Best New York Comedy

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

Ali Wong headlines one last night at the Carolines Comedy Club, and Janeane Garofalo performs at the Eastville Comedy Club

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] 4:00 pm: An unusually early weekly open-mic stand-up show at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by RG Daniels & Jared Fried: It Starts at 4

6:00 pm ($5): Improv troupes Listen Kid!, Sneaky Beatings, and Old Timey Radio Show at The Magnet kicking off your Saturday evening: The Rundown

[FREE] 6:00 pm: A “sacrificial” improv team performs a quick set, then is split up among three other waiting improv troupes, each of which then performs a full set. This ritual letting go for the good of the whole takes place at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: The Sacrifice

7:00 pm ($5): Improv troupe Cake-Fest tries to recreate the tone and themes of an animated cartoon live on stage at The PIT upstairs theatre in AdventureProv

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10): Genius improvisors Joe Bill, Ed Herbstman, Becky Drysdale, Kay Cannon, Christina Gausas, and/or other stellar performers from 30 Rock, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, and legendary Chicago improv institutions, at UCB West all joyously declaring Let’s Have a Ball

7:30 pm ($7): Improv veterans Mark Grenier, Louis Kornfeld, and Charlie Whitcroft at The Magnetmaking up a play on the spot: Theory of Everything

7:30 pm ($10): UCBT Harold Night improv troupe Airwolf makes stuff up at UCB East: Airwolf: Let’s Go Back to Your Place

[TOP PICK] [$] 8:00 pm & 10:30 pm ($27.25 & 2-drink min.) A petite comedy dynamo, this razor-sharp rising star who recently performed on Jay Leno and FOX, and is a cast member of the upcoming NBC sitcom Are You There Vodka, It’s Me Chelsea and the upcoming Oliver Stone filmSavages, will shock you and make you roar with laughter thanks to a fearlessness that’s won her acclaim in San Francisco and, over the past two years, a devoted following in NYC. Headlining at the Carolines Comedy Club, treat yourself to Ali Wong

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: Chris Gethard (brilliant improvisor and comedic storyteller; star of Comedy Central sitcom Big Lake and UCBT’s The Chris Gethard Show; Magic Box of Stories, The Stepfathers, The Nights of Our Lives, author of book Weird New York; winner of 2011 ECNY Award for Best Tweeter), Nate Bargatze (Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central), Greg Johnson (Sirius Radio host), Susan Prekel (Comedy Central), and Dan Shaki performing stand-up at One and One (76 East 1st Street, corner of First Avenue) at Sean Donnelly’s Lil’ Seany Boy

[TOP PICK] [$] 8:30 pm & 10:30 pm ($30 & 2-drink min.): A TV & movie star who created & hostedLast Comic Standing, was a cast member of CBS’ Gary Unmarried and Ghost Whisperer, has done extensive sports broadcasting for ESPN, and has appeared in such feature films as Jerry MacGuire, Pay It Forward, and Hereafter (opposite Matt Damon) headlining one last night at the Gotham Comedy Club: Jay Mohr

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups Jessimae Peluso (Last Comic Standing, TruTV, Tyra Banks), Amber Nelson (sketch troupe Thunder Gulch, co-host of Gutbucket), and Andy Sandford (Adult Swim, The Beards of Comedy) performing sets and then being interviewed about theirpersonal lives at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Matt Ruby &Mark Normand (who says “all these guys were hand-picked because they’re funny and have some serious problems; when you read this lineup you’re gonna be like “oh yeah, that guy is a mess”):We’re All Friends Here

[FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups Pat O’Shea (host of Ed Sullivan on Acid), Liz Simons, Stephanie Acevedo, Dan Hirshon, J-L Cauvin, Bryan Bruner, and Teresa DeGaetano performing at The Creekdownstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with host Evan Morgenstern: SNC: Hot Blooded

8:00 pm ($10): Two of the most respected PIT improv troupes performing on this weekly double-bill—and occasionally with comedy giants Kristen Schaal and/or Kurt Braunohler participating: Big Black Car and The Baldwins

[$] 8:00 pm ($10 plus 2-drink min.): Joe Hutcheson scored a hit at last year’s FringeNYC with hisone-man show about a gay New Yorker having this body inhabited by the ghost of a pre-Civil War Southern debutante. Joe’s bringing the show back for a brief revival tonight, and next Friday & Saturday, at the Times Square Arts Center’s Roy Arias Cabaret, 300 West 43rd Street (off 8th Avenue), 5th Floor: Miss Magnolia Beaumont Goes to Provincetown

