Best New York Comedy

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

If you know anyone who might have a thyroid problem, please tell them about my new book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease.

Julie Sharbutt is among the luminous stars performing tonight at "Gravid Water"

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] 6:30 pm: Comics perform their best character bits in auditions for selection to the prestigious Montreal Just For Laughs Festival: Just for Laughs Character Showcase

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): Comedy veterans Miriam Tolan (The Daily Show), Jodi Lennon (Exit 57), and Ari Voukydis perform an improvised play in What a Year!

[FREE] 7:30 pm: NYC stand-ups Alexis Guerreros (Long Story Short podcast), Billy Keenly (member of Serious Lunch, winner of the 2011 ECNY Award for Best Sketch Group), Harriet Halloway, Benji Aflao, and Jay Nog (AMC’s Date Night) performing at a free weekly show in theManchester Pub hosted by Phoebe Robinson: Case of the Mondays Comedy

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Broadway & off-Broadway stars Carson Elrod (Broadway’s Noises Offand Reckless, hit movie Wedding Crashers), Dana Eskelson (Definitely Maybe, The Brave One), Jennifer Grace (award-winning Our Town), Maggie Lacey (Broadway’s Dividing the Estate, Inherit The Wind, Our Town), Michael Patrick O’Brien (Misled; NBC’s Saturday Night Live), and Julie Sharbutt (Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night) mixing it up with some of the best  improvisors in the world—Scott Adsit (30 Rock, Moral Orel, John & Scott), Tara Copeland (Baby Wants Candy, Mother, The Other Guys), Michael Delaney (Conan O’Brien, The Other Guys, The Stepfathers), and John Lutz (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, John & Scott)—as they crash improv into classic theatre scenes at actor/director Stephen Ruddy’s Gravid Water

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($6.50 online or $8 at the door): Jenny Slate (cast member of SNL, HBO’sBored to Death), Victor Varnado (Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Kimmel, Comedy Central, NBC’s My Name is Earl, Adult Swim, Comedy Central’s The Awkward Comedy Show; films Pluto Nash, End of Days,A Guy Thing), and John Elliott (musical guest visiting from LA) performing at Brooklyn’s Littlefield(622 Degraw Street) with sketches and more from a duo who between them won four 2011 ECNY Awards—including Best Variety Show and Best Hosts—Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler: Hot Tub Variety

8:00 pm ($5): Robert King performing a one-man show about growing up biracial: Halfrican American

[TOP PICK] 8:30 pm ($5): World-class storyteller Adam Wade (two-time Moth GrandSlam Storytelling Champion (2006 & 2009) and record-breaking 17-time StorySlam Champion; The New York Times Magazine; host of Real Tales of College; for Adam’s award-winning tale of being an NBC page on Conan O’Brien, please click here) hosts a show that’s “like watching the characters of The Wonder Years and Freaks & Geeks all grown up and telling coming-of-age tales of love, lost, regret, and redemption,” with tonight’s yarn-spinners Peter Aguero, Andy Ross, Tommy Pryor, Maya Genis, and Jake Goldman: Adam Wade’s Whatever Happened to the Nerds?

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Two of UCBT’s finest house sketch comedy troupes, Fambly and Neighbor Boy, trying out new bits at Maude Night

9:30 pm ($5): NYC stand-ups (not announced) performing at Brooklyn’s Freddy’s Bar (627 Fifth Avenue; take R subway to Prospect Avenue) for this free weekly show hosted by Brooke Van Poppelen (brilliant stand-up, writer, and storyteller; TLC, blogger for 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

9:30 pm ($5): This showcase for the wonderful Jen Nails’ Do It Yourself class tonight features “Marla’s life, her relationship to her doppelganger Sherman The Portuguese Water Dog, and how a prescription drug helped them survive their family:” A Little Bit of Ativan

10:00 pm ($5): Improv is dominated by guys, so this is a rare treat—a dozen female improvisors “for an evening of comedy that will delight men, women, babies, and kittens,” hosted by Megan Gray: We Might Just Kiss

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: Some of the finest stand-ups in the world—who tonight include Jessi Klein (fresh, unique, deliciously organic comic who’s one of the best stand-ups in the country; staff writer for Saturday Night Live; Comedy Central, VH1, NBC, CNN, Adult Swim), Myq Kaplan (one of the quickest minds in comedy, and rapidly rising star; finalist on most recent Last Comic Standing;Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents, hit comedy CD Vegan Mind Meld), Moshe Kasher (Comedy Central, Chelsea Lately, IFC), and Kurt Braunohler (Comedy Central; co-creator & co-star of UK TV series Penelope: Princess of Pets; co-host of Hot Tub Variety; triple 2011 ECNY Award winner)—hosted by the wonderful Leo Allen (Saturday Night Live, Conan O’Brien, HBO, Comedy Central) at Whiplash

[FREE] 11:00 pm: If you’re an audience member who loves stand-up, Monday at 11 should beWhiplash! 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 stand-up open-mic hosted by Michelle Wolf and the hilarious Erin Lennox (for a sample of Erin’s dynamite Seriously Sports show, please click here): Fresh

 For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

If you know anyone who might have a thyroid problem, please tell them about my new book: The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease.

