Best New York Comedy

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Genius human beatbox Chris "Shockwave" Sullivan (above) co-hosts with genius musical improvisor Eliza Skinner at midnight's The BEATdown

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] 7:00 pm ($5): In this fun show, 16 musical performers turn an audience member’s suggestion into two musical fairy tales that tell what happened from the viewpoint of first the hero and then the villain, with “all the music and magic of a Disney flick…plus the darkness of the Brothers Grimm:” Once Upon a Time

7:00 pm ($8): “Where there is a stage and a piano, she will be there. Where there are strangers with embarrassing stories, she will be there. Where there is a group of people willing to sit and watch someone make up songs, she will be there. A one-woman musical improv journey through the lives of the audience. You tell the story, Rebecca Vigil sings the soundtrack:” The Vigilante

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10): Kurt Braunohler practices a stand-up set designed for a TV special; and Peter Blomquist and Jeff Wiens performing a multimedia sketch show, in the double-bill Kurt Braunohler’s Special Stand-Up and Franco & Billy: Diamonds of Fire

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($10): A groundbreaking and surreal improv/sketch troupe performing with new guests each Friday and making a valid complaint: Centralia: We Were Supposed To Have Flying Cars By Now

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 8:00 pm; Next to Last Show! ($19.50 online using discount code8PUPPET): This is a show for which I have enormous affection; although my joy came from watching not only what occurred on stage, but the faces of the women in the audience turning stonier and stonier as they visibly projected the thought, “Dick tricks? This entire show really consists of dick tricks? All my suspicions about men have just been confirmed…” If you cherish bravery in performers, go forth to the 45 Bleecker Theatre (right next to the #6 subway’s Bleecker Street stop) and experience Puppetry of the Penis

[FREE] 8:00 pm: Ace storyteller Kevin Allison (The State, Risk!), and stand-ups Rory Scovel (Comedy Central), Kevin McCaffrey (David Letterman), Ryan Hamilton (Comedy Central, Last Comic Standing), Ron Babcock (visiting from LA), and Sam Morrill performing at Brooklyn’s Red Star (37 Greenpoint Avenue) for hosts Nick Turner’s & Jason Saenz’s Too Cool for School

[FREE] 8:00: NYC stand-ups Rory Scovel (Comedy Central), Colin Jost (writer for SNL), Louis Katz (Comedy Central), Dan Wilbur (College Humor), and Alex Grubard (Sirius Radio) performing atO’Hanlon’s (14th Street off 1st Avenue), hosted by Matt Ruby: Hot Soup

[$] 8:00 pm ($53 & 2-drink min.)  A TV & film star whose credits include Undercover Brother, Deuce Bigalow, and Scary Movie 3 headlining through Saturday at Carolines: Eddie Griffin

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): Some of the finest improv in NYC from the comedy genius members of The Stepfathers

9:30 pm ($8): Pat Shepherd thought he was getting married. He was wrong. Learn the details in his one-man show Disengaged

10:00 pm ($7): Singing improvisors who use an interview with an audience member to craft The Made-Up Musical

[TOP PICK] 10:30 pm ($10): Thomas Middleditch, Jonathan Gabrus, Sue Galloway, and other superb improvisors make up scenes about an audience member’s legal dispute at The Law Firm: Law & Disorder

11:15 ($5):Roman Rimer performs a one-man show about “inspirational and comedic true stories intertwining spirituality, sex, laws, identity, drug busts, discomfort, fear and discovery from a spontaneous road trip down South” in Evolution

[TOP PICK] Midnight ($5): A comedic freestyle rap contest featuring some of the sharpest comics in NYC—Rachel Bloom, Jermaine Fowler, Michael Kayne, Nat Towsen, and Alan Starzinski—plus a volunteer from the audience!, hosted by genius comedic musical performers Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan (Freestyle Love Supreme) and Eliza Skinner (I Eat Pandas), all at The BEATdown

[$] 12:30 am ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining through Sunday at Carolines: Paul Mooney

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.