Best New York Comedy

For full details, please visit HyReviews.com.

It's a night of mystic storytelling, with stars Tom Shillue & Steve Burns at Leslie Goshko's "Sideshow Goshko"...

...and Adam Wade conducting his monthly exploration of the universe at "Tales of the Cosmos"

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:

6:00 pm ($5): The auditions of three comedic one-act plays hoping to get on the UCBT schedule, and about which I know nothing except they’re titled Commercial Interruption, Minimum Rage, andConvicts, Skinheads & Rabbis. But at $1.66 per show, it’s hard to go wrong at this frequently surprising and fun UCB West showcase: Spank

[FREE] 6:00 pm: Weekly open-mic storytelling show, with 4-5 names drawn from a bucket and each winner given a whopping eight minutes to captivate & impress, at UCB East hosted by John Flynn plus tonight’s storytelling guest Peter Aguero (Conan O’Brien, BTK Band): Oh, Hey Guys!

[FREE] 6:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up with comics drawing names from a bucket, with each chosen one receiving three minutes at The Creek’s upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City: Corby Haas

[FREE] 6:30 pm: In this free Magnet show, audience members (signing in at 6:00) can join in with improv troupe Hello Laser to make up scenes on the spot: Magnet Mixer

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($12): Leslie Goshko (delightful storyteller/stand-up; Sirius XM, Manhattan Monologue champion) hosts this monthly storytelling show, with tonight’s guests star storyteller Tom Shillue (Conan O’Brien, The Daily Show, Comedy Central Presents, 2011 ECNY Award for Best Storyteller), TV star Steve Burns (Emmy-nominated host of Blue’s Clues), and Ed Gavagan (Moth GrandSlam Champion), plus accordion playing by Dr. Michelle-Leona Godin, all at 92Y Tribeca (200 Hudson Street): Sideshow Goshko

[TOP PICK] 7:30 pm ($5): “Stories of all sizes that define our place in the universe,” hosted at UCB East by Adam Wade (two-time Moth GrandSlam Storytelling Champion (2006 & 2009) and record-breaking 17-time StorySlam Champion; The New York Times Magazine; host of hilarious monthly storytelling extravaganzas Real Tales of College and The Adam Wade show; for Adam’s award-winning tale of being an NBC page on Conan O’Brien, please click here), with tonight’s guest storytellers Brad Lawrence (two-time Moth GrandSlam Champion), Peter Aguero (Conan O’Brien, BTK Band), and Andy Ross (written for Mad Magazine, The Onion News Network): Tales of the Cosmos

7:30 pm-MIdnight ($7 for the entire evening): The Magnet co-owner helming The Armando Diaz Experience, plus house troupes The Boss, Hello Laser, Junior Varsity, Dunk performing improv, followed by improv competition Inspirado (like UCBT’s Cage Match, but with a game-like challengecomponent) with last week’s winner pitted against Friday Night Sh*w at 11:00 pm: The Magnet’s Night Out

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): “Thin Skin Jonny. They had it all. They were icons, legends, anti-folk superstars. However, tragedy struck and they broke up, citing an alleged statutory charge, gay porn addiction, and Four Loko abuse. Now, two months later, they’re back to do one last show—a benefit! Can they find a way to get along long enough to raise the money needed to re-animate the corpse of Bea Arthur? Maybe, with your help!” Performers include Ari Scott, with direction from Pam Murphy: Thin Skin Jonny: Farewell Reunion Tour

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 8:00 pm: Jared Logan (hilarious angry rising star; Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central, co-host of Righteous Kill), Mark Normand (hilarious laid-back stand-up; Last Comic Standing; co-host of Hot Soup and We’re All Friends Here), Tim Warner (podcast The Joker in the Rye), and Ruhbin Mehta (to learn how Ruhbin became a comic, please click here) performing at a new free monthly show at the Three of Cups lounge (83 First Avenue at 5th Street) hosted by Charlie Kasov & Glenn Danzig: Danzig Needs A Hug

8:00 pm ($5): Sketch/character comic Rob Lathan (Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon), and NYC stand-ups Scott Moran, Gilad Foss, Amin Makhani, Yannis Pappas, and more performing at The PITdownstairs lounge hosted by comedic rapper Andrew Singer and the delightful Abbi Crutchfield: Positively Awesome

[FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups (for tonight’s lineup, please click here) performing at The Creek’supstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City accompanied by banjo music from Doug Goldstein and hosted by Andy Kleinman: Happy Sounds Comedy

8:00 pm ($10): Musicians help inspire Improvisors to create scenes in Beauty Love Truth

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Neal Brennan (HBO, Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, co-creator ofChappelle’s Show), Barry Rothbart (Jay Leno, Comedy Central, IFC), Leo Allen (former writer forSaturday Night Live; Comedy Central Presents, Conan O’Brien, HBO’s Funny or Die, director/co-writer of Comedy Central’s Jon Benjamin Has a Van, host of top NYC comedy show Whiplash), Sarah Walker (author of Really, You’ve Done Enough: A Parents’ Guide To Stop Parenting Their Adult Child Who Still Needs Their Money But Not Their Advice who adds “I SWEAR it’s funnier than that sounds”), and Jason Good (Comedy Central, Howard Stern) performing at UCB East with best bud hosts Noah Garfinkel & Joe Mande (author of Look At This F*cking Hipster) at Totally J/K

[FREE] 9:00ish pm: Typically terrific NYC stand-ups performing on this weekly show at the Kabin Bar and Lounge hosted by Chesley Calloway and comedy genius Sean Patton: Comedy as a Second Language

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): The Emmy-winning writers of The Colbert Report gather on the UCB West stage to perform an all-improvised show at Seize the Mustard

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Jimmy Fallon writer Casey Jost performs a one-man show at The PIT in which he plays a myriad of characters revolving around the theme music: Fooling Around with Casey Jost

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm (no cover, 1-item min.): Wyatt Cenac (star correspondent for The Daily Show), Jacqueline Novak, Ken Schulz, and more performing at Luca Lounge (222 Avenue B off 14th Street) for Sean Crespo’s & Carol Hartsell’s weekly comedy show Lasers in the Jungle

9:30 pm ($5): Improvisors (not announced) make up one-act plays on the spot at The PITdownstairs lounge for The Scene

[FREE] 9:30 pm: A monthly showcase of both stand-ups and improvisors at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens’ Long Island City, hosted by stand-up Zach Broussard and improv troupe Beekeeper: Pig Pile

[TOP PICK] 11:00 pm ($5): Stellar improv troupe Rogue Elephant competing with challenger Fuck That Shit for audience laughs and votes at UCB West’s raucous Cage Match

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Weekly open-mic stand-up show, with each comic given five minutes, at UCB East hosted by Rob Stern & Amber Nelson: Gutbucket

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