Best New York Comedy

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A crazed found video footage comedy group presents its holiday extravaganza at Brooklyn’s Bell House…

…Everything is Terrible!

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 stand-up for 15 comics performing for 5 minutes each at Queens LIC’s Laughing Devil Comedy Club (4738 Vernon Blvd.)—with drinks at half price: Happy Hour Open Mic

[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up providing 3 minutes per comic at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre hosted by Max Corbel & Benel Germosen: Cracking It

7:00 pm-12:30 am ($7 for the entire evening): Magnet house troupes Nintendo, Horses, Flower Girl, The Wrath, Bloomer, Chet Watkins, Dr. Champagne, and Brick performing improv, followed by a free audience interactive show with Nintendo at 11:30 pm: The Magnet’s Megawatt

[FREE] 7:00 pm: NYC stand-ups (not announced) performing at Birch Coffee upper library (5 East 27th Street) hosted by Daniel Kurland: Freshly Brewed Coffee-edy

7:30 pm ($5): Expanding the UCB longform improv showcased on Harold Night is this weekly show at UCB East which tonight features troupes Huxtable and City Mouse: Lloyd Night

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Nadia Quinn, backed up by her band Summer & Eve, hosts this new show featuring music, sketch, celebrity guests, and more at UCB Chelsea, with this month’s theme Christmastime: The Nadia Quinn Old-Timey Variety Hour

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: Chris “Shockwave” Sullivan (amazing human boombox; The Daily Show, The Electric Company, Freestyle Love Supreme, co-host of The BEATdown), Livia Scott (magical comedic chameleon; Conan O’Brien, Livia’s Castle of Enchantment), Calise Hawkins (Jimmy Fallon, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, writer for Playboy.com), and Joe Machi (Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central) performing stand-up at 2A (25 Avenue A & 2nd Street), hosted by Beth Hoyt & Trish Nelson—and directly followed at 10:00 pm by 2A’s Annual Ugly Sweater Party: Big Effing Deal: Holiday Edition

[FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups do sets “and then have a discussion about what’s going on in the world and the mysteries of life” at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City, hosted by Chris Laker: The Show

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 8:30 pm ($7.37 if you use code CARMEN online or by phone, plus 2-drink min.) A stand-up who’s performed on David Letterman and Comedy Central, and was a Last Comic Standing finalist, headlining for one night only at the Carolines Comedy Club: Carmen Lynch

[TOP PICK] [$] 8:30 pm ($15 plus 2-drink min.): TV & Broadway star Colin Quinn, Ted Alexandro (one of the very finest stand-ups in the country; David Letterman, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, two Comedy Central Presents half-hour specials; frequently opens for Louis C.K.), and more performing stand-up at The Stand Comedy Club (239 Third Avenue & 20th Street) hosted by Joe Machi & Sam Morril: Colin Quinn, Ted Alexandro, and More

[FREE] 8:30 pm: Typically terrific NYC comics (not announced) performing at this free weekly comedy show at Brooklyn’s Cameo (behind Lovin’ Cup) typically hosted by Gabe Liedman and/or Max Silvestri: Big Terrific

[TOP PICK] [FREE] Seating at 8:30, show at 9:00 pm (RSVP to confirm your spot at FreeCcomedyWednesdays@gmail.com): TV & movie star Janeane Garofalo, James Adomian (hilarious, super-charged character comic/impressionist; finalist on most recent Last Comic Standing; Harold and Kumar 2), Jared Logan (Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, host of ComedyJuice), Mark Normand (hilarious stand-up; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; co-host of Hot Soup and We’re All Friends Here), Kurt Metzger (Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Presents, Ugly Americans), and Matt Ruby (MTV; co-host of Hot Soup and We’re All Friends Here, blog Sandpaper Suit) performing stand-up at Ella (9 Avenue A) produced by Mark Normand, Matt Ruby, Gary Vider, and Sachi Ezura: Hot Soup

[TOP PICK] [$] 9:00 pm ($18 at the door or $25.95 in advance online): “This holiday season Everything Is Terrible!, the world famous psychedelic soldiers of found footage, return with another epic masterpiece. Over the last 5 years EIT! has built upon their classic Holiday Special, each year creating a more abominable video collage of everyone’s least favorite time of the year. A millennium’s worth of VHS memories of misplaced sentimentalities, fist fights over toys for tots, erotic Santas, Nazi elves, and an endless parade of singing kids will surely destroy us all. Will this holiday season be our last? Will our Maya brothers and sisters of so many moons ago be correct in their prediction of doom? After all the dust settles, and our world as we know it is no more, will we have learned the true meaning of the season? There is only one way to find the answers that we seek—Watch one more crappy holiday special” at Brooklyn’s The Bell House (149 7th Street, between Second and Third Avenues): Everything is Terrible!

