Archive for the 'Comedy' Category

Only at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre can you start a show 30 minutes late & nobody gives a damn! My only guess is that everybody knows they’re about to see a raunchy, hilarious show- and this was no exception.

UPLATE! with Lord Voldemort was a Harry Potter spoof in the form of a late night talk show to celebrate the long awaited release of the final Harry Potter book. This “live taping” was complete with Lord Voldemort as the host with his trusty sidekick Wormtail at his side and (of course) the obvious late night talk show band.

The costumes & makeup were horrible & atrocious in the BEST possible way- smiles were beaming at the campy & half-assed quality of it all.

So, Voldie was convinced that the Harry Potter series was his own biography (not a story about our beloved HP) & he hasn’t even read the books! He must be the only one in the entire world (including Muggles & Wizarding folks). He & Ms. Rowling had a little disagreement over who’d been through the darkest times.

According to He Who Must Not Be Named, the studio set was actually IN Hogwarts, but “it was enchanted to look like a comedy theatre set in a grocery store basement”. The audience was seated in the four houses of Hogwarts. (I was in Slytherin- gulp!) The show’s producer kept having to interrupt the Dark Lord to remind him that the word Mudblood was not politically correct and, of course, to keep giving airtime to the important corporate sponsors of the wizarding community.

Special guest stars included J. K. Rowling, The Boy Who Lived (aka Harry Potter), Ron & Hermione, the Weasley Twins & Professor Snape. Oh & guess what?!- Sirius Black had a makeover into a dancin’ pimp daddy & was working for the show as a bodyguard.

A few crowd favorite moments were:
1) The sorting hat, which was rigged on a simple rope & pulley system & just ALMOST worked. A few lucky audience members were selected to be sorted into the appropriate Hogwarts houses.

2) Erotic Reading by Professor Snape, which believe it or were dirty stories taken from real internet postings of X-rated adventures betwixt our Hero Harry & the despised Draco Malfoy. It’s kinda funny to see what people write about on the internet, a bit disturbing, but quite funny nonetheless- crowd was groaning, grimacing and smiling all the way through.

3) Those jokester Weasley twins were at it again with their own rendition of Who’s On First, but of course the sport in question was Quidditch. What’s on the Quaffle?! And, Who’s the Seeker anyway?!

And I can’t forget…

4) The Video Tribute to Albus Dumbeldore set to Boyz II Men’s “It’s So Hard To Say Goodbye to Yesterday”, detailing his life through the familiar JK Rowling inspired events & then some epic events that I didn’t remember him attending, but I’m sure were completely accurate (MLK speech, Tenement Square, Abu Ghraib & so on)

Overall, OMG, seriously- why was it one night only? It was so funny I would see it again. Do it again! Do it again! Do it again!

I didn’t know what to expect from Freestyle Love Supreme at Ars Nova. I knew Shockwave (Chris Sullivan) would be showcasing his awesome beatbox and improv skills, but that was about it. I had never been to Ars Nova before and it’s a hip little place, which was a complete surprise because the street where it’s located is pretty unimpressive.
There was already a crowd in the lobby when I arrived. Lucky for me, I had reserved a ticket in advance because the people standing in front of me in line were told the show was sold out, but they could be put on a wait list. They happily agreed to wait.
The crowd was full of mostly hip looking young people that all seemed to know one another. There was a real sense of community; you know that feeling you get when you go to a show and it’s obvious that a lot of the people there have been there before and think of the show as their own
discovery? There was a collective anticipation that something amazing was about to take place. It was indeed the funnest show ever!
Freestyle Love Supreme is freestyle musical improv comedy and it feels so fresh and original. They do comedic totally made up freestyles based on suggestions from the audience and I’ve never seen anything like it. They freestyled about Harry Potter; Jean-Claude Van Damme;
Flint, Michigan. There was a whole song about porn taken from the performers’ true life stories. I especially enjoyed UTK the INC (Utkarsh Ambudkar), who did an amusing bit about discovering porn on the internet and watching videos while his girlfriend was away.
Nothing is as funny as the truth and there was so much relatable truth in this show. They brought an audience member onstage and asked her about her day and freestyled about that. Two-Touch (Anthony Veneziale), the charismatic host, interviewed the for some reason reluctant audience member. She volunteered, so I don’t know why she was giving such vague answers and being so standoffish. Regardless, the results were really funny and Two-Touch had a great sense of humor about it, so what could have been a lost moment in the show turned out to be one of the funniest. Then they acted out her day. Shockwave provided the beats and movements as her body and Lin-Man (Lin-Manuel Miranda) was her mind, so he provided the words with the other guys interjecting as the different characters in her world. It was hilarious.
The great thing about this show was that there was no weak link. The music, the beatboxing, the freestyling and the comedy were all successful. The performers were all equally smart, confident, and funny. J-Soul (James Monroe Iglehart) was impressive in what was apparently his first full show with the guys. As a group, they were so talented that they made it look easy and the crowd was completely enamored with the performers. The audience was so completley engaged the entire time. I cannot stress this point enough: they had us for the whole time!! That is a very rare thing in comedy, especially improv. I didn’t feel like there was a noticeable low point in the action at all. It was incredible.
FLS is on their way to the Just For Laughs Comedy Festival in Montreal from July 12-22. So unless you can swing a trip to Montreal to see them (which I actually considered after seeing this show) you’ll have to wait till they get back. Keep checking their website for upcoming dates!! You will not be disappointed.

