Best New York Comedy

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Rising star Amber Nelson sets the UCBT stage on fire with extreme women on the verge of breakdowns in Snapped!…

…and today kicks off one of the most fun events of the summer for theatre fans: the New York Musical Festival

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: Open-mic storytelling show, with audience members chosen from a bucket of names getting to tell tales for 8 minutes each at The PIT downstairs lounge, along with tonight’s guest storyteller Kathryn Dunn (improv troupe 1-800-L-O-N-D-O-N, stand-up at The Grass Route) and host Jake Hart: The Dump

[FREE] 6:00 pm: An open-mic stand-up show running about 90 minutes at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City with host Chris Gaynor: Open Mic Mondays

[TOP PICK] 6:30 pm ($5): Amber Nelson performs an energy-packed show that’s witty, fearless, sexy, and surreal, and in the process proves she’s a rising star very much worth keeping an eye on, in sketches about extreme personalities on the verge of nervous breakdowns: Snapped!; and in the second half of this double-bill at UCB Chelsea, the audition of a show I know nothing about but I like the title: Crotch the Throne

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): A monthly storytelling show from the wonderful Adam Wade (two-time Moth GrandSlam Storytelling Champion (2006 & 2009) and record-breaking 18-time StorySlam Champion; The New York Times Magazine; host of hilarious monthly storytelling extravaganzas Tales of the Cosmos and Whatever Happened to the Nerds?; for a sampling of Adam’s award-winning tales, please click here), along with guest storyteller David Martin, at Under St. Marks: The Adam Wade from New Hampshire Show: Tales of Life, Love, and Little League

7:00 pm ($8): A sketch show by The Quanrudes about The Dark Knight and other pop culture topics at The PIT upstairs theatre: Got Ham? A Batman Sketch Show

[FREE] 7:30 pm: Four improvisers form teams with comics they’ve never performed with before at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: The Kaleidoscope

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): At UCB Chelsea, one of the very best sketch shows of 2012. It’s a noir mini-play written & directed with immense wit by Michael Trapp (Stone Cold Fox), who with this script demonstrates he’s a rising star with a surefire career in the biz. And beyond the pages, Michael’s put together an all-star cast, including John Murray (simultaneously gripping and hilarious as a hardboiled detective with an absurdly short attention span), Brandon Scott Jones (who delivers an unforgettable scene with John that’s worth the trip all by itself), and D’Arcy Carden (who abandons her usual laid-back persona here to be smoking hot). These are all total pros who are virtually assured careers in TV and film. Catch them while they’re honing their craft and waiting to be noticed in one of the most consistently fun shows in NYC: Death Wears Stilettos…

…and in the other half of this double-bill, a (mostly) one-man show by George Kareman titled Incredibly Extreme and Extremely Incredible

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($9.47 online or $8 at the door): Kevin Meany (David Letterman, Jay Leno), brilliant UK star Simon Amstell (Numb, Never Mind the Buzzcocks), Joselyn Hughes (staff writer for Comedy Central’s Tosh O, Huffington Post), and the Lucas Brothers (Jimmy Fallon) performing at Brooklyn’s Littlefield (622 Degraw Street) hosted by Kurt Braunohler (Comedy Central; creator & host of IFC game show Bunk): Hot Tub Variety

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): At this UCB East improv double-bill, first ace all-gal troupe Doppelganger makes up scenes based around audience tattoos in Doppelganger Gets Inked; and then Sandino—which includes Don Fanelli, Brandon Gulya, and Kate Riley—interviews an audience member about some puzzle and then acts out scenes providing an unexpected answer: Sandino: Unsolved Mysteries

8:00 pm ($8): Bob Kulhan (co-founder of Baby Wants Candy, Second City, The Scene), Nick Vatterott (Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Half Hour, MTV, Second City, 2012 Andy Kaufman Award), and Micah Sherman (Baby Wants Candy, Second City, The Scene) perform sharp, innovative improv at The PIT upstairs theatre: The Windy Pendejos?

[FREE] 8:30 pm: NYC stand-ups Jamie Lee (Last Comic Standing, MTV’s Ridiculousness, VH1), Nick Vatterott (Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central’s The Half Hour, MTV, Second City, 2012 Andy Kaufman Award), Gordon Baker Bone, Alison Leiby, and David Foster performing at this weekly show at Brooklyn’s Matchless (557 Manhattan Avenue) hosted by Mike Denny, Michael Che, and/or Nimesh Patel: Broken Comedy

[FREE] 9:00 pm: NYC stand-ups Ophira Eisenberg (brilliant storyteller with notable bangs; Comedy Central, VH1, Showtime, host of NPR’s trivia/puzzle show Ask Me Another), Lane Moore, Ray Devito, Paige Weldon, and Jim Tews, plus musician Jesse Bryson of the Robin Electric, performing at Brooklyn’s Freddy’s Bar (627 Fifth Avenue; take R subway to Prospect Avenue) for this free biweekly show hosted by Brooke Van Poppelen (brilliant stand-up, writer, and storyteller; TLC, trutV; for stand-up videos about overindulging at 30 and impersonating Morrisey, please click here and here) and Giulia Rozzi (Jimmy Kimmel, MTV, VH1, Playgirl Magazine, co-host of Stripped Stories): Dive Comedy

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($10): Sharp Chicago-trained improvisors led by Susan Messing make up scenes at The PIT upstairs theatre, with tonight’s guests including Ali Farahnakian (30 Rock, Louie, Adult Swim, owner of The PIT): Messing with New York

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Two UCB Chelsea house sketch troupes try out fresh material: Gramp’s (the finest of UCBT’s Maude sketch troupes, thanks to such talents as Laura Grey, Morgan Grace Jarrett, Abbi Crutchfield, Don Fanelli, and Eddie Dunn, and a strong writing team) and Onassis (which has seldom been strong on the writing side but includes superb actress Lauren Conlin Adams): Maude Night: Gramp’s and Onassis

[FREE] 9:30 pm: Following a club format, hosts Nore Davis & Andrew Short perform stand-up throughout for a total of 25 minutes, two comics each perform a 15-minute set, and then a seasoned headliner closes out the show with a 20-minute set, all at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: On the Road

9:30 pm ($5): The debut of the only open-stage show for entire groups of improvisors and sketch comics, running weekly at UCB East hosted by Austin Rodrigues: Bring Your Own Team: Improv/Sketch Team Jam

[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): Twelve improv comics who are “friends of Dorothy” perform at The Magnet hosted by Andrew Fafoutakis: There’s No Place Like Home: A GLBTQ Event

[FREE] 10:30 pm: Karaoke plus Mad Libs—in which the audience chooses a list of words to swap into a popular song—at the UCB East Bar hosted by karaoke experts Alan Starzinski and Amy Jo Jackson, plus live keyboard accompaniment by Joe McGinty: Karaoke Night at the Hot Chicks Room

[FREE] 10:30 pm: Improv students are welcomed onto the stage at The PIT downstairs lounge for this weekly open access show hosted by Gary DeNoia & Keith Huang: Base Jam

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: Some of the finest comics in the world—who are no longer being announced in advance, but it’s virtually always a great lineup—at UCB Chelsea hosted by someone wonderful (while usual host Leo Allen is in LA): Whiplash

[FREE] 11:00 pm: If you’re an audience member who loves stand-up, Monday at 11 should be Whiplash! night (see listing above). If you’re a comic who couldn’t get booked on UCBT’s all-star show, though, you can opt to instead practice your skills at this exceptionally supportive stand-up open-mic at The PIT upstairs theatre hosted by Jared Reed: Fresh

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