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

If you have a thyroid, or know someone with a thyroid, please consider buying my latest book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease.

Luminous actress Julie Sharbutt performs along with Broadway and improv stars tonight at Gravid Water

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: Kevin Allison (legendary MTV sketch series The State, HBO, Comedy Central, VH1, host of award-winning storytelling show Risk!) hosts this free open-mic show for storytellers, in which you can put your name in a hat for the chance to tell a five-minute true story…and if it’s a good one, possibly be included in Kevin’s popular podcasts on the Web: Risk! Storyslam

6:30 pm & 9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): The perfect show for short attention spans—open-mic stand-up with 4½ minutes per set and 25 comics crammed into 2½ hours, with two entirely different shows back to back, performing at the Luca Lounge (222 Avenue B off 14th Street) for John Morrison’s Motel Luca

7:00 pm ($5): Comedy troupe Dept. of Etc. performing a show taking a silly look at reproduction:The Miracle of Birth

[FREE] 7:30 pm: Joe List (Comedy Central), Pat O’Shea (VH1, host of Ed Sullivan on Acid), David Foster (HBO, MTV), Robin Carson Cloud (Carolines), and Chris Laker (It Could be Better podcast) performing stand-up at a free weekly show in the Manchester Pub hosted by Phoebe Robinson:Case of the Mondays Comedy

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Broadway & off-Broadway stars Maria Dizzia (Tony nominee for In The Next Room), Carson Elrod (Reckless, Noises Off), Jenn Gambatese (Is He Dead?, Tarzan, Hairspray, All Shook Up), David Kenner (Old Wicked Songs, Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night) and Julie Sharbutt (Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night) mixing it up with some of the best  improvisors in the world—Scott Adsit (30 Rock, Moral Orel, John & Scott, Hamilton & Adsit), Tara Copeland (Baby Wants Candy, Mother, The Other Guys), Michael Delaney (Conan O’Brien, The Other Guys, The Stepfathers), Becky Drysdale (One Woman in Several Pieces, Let’s Have a Ball), and Anthony King (brilliant Artistic Director of UCBT, Reuben Williams)—as they crash improv into classic theatre scenes at actor/director Stephen Ruddy’s Gravid Water

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($6.50 online or $8 at the door): Erin Judge, Ben Kronberg, Gabe Liedman, and “a secret guest” performing at Brooklyn’s Littlefield (622 Degraw Street) with sketches and more from NYC comedy royalty Kristen Schaal and Kurt Braunohler: Hot Tub Variety

8:00 pm ($5): Robert King performing a one-man show about growing up biracial: Halfrican American

[TOP PICK] 8:30 pm ($5—with FREE PIZZA!): Sara Schaefer (staffer writer at Jimmy Fallon), Seth Herzog (staff performer at Jimmy Fallon), Joe Mande (comedy Central), and Victor Varnado (Conan O’Brien) performing stand-up at the Magnet Theatrae for Adam Lerman’s and Willy Appleman’sDeep Traffic

9:30 pm ($5): Two of UCBT’s fine house sketch comedy troupes, Fambly and Neighbor Boy, trying out new bits at Maude Night

10:00 pm ($5): Improv is dominated by guys, so this is a rare treat—a dozen female improvisors “for an evening of comedy that will delight men, women, babies, and kittens,” hosted by Megan Gray: We Might Just Kiss

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 11:00 pm: Some of the finest comics in the world—who tonight include a blowout lineup of Reggie Watts, Dave Hill, and Kumail Nanjiani—at Whiplash

[FREE] 11:00 pm: If you’re an audience member who loves stand-up, Monday at 11 should beWhiplash! 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 stand-up open-mic hosted by Michelle Wolf and the hilarious Erin Lennox (for a sample of Erin’s dynamite Seriously Sports show, please click here): Fresh

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

If you have a thyroid, or know someone with a thyroid, please consider buying my latest book The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Thyroid Disease.