Our nemesis, The Cool Kid’s Club threatened to beat us up after school if we didn’t tell everyone about their amazing show:

• “Cool Kid’s Club is a raucous live commentary show on vintage educational shorts. You’ll laugh as you learn about everything from personal hygiene to the rubber industry. It’s a can’t-miss-public-domain-laugh-riot starring Jeff Rubin (CollegeHumor.com), Dan Hopper (A Week of Kindness), Matt Esolda (matthewkpresents.com), Kevin Haulihan (Best Week Ever), and Steve Menegozzi (thisisalow.com). Holy crap have you gotta see this show.” [details]

WANT TO SEE IT FOR FREE?????

It’s contest time. Write a caption for the following photo (a still from one of the Cool Kid’s Club movies).
The answer that makes me laugh the loudest will will a pair of tickets to see the show on May 29th.

Send Entries to FREE@uncoolkids.com

PS: If you were on the UNCOOLKIDS Mailing List, you would’ve heard about this yesterday.

It was Friday May 18, otherwise known as Sweet Paprika’s Gay in May show! Yay! Allison Castillo and Ophira Eisenberg host this weekly comedy show at The D-Lounge, a cabaret lounge located in the basement beneath The Daryl Roth Theatre. I wasn’t expecting such a swanky space; I figured it would be more like…well, a basement. It was actually pretty nice. The only problem? I didn’t know there was a 2 drink minimum and I’m cheap so this kind of bummed me out, but the prices aren’t outrageous. $5 beers and $6-8 mixed drinks so it certainly didn’t ruin my evening.

Allison and Ophira have two traditions at their weekly show: get dressed up and get drunk. Honestly, I wasn’t so impressed with them at first; they seemed like they were trying too hard (love me! won’t you please love me!), but I liked them more as the night went on and they settled down. Ophira was the funnier of the pair, but they were both likeable.

The problem with this show was that the performances were uneven. Keith Price and Adam Sank made me laugh, but Anne Neczypor did not. She seemed inexperienced and perhaps a bit uncomfortable. Mike Albo did a sort of spoken word theatrical performance of conversations he’s heard in the city. I thought he was hilarious, but my friend thought he was being too mean. The audience seemed to have mixed reactions to everything.

The highlight of this show? Pepper Mills! She rocked out with her renditions of Burning Down the House and We’ve got Tonight. She brought some much needed energy back in the room and ended the night on a high note.

While it wasn’t the best comedy show I’ve seen in recent weeks, I would definitely give Sweet Paprika another try.

Being “uncool” is kinda cool these days. Page through The Hipster Handbook, and you’ll embrace the fact that you suck at sports, read books, and wear glasses. We at Uncool Kids try to take back the word “uncool,” embracing our dorky tendencies to watch Broadway shows, promote cartoons as art, watch vampire movies, walk around with art on our head, actually enjoy taking quizzes, stalk cheesy sitcom stars, watch polo, and obsess over comic books. As a runty underdog myself, I can tell you it’s taken quite a few years to get past all the scar tissue of youth and embrace my nerdiness. I have stacks of diaries to prove it—and so do the self-derogating people at Cringe.

The first Wednesday of every month, young adults flock to Freddy’s Bar and Backroom over in New York’s safe haven for the coolest of the uncool—Brooklyn. At around 9 PM, Cringe begins as “brave souls come forward and read aloud from their teenage diaries, journals, notes, letters, poems, abandoned rock operas, and other general representations of the crushing misery of their humiliating adolescence.”

