by a free audience interactive show with Nintendo at 11:30 pm: The Magnet’s Megawatt

[FREE] 7:00 pm to Midnight: Five free hours of improvisation at The PIT upstairs theatre: Super Free Wednesday

7:00 pm: NYC stand-ups (not announced, but you can check for an update here) performing at The PIT downstairs lounge hosted by the delightful host Abbi Crutchfield and comedic rapster Andrew Singer: Positively Awesome

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm show ($10 at the door, $12.50 in advance online; price includes free slices of homemade ice cream cakes!): Stellar storytellers Dave Hill (one of the most original and hilariously sharp alternative comics in the country; HBO, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, NPR, The Dave Hill Explosion, bands Valley Lodge and Diamondsnake, champion rapper, author of Tasteful Nudes), Tracy Rowland (Emmy-award winning writer & TV producer; The Moth, The Liar Show), Josh Blau (The Moth podcast), and Blaise Allysen Kearsley (How I Learned, The Rejection Show) telling tales about this month’s theme Socially Awkward at the Le Poisson Rouge’s The Gallery (158 Bleecker Street) hosted by Robin Gelfenbien (storyteller and singer/songwriter; VH1, AMC, Sirius Radio, acclaimed one-woman show at FringeNYC) and that includes free ice cream cakes made by Robin herself: Yum’s the Word

7:30 pm ($5): Expanding the UCB longform improv showcased on Harold Night is this weekly show at UCB East which tonight features troupes City Mouse and Huxtable: Lloyd Night

[MEGA-TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Scott Adsit (cast member of 30 Rock, and co-writer/director/producer & cast member of Adult Swim’s awesome & Emmy-winning Moral Orel) teaming up with fellow 30 Rock actor John Lutz (who previously spent six years as a staff writer for Saturday Night Live) to form a super-smart and hilarious star improv duo that’s become one of the very best attractions at UCB Chelsea and should not be missed: John & Scott

Note: If you’re a Scott Adsit fan, please also check out his one-time-only PIT show tomorrow.

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: Killer storytellers lineup of Dave Hill (one of the most original and hilariously sharp alternative comics in the country; HBO, Comedy Central, MTV, VH1, NPR, The Dave Hill Explosion, bands Valley Lodge and Diamondsnake, champion rapper, author of Tasteful Nudes), Elna Baker (genius storyteller, and bestselling author of comedic book The New York Regional Mormon Singles Halloween Dance; NPR’s This American Life; writer for Glamour, Elle; for sample tales, please click here), Jared Logan (rising stand-up star; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, CNN, TBS, host of ComedyJuice), and Jessie Cantrell & Mike O’Gorman telling tales about A Terrible Mistake at 2A (25 Avenue A & 2nd Street), hosted by Beth Hoyt & Trish Nelson: Big Effing Deal: A Terrible Mistake

[FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups do sets “and then have a discussion about what’s going on in the world and the mysteries of life” at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City, hosted by Chris Laker: The Show

8:00 pm ($5): Mike Brown (co-host of Vicious Cycle) performs a relatively rare form of improvisation—a one-man show—at The PIT downstairs lounge (to view last week’s show, which was video recorded, please click here): Mike Brown Solo Improv Extravaganza

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($8 at the door or $10.70 in advance online): TV & movie star Janeane Garofalo, Sean Patton (one of the finest stand-ups in the country; killer sets on Jimmy Fallon and Conan O’Brien, upcoming Comedy Central Half Hour, VH1, feature film Wifed Out; co-host of Comedy as a Second Language, frequent guest-host of Whiplash), Michael Che (David Letterman, Comedy Central), and more performing at Brooklyn’s Union Hall hosted by Nick Turner (Jimmy Fallon, VH1): Nick Turner & Acquaintances

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Superb improvisors—and actual brothers—Will Hines and Kevin Hines make use of their intimate knowledge of each other to gracefully invent scenes (hopefully without any squabbling) at UCB East performing as duo The Brothers Hines

[FREE] 9:00 pm: Myq Kaplan (one of the quickest minds in comedy, and rapidly rising star; finalist on most recent Last Comic Standing; David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents, hit comedy CD Vegan Mind Meld), Joey Gay (Last Comic Standing), Chris Distefano (Comedy Central, MTV2′s Guy Code), Mike Dobbins (unique stream-of-consciousness stand-up), Shannon Coffey (Comedy Central), J.F. Harris, and Matt Jenkins performing stand-up at this free weekly comedy show at Lucky Jack’s Bar (129 Orchard Street) produced by Kyle Fincham, Lance Weiss, and Brendon Fitzgibbons: Gandhi, Is That You?