[TOP PICK] 8:30 pm ($8): NYC’s heavy metal version of a sketch troupe, which provides odd, unsettling, and fearless dark comedy—and won last year’s ECNY Award for Best Sketch Group—performing this monthly show at The PIT downstairs lounge: Murderfist

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): One of the gutsiest and most hilarious troupes in comedy history—with honors including being Cage Match Champion for three years in a row, and winning the 2011 ECNY Award for Best Improv Group—UCB West’s genius improvisors Death by Roo Roo

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): Arden Myrin (Conan O’Brien, Mad TV, Chelsea Lately, host of The Party Machine; for Mad TV samples, please click here and here and here), Nate Bargatze (Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central), Hari Kondabolu (Comedy Central Presents, Jimmy Kimmel), Michelle Buteau (Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; for stand-up video about Utah, sharing, and tits, please click here), Sean Donnelly (host of Lil’ Seany Boy), and Jono Zalay performing stand-up at UCB East, hosted by Kara Klenk and Nick Turner: If You Build It

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 9:00 pm & 11:00 pm (FREE TICKETS if you reserve in advance by calling (212) 260-2445 and mention HyReviews.com, but there’s still a 2-drink min. per person): TV & movie star Janeane Garofalo, Christian Finnegan (co-star of TBS’ Are We There Yet?; three Comedy Central specials; MSNBC, VH1’s Best Week Ever, Chappelle’s Show, The Today Show), DC Benny (Last Comic Standing finalist, Comedy Central Presents), and more performing at the only comedy club in the East Village: Eastville Comedy Club

9:00 pm ($10): Sketch comedy duo Jamaal Sedayao and Brian Lisi at The Magnet providing “unfamiliar, often absurd stories full of unexpected laughs:” Turboner Bigoté

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($10): Sketch duo Chris O’Neill and Paul Valenti describe themselves as “vaudeville gold for a 2011 crowd.” Whatever. They’re funny. Especially the bit with the nose. Come catch their latest material tonight at The PIT: The Chris and Paul Show

9:30 pm ($5): NYC stand-ups (not announced) bringing their A-game—because their sets are captured at this new monthly show as audition tapes—performing at The PIT downstairs lounge: The Grass Route: Built from the Underground Up

[TOP PICK] [$] 10:00 pm ($15): Ted Greenberg (Emmy-winning David Letterman writer) performing a fun, fast-paced theatrical comedy show—complete with audience interaction and audience rides home!—at The Complete Performer

[FREE] 10:00 pm: A sketch & interview show at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Zach Sims: Too Late With Zachary Sims

[TOP PICK] 10:30 pm ($10): Ben Rodgers, Charlie Todd, Jim Santangeli, and/or other stellar improvisors at UCB West interview an audience member about where he or she grew up and then create an entire show based on the mini-bio: The Curfew: Not From Around Here

10:30 pm ($7): Vibrant improv from Nick Kanellis & Peter McNerney as comedy duo Trike

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($10): A comedic panel show debuting at The PIT, with tonight’s guests Jeff Caldwell (David Letterman), Michelle Buteau (Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; for stand-up video about Utah, sharing, and tits, please click here), and Maureen Langan (Joy Behar) “breaking down the week’s weakest, from politics to pop culture,” hosted by Brian Joyce: The Weak in Review

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): James Adomian (talented impressionist; finalist on last summer’s Last Comic Standing), Emmy Blotnick (blogger for Jimmy Fallon), John Milhiser (sketch troupes Dweeband Serious Lunch), and Amber Nelson (sketch troupe Thunder Gulch, co-host of Gutbucket), and musical guest Adnan Sabir performing at UCB East with host Andy Rocco at Underground Americana

[TOP PICK] Midnight ($5): Top improvisors pair up for one night only at UCB West: Chris Gethard (comedy genius) & Laura Wilcox, John Gemberling (comedy genius) & Don Fanelli, Fran Gillespie (rising risk-taker) & random audience member, and Lydia Hensler & Alan Starzinski, hosted by Don Fanelli: Couples Skate

[FREE] Midnight: A weekly chance for you to shine at The Magnet, as students and veteran improvisors share the stage to form “rare and wonderful one-night-only teams,” with sign-up starting at 11:30 pm: Magnet Mixer

[FREE] Midnight: NYC stand-ups in a late-night talk show format at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Michael Che: Michael Che’s Community Service

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, October 8th, 2011 at 6:15 am and is filed under Best New York Live Comedy Shows. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.