“It’s better and cheaper than therapy,” boasts the Cringe website. After all, it makes you feel better to know that you weren’t the only kid to have a “Kick Me” sign taped to your back. And that maybe—just maybe—some people even had it worse than you did. Avenue Q—I told you we like Broadway plays—has a whole song about that.

Most of the crowd at Cringe look like they aren’t all that far removed from their years of dorkdom. And, actually, quite a few of them look like the Plastics that accentuated the fact that you weren’t cool. Their idea of a cringe-worthy diary entry would be gushing over some boy who their friends later deemed as lame. The backroom of Freddy’s was crammed full of apple-faced blondes and stylishly nerdy brunettes that looked like they came to Cringe as a study break from Lit 101.

The room was so full that I was relegated to cower in the stairwell with the other unfortunate losers. It was so unbearably hot down there, I started sweating like it was down to me and one other kid waiting to see who would get picked last in gym class. The pretty girl in front of me had some sort of oriental fan. I figured she probably had been here before. The room was probably full of regulars, and here I was—by myself, in the corner.

It makes sense that there’d be a lot of regulars. Cringe has been held at Freddy’s since April 2005. Everyone from “ABC Nightline” (see the video here) and “Newsweek” to “Time Out New York” and “Spin” has covered Cringe. (“This American Life” covered a similar show called Mortified.) Next month, Cringe will be held in London.

May 9th’s reading featuring a hysterical story—slurpily told in character as her younger self with braces—about a girl who in trying to achieve her “goal to masturbate and squirt tonight” almost catches her house on fire. She waxes philosophical when her parents get her priest involved

Like it’s a sin to touch yourself. What shit is that? Catholics are crazy. Mary had a baby, and you’re going to tell me she never masturbated.

Another reader was John Sellers, author of the recently released book Perfect from Now On: How Indie Rock Saved My Life. …Apparently, Sellers didn’t always have good taste in music. In his 1983 journal, “document of my geekness,” he writes a whole section on how is favorite rock group is Journey. He also write about how he loves the Wizardry videogame, how inflation has affected prices at Showbizz Pizza, and how he wishes Abraham Lincoln had never lived because then he wouldn’t have to memorize the Gettysburg Address.

So yeah, it’s worth going to Cringe even if you have to stand in the back by the aquarium of frogs.

I’m wondering if there is some unwritten book of code for improv houses/basement comedy shows. For example:

People’s Improv Theatre: West 29th Street, above a sushi restaurant

Upright Citizens’ Brigade: West 26th Street, next to a Gristedes

PIT admission: $5

UCB admission: $5-$8

PIT theatre access: hike upstairs to purchase tickets

UCB theatre access: watch line snake downstairs as you wait for your tickets

PIT theatre gripes: a wee bit chilly

UCB theatre gripes: supportive beams that hinder visibility

PIT VIP service: buy warm beer at ticket counter

UCB VIP service: buy warm beer at ticket counter

PIT claims to fame: photos on walls, ranging from Steve Buscemi to Mariska Hargitay to Lisa Gastineau, you know, of the notorious Gastineau girls…what do you mean you never watched that show?

UCB claims to fame: everyone

PIT attire: frayed jeans, old tee’s, vintage Chuck T’s (yes! uncool factor), throwback corduroys, unwashed hair…

UCB attire: unwashed jeans, throwback tee’s, old Chuck T’s, frayed hair….

PIT courses: $333 dollars for weekly introductory improv course

UCB courses: $325 dollars for weekly introductory improv course. If you purchase a Starbucks before class, it all evens out.

The PIT, however, hosts an event called The Liar Show, in which the director invites three people to tell their most absurd, outlandish, and literally unbelievable stories to an audience, while images of infamous Liars flash in the background (Nixon, Bill O’Reilly, James Frey to name a few). Afterwards the audience members are allowed to ask questions, in attempts to poke holes through the stories, and then vote on who they believe is the Liar. The winners get PIT T-shirts.

Last night we were ushered in just a minute before 7 p.m. and were ushered out barely forty five minutes later. Remember in college when your well-meaning but rambling professor would say, “Oh dear…I’m afraid I’ve run over and the next class has to come in?” That’s basically what happened. The PIT’s schedule is so packed that the show wasn’t given enough time.

I once read an article in a women’s magazine, before I quit women’s magazines (along with designer coffee and a bad boyfriend), that said that people who lie always give too many details. Armed with this info, I thought I would be able to nab the liars. But all three stories were very detailed.  I kept thinking, “You can’t make this stuff up.” 

