Best New York Comedy

For a day-by-day guide to Comic Con highlights,
please click Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

On Thursday I saw Kevin Smith talk for an hour (delightful and inspiring), Naruto creator Masashi Kishimoto (ditto; a creative genius), saw the pilot for Supergirl (lower your expectations; but maybe it’ll get better over time…), and learned one of my favorite movies, the legendary The Warriors, is returning to life as a graphic novel!

Highlights of Day #2 of Comic Con include:

• DC Comics celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Batman (11:00-noon, Main Stage 1-D)
• Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of pioneering comics genius Will Eisner’s The Spirit (11:00-noon, Room 1B03)
• News of upcoming series from comic book publisher Dark Horse (11:00-noon, Room 1A21)
• Pop culture reporters and critics discuss the relatively new prominence of geeky journalism (11:00-noon, Room 1A01)

• DC Comics celebrates the 30th Anniversary of Batman (11:00-noon, Main Stage 1-D)
• Celebrating the 75th Anniversary of pioneering comics genius Will Eisner’s The Spirit (11:00-noon, Room 1B03)
• News of upcoming series from comic book publisher Dark Horse (11:00-noon, Room 1A21)
• Pop culture reporters and critics discuss the relatively new prominence of geeky journalism (11:00-noon, Room 1A01)

• Adult Swim screens and discusses its shows Venture Brothers; Neon Joe, Werewolf Hunter; and Robot Chicken (above) with celebs including Seth Green, Scott Adsit, John Hodgman, and Jon Glaser (2:30-5:15, Main Stage 1-D)
• Pro tips on getting the most money from fundraising creative projects using Kickstarter (2:45-3:45, Room 1A24)
• An interview with The Daily Show correspondents Samantha Bee & Jason Jones (3:00-3:45, Room 1A10)
• Sneak peeks at upcoming Marvel animated TV shows (3:00-3:45, Room 1A06)

• Asian American creators and their comics, including veteran GI Joe artist Larry Hama and writer of hot new Poison Ivy series Amy Chu, both above (3:00-4:00, Room 1A05)
• Screening and discussion of USA Network series Colony and Mr. Robot (3:30-6:00, Hammerstein Ballroom at 311 West 34th Street)
• Gay Geek Culture (4:00-5:00, Room 1A01)
• Screening and discussion of Amazon series The Man in the High Castle, based on the Philip K. Dick 1962 alternate history novel in which the Allies lose WWII (4:15-4:15, Room 1A06)
• The creative team behind delightful website ScreenJunkies.com screens its trademark Honest Trailers & Movie Fights and announces news about upcoming projects (5:15-6:15, Room 1A21)
• A panel on the use of real science in fiction (5:15-6:15, Room 1B03)
• A discussion of gender and diversity in comic books (5:15-6:15, Room 1A24)
• Tips on how to get the most out of podcasting (5:15-6:15, Room 1A01)
• The cast and executive producer of MTV’s Teen Wolf provide sneak peeks of the upcoming season and answer questions (5:45-6:45, Empire Stage 1-E)
• Screening and discussion of Marvel’s Agents of Shield and Marvel’s Agent Carter (6:00-7:15, Main Stage 1-D)
• The critics from Rotten Tomatoes interact with the audience for a highly opinionated hour (7:45-8:45, Room 1A01)
• A sneak peek at the next Batman animated feature, Batman: Bad Blood, with its cast members, director, producer, and character designer (8:00-9:00, Main Stage 1-D)

• Headlocked is a comic book that, for the first time, tells stories about wrestling from actual wrestlers. The latter will be on this panel, as well as superb former Sandman artist Jill Thompson (8:00-9:00, Room 1A18)

Virtually all 150,000+ Comic Con tickets are sold out, but if you’ve already nabbed one for today, there’s a whole bunch to enjoy.

And noteworthy shows happening outside of Comic Con tonight include:

• Bobcat Goldthwait: A stand-up legend headlining at 8:30 pm and 10:30 pm ($26 plus 2-drink min., Gotham Comedy Club at 208 West 23rd Street)
• Fuck That Movie: Hosts Anna Drezen & Joel Kim Booster encourage comics to vent about the movies they despise—sometimes with the help of PowerPoint presentations (9:00 pm, $5, Brooklyn’s Videology at 308 Bedford Avenue)
• Crisis: An Improvised Comic Book: Improv group Lightning Round makes up a super-hero tale on the spot based on an audience suggestion (11:00 pm, $5, The PIT Downstairs Lounge at 123 East 24th Street)
• Nerds Under the Influence Live: A live taping of the podcast hosted by Langston Belton, Nick Carrillo, BJ Thorne, Colin Longstaff, and Mark Stetson, presumably with a guest or two from Comic Con (11:00 pm, $5, The PIT Upstairs Theatre at 123 East 24th Street)

For tomorrow’s top comedy picks, please click here.

