Best New York Comedy

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

For comprehensive coverage of the FringeNYC 2011 Encore Series, please click here.

UCBT sketch troupe Stone Cold Fox debuts a mini-play about a Brooklyn performance project in "This Is Not Art"...

...and Sean Patton performs at UCB's wonderful new East Village comedy theatre UCBeast

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 show on a lottery system (sign-ups start at 5:30 pm) at The Creekdownstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City with hosts Mike Recine and Annie Lederman: The Shinebox

7:00 pm ($7): Sketch comedy from two friends who, by a wild coincidence, have the same name: We’re Matt Weir

7:00 pm ($8): Award-winning improv duo Lucas Kavner and Bradford Jordan make stuff up with “a celebrity guest improvisor’ at Swords, while all-gal improvisors Alexis Saarela, Brigid Boyle, Elizabeth Findlay, and Ashley Ward perform as troupe Taco Supreme

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10): UCBT house sketch troupe Stone Cold Fox “invites you to an extremely Important Theater located in an abandoned asbestos factory in Brooklyn’s Chicken Plucking District. Project Space is devoted to Art, not entertainment. But we do need money, so we’ll be presenting a preview of our upcoming season, complete with many Important Art Scenes, which are definitely not comedy sketches. Comedy sketches are not Art. Please join us for an excruciatingly important night at the theater. And please bring your checkbook” directed by Neil Casey at UCBT: Stone Cold Fox: This Is Not Art

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($10): Superb improvisors—including Fran Gillespie, Mike Still, Craig Rowin, Amber Petty, and Ashley Ward, and tonight’s guest Christina Gausas—making up a musical on the spot at the new UCBeast (Upright Citizens Brigade East Village Theatre at 155 East 3rd Street, between Avenues A & B): Diamond Lion

8:00 pm ($10): An improv troupe making up a musical on the spot after a friendly greeting: Hello

[FREE] 8:00 pm: Mike Dobbins (unique stream of consciousness comic), Chesley Calloway (co-host of Comedy as a Second Language), Leah Bonnema, and Josh Rabinowitz performing stand-up at Brooklyn’s Postmark Cafe (326 6th Street, between Fourth & Fifth Avenues) at this free biweekly show hosted by Abbi Crutchfield & Luke Thayer:  The Living Room

[FREE] 8:00 pm:Three sketch teams compete, with the winner decided by combining audience votes with that of a panel of judges. And while the votes are being tallied, a well-known sketch troupe outside of the competition will perform. Tonight’s show is part of a 15-team sketch tournament at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: The Arena Sketch League Semi-Final, Round One

[FREE] 8:00 pm: An open-mic show that’s first come, first serve (sign-ups start at 7:30 pm), with each comic getting five minutes on stage at The Creek downstairs lounge in Queens’ Long Island City: Mic and Cheese

[$] 8:30 pm & 10:30 pm ($25 & 2-drink min.): A comic’s comic who’s performed on David Letterman, Jay Leno, HBO, FX’s Louie, and three Comedy Central specials headlining tonight through Sunday at the Gotham Comedy Club: Nick DiPaolo

8:30 pm ($7): Sketch comedy interwoven with a live band: Citizen Models

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($10): Some of the finest improv in NYC from the comedy genius members of The Stepfathers

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 9:00 pm & 11:00 pm (FREE TICKETS if you reserve in advance by calling (212) 260-2445 and mention HyReviews.com, but there’s still a 2-drink min. per person): Christian Finnegan (co-star of TBS’ Are We There Yet?; three Comedy Central specials; MSNBC, VH1’s Best Week Ever, Chappelle’s Show, The Today Show), Nate Bargatze, and more performing at the only comedy club in the East Village: Eastville Comedy Club’s A-List

9:00 pm ($10): NYC stand-ups Giulia Rozzi (Jimmy Kimmel, MTV, VH1, Playgirl Magazine, co-host ofDive comedy and Stripped Stories), Greg Johnson (Sirius Radio host), and Brent Sullivan (Comedy Central; for video about crying while reading The Giving Tree, please click here) performing at the new UCBeast (Upright Citizens Brigade East Village Theatre at 155 East 3rd Street, between Avenues A & B), hosted by Caroline Creaghead: Creaghead & Company

[TOP PICK] [$] 9:30 pm ($15): Award-winning sketch troupe that uses song, movement, and clever scenarios to turn familiar situations & rituals on their head (for a video about how boys will be girls, please click here): The Harvard Sailing Team

10:00 pm ($7): Singing improvisors using an interview with an audience member to craft The Made-Up Musical

[FREE] 10:00 pm: “Improv comedy that’s all like, ‘Have you been drinking tonight, sir?’ but then is all like, ‘Lemme get a sip'” at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: Teenage Cop

[TOP PICK] 10:30 pm ($10): Jon Gabrus, Nate Lang, Craig Rowin, Matt Fisher, Fran Gillespie Sue Galloway, and other superb improvisors make up scenes about an audience member’s legal dispute at The Law Firm: Law & Disorder

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($10): Smart, fun sketch comedy in the format of a comedy talk show from host/creator Kurt Braunohler (Comedy Central, IFC, Hot Tub Variety), with tonight’s guests Tom Scharpling (The Best Show, WFMU), Lisa Delarios, and musical guest Jeffrey Lewis, plus awesome house band Adira Amram and the Experience: Night of the Living with Kurt Braunohler

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): 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), improv/sketch troupe The Beatles (Jim Santangeli, Mike Still, Achilles Stamatelaky, and Dan Klein), sketch troupe Two Fun Men (Arthur Meyer & John Haskell), Morgan Phillips as “first heckler at UCB East,” and more performing at the new UCBeast (Upright Citizens Brigade East Village Theatre at 155 East 3rd Street, between Avenues A & B): Gentrify

[TOP PICK] 11:30 pm ($5): One of the finest improvisors alive, Joe Bill (Bassprov, iO, co-founder of the Annoyance Theatre) spearheads a breathtakingly brilliant group of improvisors from Chicago and New York who’ll blow the roof off with lightning-quick dark comedy unlike anything else in NYC. Chicago-based Joe visits NYC only once a month; if he’s at this performance, upgrade it to “MEGA-TOP PICK.” Either way, the other superb players are Jordan Klepper (Klepper & Grey, iO, ), Jodi Lennon (Comedy Central’s Exit 57), Ari Voukydis (UCB instructor, VH!’s Best Week Ever), Doug Stoley (Conan O’Brien, UCB), Rick Andrews (Magnet performer), Mark Grenier (Magnet instructor), Jen Sanders (Magnet performer), and Chet Siegel (Magnet performer), all declaring Lights Out, Shirley!

[FREE] Midnight: 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

[FREE] Midnight: This show typically isn’t much fun for audience members—which is why it hasn’t been on the UCBT schedule for a long time—but it’s an amazing opportunity if you want to perform sketch for free and with almost zero hurdles on the prestigious UCBT stage. Hosted by Maude troupe Onassis: Liquid Courage

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

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