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Peter Grosz (HBO’s Veep and Curb Your Enthusiasm, Comedy Central’s The Colbert Report and Key & Peele, numerous Sonic commercials) debuts a show at UCB Chelsea described as follows: “Do you like to cook? Do you think you’re a good home chef? Well, guess what? You’re not. Let chef Michael Denardi show you everything you didn’t know that you didn’t know about preparing food. His personality is as bold as his cooking, and his take-no-prisoners passion and high-energy food preparation is matched only by his love for all things local, organic, micro-brewed, house-cured, and dungeon-smoked. Warning: This might seem like just a 45-minute cooking demonstration; but you will also learn life lessons that will blow your mind. Please wear a helmet:” Recipe For Success with Chef Michael Denardi

9:30 pm ($5): Each booked performer has 10 minutes to do whatever he or she chooses—stand-up, sketch, improv, music, dance, or something beyond categorization. “It’s simple, it’s fun, and it might get crazy” at The PIT downstairs lounge: Guerrilla Theatre

[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): The instructors of UCB’s classes include some of the finest improvisors in the country. In this new weekly show a bunch of them get on stage at UCB East, along with hosts Betsy Stover and Ari Voukydis: Hot for Teacher: The UCB Faculty Show

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 10:00 pm: Rising stand-up stars—Mark Normand, Jared Logan, Mike Lawrence, Dan. St. Germain, Michael Che, Emily Heller, Jeffrey Joseph, Dan Soder, Barry Rothbart, Calise Hawkins, Joe List, Pat Dixon, and/or Nick Turner—at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre: The Regulars

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: The wonderful Sasheer Zamata (highly charming, innovative rising star; Comedy Central’s Inside Amy Schumer, FX’s Totally Biased; member of red-hot improv troupe Doppelganger, sketch troupe The Prom, and Harold Night troupe Bucky) hosts as many as a dozen guests packed into 75 minutes performing stand-up, improv, sketch, and occasionally acts that defy categorization. The level of talent can vary wildly, but for some (like me), that’s part of the laid-back fun; plus Sasheer is going to be a huge star, so catch her in this intimate setting while you can. Tonight’s scheduled guests haven’t been posted as I write this, but please check for the updated complete lineup—which should not start with JC Coccoli who, while adorable, topped last week’s list—by clicking here.) Come support the experimentation, and periodic magical surprises, that this uniquely organic rollercoaster of a weekly show at UCB Chelsea makes possible—and don’t forget to toss $1 in the bucket on your way out: School Night

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): Improv troupe Punctual Drunks interviews an audience member about his or her favorite fairy tale, and then picks up the story where it left off so you can find out how it really ended, at The PIT downstairs lounge: Your Favorite Fairy Tale

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up running until 1:00 am, with time divided evenly between performers (up to five minutes), at The Creek downstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with host Rob Stern: Bucket ‘O Buckets

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Your opportunity to perform on the stage of UCB East with improv veterans, hosted by UCBT Harold Night house troupe Grandma’s Ashes: The Improv Jam

[TOP PICK] [$] 11:30 pm ($10 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Uncensored stand-up from Dave Attell (one of the most respected stand-ups in the biz; star of Showtime’s Dave’s Old Porn and Comedy Central’s Insomniac; HBO, David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, The Daily Show, Comedy Central Presents), Nikki Glaser (co-star of MTV’s The Nikki and Sara Show; Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Last Comic Standing; podcast You Had to Be There), Big Jay Oakerson (Comedy Central Presents, HBO, Showtime, MTV), Kurt Metzger (Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Presents, Ugly Americans), and Sam Morril (Comedy Central) performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): The Nasty Show: Dave Attell, Nikki Glaser, Big Jay Oakerson, Kurt Metzger, and More

From legendary NYC comedy site Brooklyn Vegan: If you want to know what is happening in NYC comedy on a particular day, you gotta get hip to this dude Hy Bender and his site Best New York Comedy. The site is updated daily and features a super exhaustive look at what is happening in the NYC comedy world that particular day. The site is updated religiously…It is your daily comedy itinerary and it scares me how on top of his shit this guy is.