Best New York Comedy

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My favorite fast food place, Tuck Shop, got hit hard by Sandy. Please check out its amazing meat & veggie mini-pies; the 68 East 1st Street store is near UCB East and open very late…and is run by a fiery Aussie redhead who’s a delight.

Richard Lewis headlines tonight through Sunday at the Carolines 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] 6:00 pm: An open-mic show on a lottery system (sign-ups happen at 5:45-6:00 pm) at The Creek downstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with hosts Erin Lennox and Eli Sairs: The Orphanage

7:00 pm ($10): Sketch comedy at The Magnet in which “A snake oil salesmen tries her luck on a suspecting town; a soldier in the trenches of WW2 learns what’s been going on back home; and a young businesswoman brings home a Christmas surprise:” Citizen Models

[FREE] 7:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up, with 3 minutes per comic (unless not many folks show up, in which case there’ll be more time), with names drawn out of a bucket at UCB East in the bar area (“Hot Chicks Room”) hosted by Nate Dern and Paul Oddo: The Friday Night Hot Chicks Mic

[TOP PICK] [$] 7:30 pm & 10:00 pm ($38.25 & 2-drink min.)  A comedy star who’s snared just about every major credit a comic can—and is a long-time cast member of HBO’s Curb Your Enthusiasm—headlining through Sunday at the Carolines Comedy Club: Richard Lewis

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10): “For over a year, Patrick Waldo scrawled his moustache tag on countless advertisements around New York City, entertaining commuters and causing thousands of dollars in damage. After a three month investigation, the NYPD put an end to his spree when they arrested Waldo under felony charges of graffiti, criminal mischief, and fucking shit up,” written & starring Patrick Waldo, and directed by Nate Dern & John Flynn: Moustache Man: Confessions of a NYC Graffiti Artist…

…and in the other half of this double-bill, UCBT star & Chris Gethard Show icon Vacation Jason (a.k.a. Riley Soloner) debuts his own show: Vacation Jason’s Island Flavors

7:30 pm ($10): Jermaine Fowler (FOX’s new In Living Color, MTV, Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show), Adam Newman (Comedy Central, MTV, College Humor, comedy CD Not for Horses), Sean Donnelly (Comedy Central; host of many shows), Nick Turner (Jimmy Fallon, VH1), and Nick Naney performing stand-up at UCB East hosted by “weirdo” Mike Bocchetti : Being Normal Sucks

8:00 pm ($5): D&D-style epic fantasy improv, plus nerdy stand-up, at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City hosted by Eric Grundhauserled as your Dungeon Master

8:00 pm ($8): Matthew Robert Gehring (Political Subversities) and Sam Martin (gal musical improviser) perform duo sketch comedy at The PIT upstairs theatre: Matt & Sam

[MEGA-TOP PICK] 8:30 pm ($7; sold out, but there’ll be a waiting list for tickets unclaimed 10 minutes prior to showtime): Jason Mantzoukas (film/TV star; We Used to Go Out, Mother, Baby Mama) and Ed Herbstman (national TV commercial star and stellar comedic actor; co-founder of the Magnet Theater) are improv masters—as they demonstrated by easily winning the $10,000 Friars Club competition for Best Improv Troupe in 2011. Come see the height of improv as these breathtakingly quick-witted and skillful guys create pure magic during one of the rare evenings when Jason (who now lives in LA) is visiting NYC—and as they then engage in an unusually intimate, and potentially awkward, debriefing session with the audience that can be as much fun as the formal part of the show: The Mantzoukas Brothers

[FREE] 8:30ish pm: Joe Pera (very funny deadpan comic; I recently saw him sing beautifully and then smash three dozen plates to pieces; for reasons to hire Joe, please click here), Jermaine Fowler (FOX’s new In Living Color, MTV, Adult Swim’s The Eric Andre Show), Adam Newman (Comedy Central, MTV, College Humor, comedy CD Not for Horses), Claudia Cogan (Last Comic Standing, MTV, Logo, here! TV), and Karl Hess performing stand-up at Brooklyn’s Red Star (37 Greenpoint Avenue) guest-hosted by Matt Koff, followed by wild Karaoke: Pirate Party

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): Some of the finest improv in NYC from comedy geniuses Chris Gethard and Shannon O’Neill, plus stellar comics Silvija Ozols, Zach Woods, Michael Delaney, Will Hines, and Connor Ratliff, performing at UCB Chelsea—the all-star members of The Stepfathers

