Last updated Thursday, August 28th 2008
Note: To go directly to tonight's NYC Comedy Picks, please click here.
The FringeNYC 2008 festival is over, but a dozen of its shows will be living on via the FringeNYC Encore Series running August 28 through September 16th. For details—including a discount code that lets you order tickets online with no service charge—please click here.
For assorted news & tips—such as where to find a FringeNYC 2008 show that's being extended outside of the Encore Series—please click here.
The FringeNYC Awards Winners include China: The Whole Enchilada, Love is Dead: A NecRomantic Musical Comedy, Sailor Man, Hot Cripple, Gem!: A Truly Outrageous Parody, There Will Come Soft Rains, Zombie, and The Fabulous Kane Sisters in Box Office Poison. For complete details, please click here.
With the time pressures of the festival over, I'll be slowly but steadily filling in missing show ratings and reviews. Meanwhile, for a rated & ranked list of most of the 67 shows I've caught to date, please click here; and for reviews (including write-ups of five Encore Series shows), please click here.
A scene from Michael Laurence's Krapp, 39, one of
the dozen shows extended for the FringeNYC 2008 Encore Series
For NYC comedy info, please keep reading this home page.
Tonight's Hot Comedy Picks: Thursday, August 28th
Photo on left: Rebekka Johnson, Kimmy Gatewood, and Sarah Lowe
Photo on right: Sarah Lowe, Rebekka Johnson, and Kimmy Gatewood
The Apple Sisters: The Musical
The delicious Apple Sisters—Kimmy Gatewood, Rebekka Johnson, and Sarah Lowe, with Tom Thomsen on keyboard—have sung, danced, and naughtily joked their ways into New York City's heart. This homage to 1940s girl groups like The Andrew Sisters has been one of the great successes of 2007, having done 10 original shows, sold-out performances at comedy festivals around the country, and recently winning the 2008 ECNY Award for Best Musical Comedy Act.
Tonight the gals have put together their best bits, along with new material, to create a laugh-packed musical running over an hour. Featuring FDR, pickles, and God, it's full of fun and surprises.
From the official description: "The Apple Sisters are Candy, Cora, and Seedy. Their mother, Ms. Reddy Apple, was a vaudeville star and she passed down the legacy to her three girls! The trio present their live show, broadcast on WXYZ AM Radio, straight to the troops in Germany, and present the show on stage at the Peoples Improv Theater in their first and favorite home, the Big Apple! Be a chum and always use Doramad Toothpaste, now with Thorium!"
To get a feel for the production, please click here & here & here & here.
The show tends to sell out, so it's recommended you buy an advance ticket
online ($9.19, including service charge) by clicking here.
8:00 pm at The Peoples Improv Theater, 154 West 29th Street; tickets are $8 at the door
vs. 
Cage Match: Death by Roo Roo vs. Krompf
This delightful show pits two improv teams against each other while creating the
atmosphere of a professional wrestling arena—and providing such side-shows
as a bout to the death between guys costumed as an alcoholic wolf and TV's Alf.
(For a spirited weekly report on the wrestling aspect of Cage Match, please click here.)
The current reining champ at Cage Match is arguably the gutsiest improv group in NYC: Death by Roo Roo, consisting of uniformly brilliant comics Anthony Atamanuik, Neil Casey, Jackie Clarke, Brett Gelman, John Gemberling, and Curtis Gwinn. So far this season, DBRR has trounced 14 troupes in a row—tying the all-time record for winning streaks set by Optimist International in 2002! And this juggernaut doesn't merely walk over opponents, it pounds them into the ground: DBRR has won a total of 1,367 audience votes vs. a mere 588 for all its opponents combined.
