Best New York Comedy

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

For Hy’s coverage of the spectacular FringeNYC 2010 Festival, please click here.

Stand-up superstar Jim Gaffigan performs tonight at Comix on "The Daily Show and Friends"

Tonight’s recommendations for the best in New York City comedy (in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $12 marked with $) include:

7:30 pm ($5): Sharp improvisors directed by James Eason “take an audience suggestion and break it into a million funny pieces,” and veteran improvisors play with “elements of monoscene, deconstruction, and La Ronde,” in the double-bill The Deconstruction and Sleepover

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 8:00 pm ($19.33 online if you use code VIPAUG, plus 2-item minimum): Stand-up superstar Jim Gaffigan, plus Daily Show producers Rory Albanese and Adam Lowitt, and more performing at the elegant Comix Comedy Club: The Daily Show and Friends—with Jim Gaffigan

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 8:00 pm Tuesday-Saturday ($39.50 online or at the box office using discount code PPBBOX): This is a show for which I have enormous affection; although my joy came from watching not only what occurred on stage, but the faces of the women in the audience turning stonier and stonier as they visibly projected the thought, “Dick tricks? This entire show really consists of dick tricks? All my suspicions about men have just been confirmed…” If you cherish bravery in performers, go forth to the 45 Bleecker Theatre (right next to the #6 subway’s Bleecker Street stop) and experience Puppetry of the Penis

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Comedy dynamo Shannon O’Neill performing her extravaganza about an annual talent show in “Charlie Sheen Prison, the only talent show starring the criminally retarded and insane,” directed by the wonderful Will Hines; and “pop culture obsessed Billy Eichner takes you on a fun-filled 30 minute journey through his twisted and topical celebrity-fueled world,” in the double-bill Prison Freaks: A Talent Show and Billy Eichner Goes Pop!

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($12): Wyatt Cenac (correspondent for The Daily Show), Tony Camin, Giulia Rozzi, Al Jackson, and more performing at 92Y Tribeca’s Comedy Below Canal

9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): Ace storytellers John Flynn and Leslie Goshko, plus stand-ups Katina Corrao, Colin Dempsey, Nick Zimmerman, and Calvin Cato, performing in Ochil’s Lounge at Sharon Spell’s Shrink West

9:30 pm ($5): Three sketch comedy troupes—Murderfist (2010 ECNY Award for Best Sketch Group), Hammerkatz, and New Exc!tement—each performing one of their most popular sketches and one of their personal favorites in a fun revue hosted by James Eason & Aaron Kheifets: A-Side/B-Side

9:30 pm ($5): The debut of a show by Matthew Holtzclaw and Prakash Puru that “explores the bizarre worlds of magic, mind-reading, and mutilation; not for the faint of heart:” Strange Things

[TOP PICK] 10:00 pm ($8): “A few things will happen when you visit Electric! 1. Adira Amram and The Experience will rock you and then pump up it up in your heart! 2. Becky Yamamoto will show her love for you. 3. Our stellar guests will blow your mind! 4. Post-show Dance Party!” Tonight’s guests at this rockin’ monthly extravaganza are Sandra Bauleo (MTV), Lisa Delarios (Comedy Central; co-host of Party Machine), and Nat Avino-Towsen (co-host of The Moon) performing atArlene’s Grocery (95 Stanton Street) hosted by Becky Yamamoto (called “priceless” by The New York Times), and brilliant comedic singer/songwriter Adira Amram and her musical group The Experience—with Adira thoroughly living up to show’s title: Electric!

[$] 10:00 pm ($31.25 & 2-drink min.) A provocative comedy star who’s written for Richard Pryor, Red Foxx, and Saturday Night Live, and performed on Chappelle’s Show and David Letterman, headlining through Sunday at Carolines: Paul Mooney

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): Two vibrant troupe troupes, Doppelganger and Rogue Elephant, competing for audience laughs and votes at the raucous Cage Match

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

For Hy’s coverage of the spectacular FringeNYC 2010 Festival, please click here.