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Superb improvisors—and actual brothers—Will Hines and Kevin Hines make use of their intimate knowledge of each other to gracefully invent scenes (hopefully without any fighting) at UCB East performing as duo The Brothers Hines

9:15 pm ($5 if you say There Goes Christmas, otherwise $8): Stand-up from Anna Drezen, and sketch from The Pin-Up Squirrels, The Flat Tires, Boat, and NecroSexual, all performing at Under St. Marks (94 St. Marks Place, off First Avenue) hosted by John Murdock: December Sketch Block

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Abbi Jacobson & Ilana Glazer created Broad City as a Web series, which was then picked up for development as a TV series for FX…and is also a monthly stage show at UCB Chelsea. Tonight’s theme is Bitchin’ for this “delicately crafted hour of fun:” Broad City Live

[TOP PICK] [$] 9:45 pm ($14 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Godfrey (Comedy Central Presents, Louie, 30 Rock, VH1; films Zoolander, Original Gangsters, Soul Plane; 7 Up Yours ads), Ryan Hamilton (Conan O’Brien, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, Showtime), Gregg Rogell (Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Louie, Comedy Central), Sherrod Small (writer/performer on TBS’ Are We There Yet?, Comedy Central, VH1), Mike Vecchione (Last Comic Standing, Howard Stern), and more performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): Godfrey, Ryan Hamilton, and More

[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($5): The instructors of UCB’s classes include some of the finest improvisors in the country. In this new weekly show a bunch of them get on stage at UCB East, along with hosts Betsy Stover and Ari Voukydis: Hot for Teacher: The UCB Faculty Show

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 10:00 pm: Rising stand-up stars—Jared Logan, Mike Lawrence, Mark Normand, Dan. St. Germain, Pat Dixon, Emily Heller, Michael Che, Joe List, and/or Nick Turner—at Queens LIC’s The Creek upstairs theatre: The Regular Suspects

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: The wonderful Sasheer Zamata (Doppelganger) hosts as many as a dozen guests packed into 75 minutes performing stand-up, improv, sketch, and occasionally acts that defy categorization. The level of talent can vary wildly, but for some (like me), that’s part of the laid-back fun; and this is often one of the most amazing comedy shows in town. (Tonight’s scheduled lineup includes Claudia Cogan, Eddie Brawley, and Aaron Glaser; for the complete list, please click here.) Come support the experimentation, and periodic magical surprises, that this uniquely organic rollercoaster of a weekly show at UCB Chelsea makes possible—and don’t forget to toss $1 in the bucket on your way out: School Night

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up running until 1:00 am, with time divided evenly between performers (up to five minutes), at The Creek downstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with host Rob Stern: Bucket ‘O Buckets

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Your opportunity to perform on the stage of UCB East with improv veterans, hosted by UCBT Harold Night house troupe Grandma’s Ashes: The Improv Jam

[TOP PICK] [$] 11:30 pm ($10 plus 2-item food/drink min.): Uncensored stand-up from Big Jay Oakerson (Comedy Central Presents, HBO, Showtime, MTV), Nikki Glaser (co-star of MTV’s The Nikki and Sara Show; Conan O’Brien, Jay Leno, Last Comic Standing; podcast You Had to Be There), Andrew Schulz (MTV 2’s Guy Code), Dan Soder (Comedy Central, VH1; for set about being a hypochondriatic drug user, please click here), Wil Sylvince (Comedy Central, BET’s Comic View), and more performing at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Mike Yard (Comedy Central, Def Comedy Jam): The Nasty Show: Big Jay Oakerson, Nikki Glaser, and More

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.