Tonight's contender is another of NYC's very best comedy troupes: Krompf, consisting of Neil Casey (who happens to also be a member of Death by Roo Roo, and just completed starring in the FringeNYC play Untitled Masterpiece), Ryan Karels, Amey Goerlich, and Joe Wengert (member of UCBT's star improv troupe Reuben Williams). At a memorable 2007 appearance on Cage Match, these improvisors took the kickoff suggestion Christendom to heights of delicious absurdity, in which young children about to be initiated into Catholicism are made to wear suits of armor and engage in swordplay while a voracious winged monster (played memorably by Ryan Karels) perches ready to gobble up the head of any who show hints of wavering. And in another subplot, Neil Casey was hilarious as a perpetually grieving cab driver who tells every passenger about his bride dying on their wedding day. At the end, we learn that as he backed up the cab preparing to drive them both to the Church, he accidentally ran her over...
With two such brilliant teams competing—not to mention, with Neil Casey being on both of them, effectively fighting himself—this show promises to be special and memorable.
There's no telling what'll happen...which is one of the great pleasures of this extravaganza.
11:00 pm at UCBT, 307 West 26th Street (off 8th Avenue); tickets are $5
Great Inexpensive Live Comedy
For other terrific low-cost NYC comedy, please visit the Web sites of
Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre
Comedy Club Discounts
If you'd enjoy an elegant evening at an NYC comedy club
but also want to save some money, please click here.
Currently available are discounts for select shows at the Comix Comedy Club
and a 50% discount on all tickets for the Broadway Comedy Club.
Upcoming Hot Club Show: Comix Musical Revue
($10 off the $20 cover charge for HyReviews.com readers before day of show)
For Video Clips of the Month (featuring clips from FringeNYC 2008 shows), please click here.
For previous top video picks, please click here.
To explore other NYC theatre and comedy sections of HyReviews.com, please click here
(or use the search box and/or site index below).
Best FringeNYC 2008 Show Promos & Sneak Peeks
Carl and Shelly, Best Friends Forever
Kansas City or Along the Way: "Lullaby" (audio only)
The Sound of One Hanna Clapping: "Ode to Britney" (audio only)
The Home for Wayward Girls and Fallen Women
Kansas City or Along the Way: "Hammer" (audio only)
Kansas City or Along the Way: "Adelaide Hall" (audio only)
Dreadful Penny's Exquisite Horrors
Usher: "I Might Have Taken You Dancing"
Please check out these New York City theatre sections of HyReviews.com:
FringeNYC 2007 Performer's Gallery
Hy on Theatre Discounts: See Great Shows for as Little as $3.50
Please also check out these comedy sections of HyReviews.com:
Previous Nightly NYC Live Comedy PIcks
Previous Video Clips of the Month
UCBComedy.com: A New Force for Comedy on the Web
Comedy in the Moment: The Annual Del Close Improv Marathon
Comedy Scene by Scene: SketchFest NYC 07
Shockingly Delightful: Offensive Fest 2007
Show Reports: Kristen Schaal Dave Hill Andy Blitz
Show Reports: Kumail Ali (formerly Nanjiani) Invite Them Up
And if you need any help with a book or a screenplay, please visit Hy's writer sites:
Previous Video Clips of the Month
Getting Canceled...and Starting Over
The Unsettling Artistry of Comedy Troupe Quiet Library
Violet Krumbein and Greg Tuculescu
Quiet Library: Chris Cooper, David Hale, Dave Cederquist, & Greg Tuculescu
Parents of Miss Teen South Carolina
Miss Teen South Carolina vs. Bush
Rob Paravonian
Life as a Comic: College Conventions
Life as a Comic: Downtown Comedy
Life as a Comic: Guitar Comics
Memorable Award Show Moments
Conan O'Brien, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert at the 2006 Emmys
Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, and Steve Carell at the 2007 Emmys
Jon Stewart's Opening Monologue at the 2008 Academy Awards
Jon Stewart Presenting a Baby at the 2008 Academy Awards
Sarah Silverman: I'm F*cking Matt Damon
For Jimmy Kimmel's Fifth Anniversary show,
his long-time girlfriend Sarah Silverman
gave him a video gift.
To enjoy it yourself, please click here.