For a day-by-day guide to Comic Con highlights,
please click Thursday Friday Saturday Sunday

For many more shows, please click the following links to top NYC comedy venues:

Best Inexpensive Stand-Up, Improv, Sketch, and Storytelling

Upright Citizens Brigade Chelsea
(307 West 26th Street; 150-seater; shows free-$10; one of the most respected comedy theatres in the world; especially strong on improv (e.g., Gravid Water, Adsit & ?), sketch (Maude Night), solo shows, and one-act comedic plays, but also hosts one of the very finest stand-up shows in the city (Aparna Nancherla’s Whiplash)

Upright Citizens Brigade East
(153 East 3rd Street; 99-seater; a top comedy venue that leans a bit more towards stand-up and screenings, and on experimental shows taking big risks, than sister theatre UCB Chelsea; shows free-$10)

The PIT Striker (Upstairs) Theatre
(123 East 24th Street; 99-seater; a top venue that’s a powerful rival of UCB, and often surpasses UCB when blending comedy with music and/or theatricality; shows free-$20)

The PIT Underground (Downstairs) Theatre
(123 East 24th Street; 40-seater; often more quirky & experimental than upstairs Striker; shows free-$10)

The PIT Loft
(154 West 29th Street; 50-seater; not at the level of its two sister PIT theatres, but evolving; shows free-$10)

The Magnet
(254 West 29th Street; 60-seat theatre; strong on improv, musical improv, sketch, and energy; shows $5-$10)

The Annoyance Theatre
(367 Bedford Ave. in Brooklyn; J/M/Z to Marcy or L to Lorimer; 50-seat theatre; spinning off from Chicago’s Annoyance Theatre, brings a fiercely fresh, experimental approach to improv and sketch; shows free-$10)

The Creek and the Cave
(Queens’ Long Island City; 40-seat theatre upstairs, 25 downstairs; virtually all shows free)

Littlefield
(622 Degraw Street in Brooklyn; R to Union Street; 100-seat theatre; shows $5-$20)

Union Hall
(702 Union Street in Brooklyn; R to Union Street; 50-seat theatre; shows $5-$20)

Bell House
(149 7th Street in Brooklyn; R to 9th Street or F/G to Fourth Ave.; 200-seat theatre; shows $10-$25)

Best NYC Stand-Up Comedy Clubs

Comedy Cellar
(117 MacDougal Street; among the finest daily stand-up lineups in the world; 2-item min.)

The Stand
(239 Third Avenue; recent competitor to Comedy Cellar; no drink min.—support this policy!)

Carolines Comedy Club
(1626 Broadway; focuses on the world’s top headliners, who perform hour-long sets; 2-drink min.)

Gotham Comedy Club
(208 West 23rd Street; headliners on weekends, specialty & lineup shows weekdays; 2-drink min.)

Eastville Comedy Club
(85 East 4th Street; strong weekend lineups; no cover using code HyReviews; 2-drink min.)

Greenwich Village Comedy Club
(99 MacDougal Street; convenient if Comedy Cellar’s sold out; no cover using code HyReviews; 2-drink min.)

Comic Strip Live
(1568 Second Avenue, off 81st; Upper East Side club with typically solid lineups; 2-drink min.)

Stand Up NY
(236 West 78th Street, off Broadway; Upper West Side club with typically solid lineups; 2-drink min.)

The Standing Room
(4738 Vernon Blvd., by #7 train; Queens LIC club; no drink min.—support this policy!)

Other NYC Live Shows, Heavily Marked Down via Goldstar:
Click Any Image That Interests You to See the Discount Offer

From legendary NYC comedy site Brooklyn Vegan: Thank God for Hy Bender’s religiously updated show bible BestNewYorkComedy.com…It must be exhausting keeping that monster of a website alive. It is your daily comedy itinerary and it scares me how on top of his shit this guy is.

Please feel encouraged to reach out to tell me about comedy shows, submit material to my short story anthology Ghosts on Drugs, hire me for book or screenplay work, or for any other reason by emailing me at hy@hyreviews.com.