The first storyteller, Brian, told a really funny story about his attempt to renovate an independent theater in Haverhill, Massachusetts, with hopes to subsequently revitalize the town. His plans were foiled when he kept giving away free tickets, to “plant the seeds” of marketing. Then he enlisted the help of a comedy group named “Mrs. Potato Head” who performed a skit entitled “Sore From Fucking.” Brian was possibly lying.

The second storyteller, named Sara, recounted her experiences trying to find a New York City apartment on craigslist with her salary as a store greeter for Banana Republic. She found a dream deal in Park Slope. But the tenants - her future roommates - were an attractive forty-something investment banker and his teenage girlfriend named Seng-Yi who didn’t speak a word of English and who, by the way, cleaned the house naked, per his request. The story sounded crazy, but having gone through my share of craigslist encounters, I couldn’t peg Sara as the Liar.

Finally, the last potential Pinocchio, named H.R., began by telling us about his obsession with the movie “The Graduate”. Then he told a story about his affair with an older woman he met during his first summer in New York, and how he fell so head over heels in love with her that he didn’t go back to school in Wisconsin the following year. He proposed and she gently pointed out that they were at very different places in their lives. He moved out of her apartment and wound up finishing school. The whole thing was not unbelievable. But he was so verbose - his language was almost - and I hate this word - “flowery” - that I figured he might be fudging the details and thought maybe he wouldn’t have gotten laid if he was a hardwood floor plank.

Only a few people asked investigative questions, and one of the questions was “H.R., have you ever told your girlfriend that story?” to which H.R. replied, “No.” Turns out the girl who asked that question was his girlfriend, and she didn’t seem happy.

The director then took our ballots, announced that The Liar was H.R., and handed us our t-shirts. The T-shirt was well worth the five dollar ticket. But I would’ve liked to have seen the event stretch a little longer.

I’ve been too busy to review actual events lately because I’ve been entranced by the barely hetero love-fest that is Mancrush. Check it out, and not that I want to influence your vote in any way, but Henry Rollins fucking rules.

“If pain is comedy than high school was hilarious”- So states the tagline for this improvised homage to everything for which John Hughes stood.  Teen Movie High is an hour long improvised tour de force of ridiculousness.  And for anyone who considers Sixteen Candles and Weird Science timeless classics- this show will blow your fragile little mind!

The evening started out with director, Karen Herr, greeting the audience.  Then the cast brought out the Wheel of Sub Genres.  They picked an audience member to come up and spin the wheel to determine what sub genre the evening’s performance would be based on. 

Bonus:  they actually picked my girlfriend to spin the wheel!  As a special treat they gave her a six pack of Budweiser tall boys to enjoy during the show. It was like Christmas and my birthday all rolled up in one beery package! 

The sub genre we were treated to was, ”A day in the Life.”  Think:  Breakfast Club, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Can’t Hardly Wait, etc…  The show started out as the valedictorian, who for 4 years had been crushing on the hot, Big Man On Campus, declares that at tonight’s graduation party she’ll finally get her man! 

From there it was a carousel of clichés reinvented on the spot to side splitting effect:  There was an “accidental” lesbian moment; stoners getting’ lit up and crying as they watch The Land Before Time; a streaking scene that ended badly in a corn field; much beer drinking and light vomiting. 

Each of the six performers were obviously skilled improvisers.  Even though they occasionally cracked each other up, none of them ever broke character. 

They kept the action moving forward even while incorporating the unexpected, like working performer, Mark Lampert’s, constant stream of sweat into a makeout scene.  Trust me it was gross, but it totally worked. 

Period perfect music cues, like “Don’t You Forget About Me” and “Afternoon Delight” added an extra layer to the surreal hilarity of the performance.   

In the end the girl got the boy, the boy grew as a person and I got to drink free beers.  It was a happy ending for all. 

For $10 (3$ for students) you can’t go wrong.  It shows every Friday at Gotham City Improv,on 21st street, at 8:30pm.  It’s perfectly timed between happy hour and a late night supper.  AND… they’ve just been extended through June!  So go check ‘em out. 

For tickets call- 646.258.6727 or click here. 

In my opinion, sex, literature, and laughter are all very good things. So, in an attempt to titillate my brain, I stopped by the In the Flesh Erotic Reading Series hosted by the erotic writer/editor and BJ afficionado, Rachel Kramer Bussel (who is also a lovely individual). I’m pleased to report that it surpassed all of my expectations.

