Best New York Comedy

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World-class comics, including John Lutz and Scott Adsit, collide improv into theatre at UCB West's "Gravid Water"...

...superb gal comics, including Brenna Palughi and Katharine Heller, create their own special blend of improv and theatre at Cherry Lane for "Naked in a Fishbowl"...

...and top stand-ups Jessi Klein, Anthony Jeselnik, and Myq Kaplan will gesticulate wildly tonight at "Whiplash"

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: 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] 7:00 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 The Adam Wade Show; for Adam’s award-winning tale of being an NBC page on Conan O’Brien, please click here) hosts a show at The Magnet 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 guests Erin Barker (2011 Moth GrandSlam Champion), Kyla McCracken, Kelli Porterfield, and “Uncle Frank Gauthier as Ed Sullivan:” Adam Wade’s Whatever Happened to the Nerds?

[TOP PICK] [$] 7:00 pm ($15): My #1 pick for the 2007 FringeNYC Festival, this wonderful group of actresses/improvisors portray characters as if they were in a play, but improvise everything they say and do. The luminous performers include Katharine Heller, Brenna Palughi, Lynne Rosenberg, Lauren Seikaly, and Molly Knefel, each of whom is immensely appealing and quick-witted. Further, they have an intimate, lovely chemistry with each other; and they’ve all committed to baring their personal lives, thinly disguised via their characters (hence the title’s Naked). As a result, this is one of the most honest & nuanced improvised shows you’ll ever see. The show returns tonight at the elegant Cherry Lane Theatre (38 Commerce Street, near the #1 subway’s Christopher Street stop): Naked in a Fishbowl

7:00 pm ($5): “There will be a show. It will be creepy. It will be scary. It will be in the basement. You can come, but you cannot leave…” with Sarah Nowak, Jeff Lepine, and many others performing atThe PIT downstairs lounge for this pre-Halloween sketch spook-on: The Horror

[FREE] 7:00 pm: NYC stand-ups Adrienne Iapalucci, Jessica Collazo, Tim Thomson, Justin Murray, Taylor Clark, and Janine Brito performing at a free weekly show in the Manchester Pub hosted by Phoebe Robinson: Case of the Mondays Comedy

7:00 pm & 9:00 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): The perfect show for short attention spans—open-mic stand-up with 4 minutes per set and 25 comics crammed into 2 hours—with an early show hosted by Sean Donnelly & Blaine Perry at 7:00 pm, and an entirely different group of stand-ups hosted by Dan Cartwright & Dave Greek at 9:00 pm—at the Luca Lounge (222 Avenue B off 14th Street) for John Morrison’s Motel Luca

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

[MEGA-TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Film, and Broadway & off-Broadway stars Cristin Milioti (30 Rock;Coram Boy, Lieutenant of Inishmore on Broadway), Stephen Ruddy (Skype Duet, Chekhov’s Gun), Sandy Rustin (Improv Everywhere; Fat Pig on Broadway), Julie Sharbutt (Shakespeare in the Park: Twelfth Night, Maladies), and Amy Warren (Adding Machine, August Osage County on Broadway) mixing it up with some of the greatest  improvisors in the world—Scott Adsit (30 Rock, Moral Orel, John & Scott), Michael Delaney (Conan O’Brien, Curb Your Enthusiasm, The Stepfathers), Jackie Hoffman (The Second City; Hairspray, Xanadu, The Addams Family on Broadway), and John Lutz (30 Rock, Saturday Night Live, John & Scott) as they crash improv into classic theatre scenes atUCB West for actor/director Stephen Ruddy’s Gravid Water

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($6.50 in advance online or $8 at the door—but buy online because this show will sell out): A rare NYC stage performance from comedy superstar David Cross, plus Liz Miele (Conan O’Brien) and more 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 with Kurt & Kristen

8:00 pm ($5): NYC stand-ups TBA performing at UCB East hosted by ace improvisor and aspiring stand-up Will Hines: Wheelhouse

8:00 pm ($5): The debut of a one-man show from Matt Dellapina at The PIT that “explores the illusion of success and the joy of lying:” No No No Yes

8:30 pm ($5): A Halloween show at The Magnet from Jason Blanche “featuring stand-up, sketch, dance, spooky ghosts, a fashionable zombie, and fabulous hair:” Halloween Hair-Flip; plus a one-woman show from Kelly Buttermore about how “everyone has defining moments in their lives; mine happened at a Shoney’s restaurant in Richmond, Virginia at 6:00 am:” How Did I Get Here?

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 9:00 pm: Sean Patton (red-hot rising star; killer set on Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central, VH1; co-host of Comedy as a Second Language, frequent guest-host of Whiplash), Matt McCarthy (Comedy Central, AMC, hilarious shorts with Pete Holmes for Front Page Films, national TV ads as Verizon FIOS guy, feature film The Other Guys), Seth Herzog (staff comic for Jimmy Fallon; Comedy Central, CBS, VH1, movie star; host of Sweet), Andy Ross (Onion News Network), and Luca Molandes 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, 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)—and whose birthday is tomorrow!: Dive Comedy: Giulia Pre-Birthday Edition

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): One of UCB West’s finest in-house sketch comedy troupes Fambly(spearheaded by rising star Mamrie Hart, who’s snared over 185,000 visits to date with her Harry Potter YouTube viral video), plus in-house troupe Neighbor Boy (which isn’t in the same league, but features such appealing performers as Kate Hess and Tim Dunn), trying out new bits at Maude Night

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 9:00 pm: PIT owner Ali Farahnakian and razor-sharp PIT instructors perform improv at The PIT downstairs lounge in The Faculty Part 2: Electric Boogaloo; plus improv troupe Technicolor

[FREE] 9:30 pm: Long-form improv from troupe Casual Sex Offenders at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: CSO Improv Comedy

10:00 pm ($5): Improv veterans Brandon Gardner & Chelsea Clarke hosting & performing in a show at UCB East with guest improvisors: Improv Nerds

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 performing at UCB West—who tonight are Anthony Jeselnik (one of my all-time favorite stand-ups; former writer/performer forJimmy Fallon; Conan O’Brien, HBO, Comedy Central Presents; debut comedy CD Shakespeare), Jessi Klein (fresh, unique, deliciously organic comic who’s one of the best stand-ups in the country; former 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 recentLast Comic Standing; Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents, hit comedy CD Vegan Mind Meld), Jon Benjamin (star of Comedy Central’s Jon Benjamin Has a Van), Neal Brennan (HBO, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, co-creator of Chappelle’s Show), , Prescott Tolk, and Nathan Fielder—hosted by the wonderful Leo Allen (HBO, Saturday Night Live, Conan O’Brien, Comedy Central): 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 at The PITupstairs lounge hosted by Michelle Wolf and the hilarious Erin Lennox (for a sample of Erin’s dynamite Seriously Sports show, please click here): Fresh

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