Most Concise & Dead-On Explanation of the Strike
Tim Kazurinsky Succinctly Explains the Strike
Neal Pollack's 5-Year-Old Elijah Explains the Strike
David Letterman Explains the Producers' Side of the Strike
Tim Carvell & Jason Ross of The Daily Show on Viacom Paradox
Yet More Paradox in Voices of Uncertainty
Family Guy's Seth MacFarlane on the Strike
David Letterman—Bless Him—Negotiates Separate Deal with WGA
(news article about why you should tune into new episodes of Late Show with David Letterman starting 1/2/08)
Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Jon Stewart, and Stephen Colbert—Bless Them—Facing Tougher Situation
(New York Times article about these comedy genius writer/performers also returning to the air, but sans writing staffs)
A Ninja Offers Advice to the Writers Guild
How Moonlighting Handled the Writers Strike of 1988
For the Best Strike Coverage: Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily
Don't Rape Me (played on rape whistle)
What Shoulda Happened... (co-starring Eugene Mirman)
Aziz Stand-Up #1 (Kanye West & Val Kilmer)
Aziz Stand-Up #2 (Enemies List)
Aziz Stand-Up #3 (Gay Marriage)
Aziz on Amateurish YouTube Editing
Complete Stand-Up Routine (MP3 audio clip)
(If you don't happen to know your Betty Boop, please click the links above
to play three 1930s cartoon gems. Each one starts out slowly,
but please be patient and watch all the way through...and then observe
what happens to your mind after experiencing these black & white dreams.)
(uncooperative animated characters)
First four minutes of Sacha Baron Cohen's Borat
Borat interviewed by Jon Stewart
Sacha Baron Cohen torturing supermarket manager
Borat Q&A at Toronto Film Festival
Chad Vader, Day Shift Manager:
Amanda Congdon Bids Farewell to Rocketboom
Amanda Explains Things on MSNBC
(The lovely and super-talented Amanda Congdon's split
with her producer Andrew Baron has been the focus of the
biggest soap opera to hit the Web since Microsoft vs. Google.
If this drama has somehow slipped by you, these clips cover the highlights.)
(animated music video you're unlikely to forget...no matter how hard you may try...)
(comedian Judson Laipply dances through several musical generations—in just six minutes)
(actual deposition conducted in April 2006 by famed Texas attorney Joe Jamail)
(investigative videojournalists uncover the true-life Springfield)
(the secret Brokeback trilogy)
(Jewish comic Sacha Baron Cohen—a.k.a. Borat and Ali G—shines a light on anti-semitism)
Rainbow, a 1972-1992 UK version of Sesame Street
(shot for the show's 1979 Christmas party; and the funniest children's TV episode, ever...)
(infamous deleted scene from March of the Penguins)
Jack Nicholson's Heartwarming New Dramedy
Hy's Book Proposal & Script Analysis Services
Hy Bender (who runs this NYC comedy & theatre Web site for free) also runs two commercial editorial services: HyOnYourBook.com for anyone with a strong nonfiction book idea who needs expert help creating a winning book proposal, and HyOnYourScript.com for writers seeking expert analysis and repair for their screenplays. More specifically:
HyOnYourBook.com: Hy is the author of 14 acclaimed
books—including
five Dummies books, and The Sandman Companion—that
have sold hundreds of thousands of copies. Hy has also been published
by such diverse national newspapers & magazines as The New York Times,
American Film, Advertising Age, PC Magazine, Yahoo! Internet Life, Spy,
and Mad Magazine. If you have a solid idea for a nonfiction book, Hy is
a wizard at identifying the best aspects of your book and presenting them
in a compelling book proposal to attract agents and convince publishers.
To learn more, please click here.
HyOnYourScript.com: Hy has analyzed and helped fix hundreds of screenplays. He runs the respected Manhattan screenwriters workshop NYScreenwriters.org; and you can find testimonials on his HyOnYourScript.com site from clients who are produced Hollywood screenwriters, represented by agencies such as ICM, etc. If you're developing a screenplay, there's no one better than Hy at pointing out problems and suggesting ways to improve your work both artistically and commercially. To learn more, please click here.
If you have any other type of writing or editing need, Hy can probably tackle it as well. To get in touch, please write to email address hy@hyreviews.com.
Hy's Other Web Sites:
Copyright © 2008 Hy Bender
Email: hy@hyreviews.com