Best New York Comedy

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

I’ll be attending every day of Comic Con, which is NYC’s second largest annual event. Highlights of Day #1 include:

• Sean Schemmel (voice of Goku, King Kai) and Christopher Sabat (voice of Vegeta, Piccolo, Yamcha) chatting about FUNimation anime masterpiece Dragon Ball Z (11:15-12:15, Room 1A10)
• Filmmakers of a documentary about Back to the Future (11:00-noon, Room 1A06)
• Kevin Smith and the other stars of AMC’s Comic Book Men (12:15-1:15, Empire Stage 1-E)
• Marvel talent scouts revealing how to break into Marvel Comics (12:15-1:15, Room 1A21)
• An insider’s look at the second season of SyFy’s only notable scripted series, 12 Monkeys (12:15-1:15, Main Stage 1-D)
• Andre the Giant: The Man Behind the Legend (12:30-1:30, 1A24)

• An insider panel about AMC’s The Walking Dead (2:45-3:45, Empire Stage 1-E)
• A Nerdist writers & showrunners panel (3:00-4:00, Room 1A10)
• The newest group of comic book series from DC/Vertigo (4:00-5:00, Room 1A21)

• A panel discussion of Game of Thrones with cast members Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), Finn Jones (Ser Loras Tyrell), and Keisha Castle-Hughes (Obara Sand) as they share stories from the set, speculate about season 6, and vent their mutual hatred of the Lannisters (4:00-5:00, Empire Stage 1-E)
• SyFy providing advance screenings & discussions of two new series based on bestselling SF novels, The Expanse and Hunters (4:00-6:30, Room 1A06)
• LGBTQ diversity in comics (5:15-6:15, Room 1A21)
• #BlackComicsMonth diversity (6:30-7:30, Room 1A18)
• Minimates Mini-Figures: Where Gotham Meets The Walking Dead (6:45-7:45, Room 1A05)

• Stellar stand-ups & comic book fans Brian Posehn, Myq Kaplan, and Mike Drucker (8:15-9:15, Empire Stage 1-E)

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:

• I Don’t Get It: Stand-up from Myq Kaplan, Seaton Smith, Nick Vatterott, and Ben Kronberg (7:30 pm, $5, HiFi Bar at 169 Avenue A between 10th & 11th Streets)
• Nice T!ts: As a sort of antidote for Comic Con, Amy Marcs’ one-woman show about breast cancer (8:00 pm, $15, The PIT Upstairs Theatre at 123 East 24th Street)
• Spider-Man Entirely From Memory: Eight improvisors attempt to recreate the adventures of Spider-Man using only what they can remember after watching one of his many movies. Some will watch Tobey Maguire, others Andrew Garfield, and for the lucky few, the animated adventures. To add to the fun, a few rules: Performers must 1) incorporate lines written by the audience; 2) incorporate any sound effect played by the tech booth; and 3) whenever a horn is honked, create a scene that has no business being in Spider-Man but makes perfect sense given where they are in the story (9:30 pm, $10, The PIT Upstairs Theatre at 123 East 24th Street)
• CollegeHumor Live: Brilliant stand-ups—so great they’re virtually super-heroes—Aparna Nancherla and Joe Pera (9:30 pm, $5, UCB Chelsea at 307 West 26th Street)
• The Geek Show: Stand-ups (not announced) who are comic book fans, hosted by Neko White (Midnight, $10 cover—or $5 cover if you show your Comic Con badge—plus 2-drink min., Carolines Comedy Club at 1626 Broadway)

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.