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): A gathering of comedic musicians, who tonight are Ben Lerman (nuanced raunchy comedic singer/songwriter; Logo TV’s NewNowNext, Sirius Radio’s Frank DeCaro Show),  Taylor Ferrera, Jeffrey Kornberg, and MV PleezSharp at UCB East hosted by superb musical group Summer & Eve: Earworm Funny Music Party Show

9:00 pm ($5): Comics (not announced) performing stand-up, sketch, improv, and who knows what else, at The PIT downstairs lounge hosted by Jason Saenz: Undefined

9:00 pm ($5): Brent Sullivan (Comedy Central; for video about crying while reading The Giving Tree, please click here), Jo Firestone, Andy Sandford, Sean Wilkinson, Bill Stiteler, and Chaz Kangas performing stand-up at Brooklyn’s Fort Useless (36 Ditmars Street) hosted by George Flanagan: Spit Take Friday

9:30 pm ($10): A comedy group that makes up a musical on the spot at The PIT upstairs theatre after a friendly greeting: Hello

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 10:00 pm: Joe Zimmerman (Rooftop Comedy), Dave Stone (Adult Swim’s Squidbillies), Andy Sanford (TBS), and TJ Young “deliver an original brand of humor that’s deeply rooted in stand-up and lightly blended with avant-garde elements of music, sketch and improv.” This bearded quartet’s credits include the album Cardio Mix from Comedy Central Records; and tonight they perform at The Creek’s upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: The Beards of Comedy

10:00 pm ($7): Singing improvisors at The Magnet—tonight including special guest Giulia Rozzi—using an interview with an audience member to craft The Made-Up Musical

[TOP PICK] 10:30 pm ($10): Fran Gillespie, Jon Gabrus, Sue Galloway, Matt Fisher, Craig Rowin, Nate Lang, and other superb improvisors at UCB Chelsea making up scenes about an audience member’s legal dispute: The Law Firm: Law & Disorder

[TOP PICK] [$] 10:30 pm ($20 plus 2-drink min.): Rich Vos (stand-up star on two seasons of Last Comic Standing and on Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn; Comedy Central Presents; Opie & Anthony radio show), Joe DeRosa (razor-sharp rising star stand-up; HBO’s Bored to Death and Down and Dirty, Comedy Central Presents, comedy CD The Depression Auction), Mike Vecchione (Last Comic Standing, Howard Stern), and more performing stand-up at The Stand Comedy Club (239 Third Avenue & 20th Street): Rich Vos, Joe DeRosa, and More

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 10:30 pm: NYC stand-ups with various challenging disorders—anxiety attacks, OCD, Tourette’s, etc.—perform for this one-in-a-while event hosted by the lovely Chelsea White (MTV, VH1) and Evan Morgenstern (host of SNC), with guests Dan St. Germain (quick-witted & enormously likeable rising star; Jimmy Fallon, The Electric Company, MTV, VH1), Danny Leary (Logo), Lance Weiss, and more performing at the Parkside Lounge (317 East Houston, between Avenues B and C): Call Us Crazy

10:30 pm ($5): NYC comics—who tonight include Brandon Gulya—performing at UCB East hosted by Emily Axford, D’Arcy Carden, Alden Ford, Brandon Scott Jones, and/or Justin Tyler: Gentrify

[TOP PICK] 11:30 pm ($5): Before this Magnet show, audience members may anonymously submit written confessions, secrets, rants, advice and opinions which will be used onstage by the improvisors—who include such talents as Laura Grey (stellar old-time radio style theatrical podcast Horrorgasm, sketch/improv duo Klepper & Grey): The Friday Night Sh*w

[TOP PICK] [FREE] Midnight: NYC stand-ups—sometimes stellar ones—pushing boundaries for a show designed for looseness and experimentation at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City with hosts Jacqueline Novak and Chris Laker: Permission to Fail

[TOP PICK] Midnight ($5): “Take four charming performers. Add one host with a stack of index cards. Be inspired by UK panel trivia shows. Ask questions with true answers so ridiculous, no fiction could compare. Give points for being right (as if!) but give more points for cracking wise. Shake. Pour” at UCB East, with tonight’s panelists Megan Gray (Artistic Director of The Magnet) , Katey Healy-Wurzburg (host of The Fascinator), Erik Tanouye (The Curfew), and Andrew Ladd: The Follow-Up: A Quiz Show

[FREE] Midnight: This show might not be much fun for audience members, but it’s an amazing opportunity if you want to perform sketch for free and with almost zero hurdles on the prestigious UCB Chelsea stage. Plus it’s hosted by members of Maude troupe Fambly, typically including such wonderful talents as Nicole Byer and Veronica Osorio: Liquid Courage

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.