All the writers who read were good or great. From stories of accidentally winding up in a porn with Annie Sprinkles, to “the time I banged a clown,” nearly everything had me either crying with laughter or honestly touched. Stories of sloppy sex elicited goofy grins, while hearfelt examinations of ones own sluttiness had me sighing with sympathy. Rachel really does a fabulous job of bringing together a solid group of erotic readers without ever dipping into the seediness or fakey cheese-factor I tend to associate with all things porn.

The crowd was packed into the space, seemed fixated on the speakers the entire time, and were obviously having a good time. If you’re cruising for swingers or someone to give you a different sort of happy ending, you might find a few freaks (I mean that in the nicest possible way) in the crowd, but most people just seemed like highly-literate, normal, geeky people who happen to enjoy sex and fun.

The series is hosted every 3rd Wednesday of the month (so check your calendar) in the upstairs bar section of Happy Ending (at Forsythe and Broome), the vibe of which–like high school sex on a summer night in the back of your Dad’s Buick–was dark, hot, sweaty, cramped, and hilariously awkward. While a more comfortable space would have been nice, I’d hate to see the vibe ruined by a less intimate space, so as long as it stays there suck it up and go early for a good seat.

Pretty people: there will be ugly people there, and they probably have more and better sex than you. It’s true. If this bothers you, please don’t go. As for the rest of you, I’ll probably see you there next time.

Thanks for the photo Viviane. For more pics check out http://www.flickr.com/photos/brianvan/sets/72157600109296432/

Psssstttttt, hey there… yah, you… apparently there’s a secret universe unbeknownst to the rest of us – some sort of underground clown culture that is truly a world of its own.

I had the dorky pleasure of experiencing this at The New York Downtown Clown Revue on April 16th. I am NOT a clown, so I decided that the next best thing was to watch the show WITH a clown, so I spent the evening hanging with my clown friend Funny Honey and watching her reactions.

I was greeted at the door by a creepy, drooling zombie-like clown that started following me, and after a brief moment of almost frantically running for my life in the opposite direction, I decided that I must be in the right place.

Christopher Lueck, host and producer of the show, explained that this was a Clown Playground of sorts where the goal is to present the broadest range of clowning styles, sort of like a workshop where clowns can explore their craft. So, the revue is different every time with new performers. Amanda Pekoe, another producer watched the show with the audience. Most of the audience consisted of members of the clown community (and then there was me!).First up was DZIECI. Picture an entire chorus full of bucktoothed, burlap-swaddled odd- looking characters singing in 4 part harmony. WHAT REALITY DID I FALL INTO?? They were acting out an innocent sacrificial lamb sacrifice (puppet lamb of course). Funny Honey squeals, “Hahaha- I love puppets!” in her adorable sing-songy voice. I smile.

Suddenly the lamb talks them into an innocent HUMAN sacrifice instead, followed by the group chasing the poor biggest dumb guy through & on top of the audience (quite literally). The audience clowns were laughing and I was giggling in spite of myself.

I honestly felt quite guilty watching and laughing at them because they kinda seemed like a group of retarded children. A friendly clown audience member explained to me that that was indeed the point- this Grotowski inspired style of clowning intentionally breaks all the rules to take you to a deeper realm of gutteral, more primal performance, where uncomfortable reactions from the audience are a good thing. Apparently this form of performance is rare and seeing DZIECI perform was actually a unique privilege.

Brent McCoy was a more traditional type of clown in big pants and suspenders and it was fun to watch him juggle 3 orange traffic cones while balancing 2 on his head. Dottie Lux performed a hot little burlesque number in clown face- she can really work a crowd and a pair of fishnets and pasties.

Ariane Anthony (pictured above) gave a quirky-fun performance/lecture on the earth’s animals and environmental concerns while intentionally sharing the most unsexy cabaret number ever known in the history of cabaret numbers, complete with briefcase, librarian glasses and clown nose. (Go Ariane for bringing awareness to earth/animal issues in a creative way- as a tree/bunny hugger- I was quite impressed!)

My absolute favorite clown act of the evening was Mark Gindick. This extremely physical performance started with air guitar and transitioned into body guitar when dance partner Kathryn Fraggos joined him on stage. Soon they were awing us with lifts and twirls in true ice-skater fashion to a crazy version of “Roxanne”. Kudos to choreographer, Wendy Seyb.

Overall: A few of the performances went on a tad too long, but they were all pretty cool and creative. For clowns it’s clownarific! For general public its dorky fun. For boring, stupid or high-falutin’ people it would be something to avoid at all costs. So, if all the world’s a stage & everyone’s a clown, go dust off that silly old red clown nose & make somebody smile. The New York Downtown Clown Revue happens on the 3rd Monday of every month.