HyReviews.com: NYC Comedy, NYC Theatre Discounts, Comedy Videos, Jokes, and More

From legendary NYC comedy site Brooklyn Vegan: If you want to know what is happening in NYC comedy on a particular day, you gotta get hip to this dude Hy Bender and his site Best New York Comedy (or HyReviews.com). The site is updated daily and features a super exhaustive look at what is happening in the NYC comedy world that particular day. The site is updated religiously...It is your daily comedy itinerary and it scares me how on top of his shit this guy is.

Anthony Atamanuik is imprisoned on the UCB East stage at tonight's The Tony Show;
Henry Zebrowski, co-star of Adult Swim's Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell, talks pop culture at Comic Book Club

(in chronological order, with top picks noted and shows over $10 marked with $) include:

[TOP PICK] [ALMOST FREE] 6:00 pm ($1): In this delightful weekly open-mic show, each comic has 3 minutes to try out a character-based bit (e.g., for a solo show, sketch, or audition) at The PIT downstairs lounge, hosted by Jen Kwok (Comedy Central) and Keisha Zollar (Doppelganger): Imposter Open Mic

6:00 pm (no cover, 1 drink min. for both comics and audience members): Open mic stand-up providing 5-7 minutes per comic, running 2 1/2 hours. Arrive 30 minutes before the show to get on the signup sheet. This is a fine opportunity to perform at the only comedy club in the East Village: Eastville Comedy Club Open Mic

[FREE] 6:15 pm: Open mic for comedy of all types providing 2 minutes for each performer (with sign-up starting at 6:00) at Queens LIC's The Creek upstairs theatre hosted by Jay Dean and Tynan DeLong: Two Nice Guys Open MIc

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm-Midnight ($7 for the whole evening): In this 5-hour extravaganza, four of The Magnet's singing improv troupes make up a musical on the spot based on an audience suggestion: Fisticuffs and Mint Condition (at 7:00), Aquarius and BEEES! (at 8:00), and Legend at 9:00 pm), followed at 10:15 by a free show that lets audience members join in with a musical improv group to make up stories in song: Magnet Musical Megawatt

[TOP PICK] [FREE] 7:00 pm: Henry Zebrowski (star of new live action Adult Swim series Your Pretty Face is Going to Hell) and comics creator Charles Soule (taking over the writing of DC's Swamp Thing) joining super-hosts Alex Zalben, Justin Tyler, and Pete LePage in a lively & hilarious discussion about four-color pop culture at Fontana's (105 Eldridge Street), with giveaways of comics and gift certificates: Comic Book Club

[TOP PICK] 7:00 pm ($5): One of my favorite people, Julie Sharbutt—who's performed with some of the greatest improvisors alive at UCBT's Gravid Water—co-stars in this improvised Boston-flavored show described as follows: "Okay you fuckas. If you haven't gotten a chance to see one of the awesomest, darkest improv shows this side of Mystic River, you've been missing out. It's been a wicked fuckin run, but the Dennis Lehane-inspired south Boston crime noir improv show featuring a cast of Sox-lovas is drawing to an end, at least for a while, so come see Julie Sharbutt, Cathleen Carr, Micah Sherman, Erick Hellwig, and Chris Roberti unspool a suspenseful, heavily-accented mystery thrilla" at The PIT downstairs lounge: Mystic Improv

[FREE] 7:00 pm: This weekly 2-hour open-mic storytelling show allows each performer a full 8 minutes to tell a compelling and funny tale at Queens LIC's The Creek downstairs lounge, tonight guest-hosted by David Arroyo (Along Came A Story) and hosted by Jake Hart: The Dump

7:30 pm-9:15 pm ($5): Long form improv known as The Harold from UCB Chelsea house troupes Grammer, Namaste, and The Regulars at this first half of Harold Night

[TOP PICK] 8:00 pm ($5): Mark Normand (hilarious rising star; Conan O'Brien, Last Comic Standing, Comedy Central; opens for Amy Schumer; co-host of Hot Soup and We're All Friends Here), Myq Kaplan (one of the quickest minds in comedy, and rapidly rising star; finalist on most recent Last Comic Standing; David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Comedy Central Presents, hit comedy CD Vegan Mind Meld), Cocoon Central Dance Team (comedic dance), and Har Mar Superstar performing at Brooklyn's Union Pool (484 Union Avenue) along with sketches from Moon regulars Camille Harris, Jordan Clifford, and Tim Skinner, and hosts Nat Towsen & Bob Walles: The Moon Show

[TOP PICK] [$] [DISCOUNTED] 8:00 pm ($35 using code CQUSTX online or at the box office): TV & Broadway stand-up star Colin Quinn performs a show he's been developing for months for this off-Broadway run (through June 3rd) that looks at US history "from the Founding Fathers to the Kardashians" at the Barrow Street Theatre (27 Barrow Street, just one block from the #1 subway's Christopher Street stop): Colin Quinn: Unconstitutional

[TOP PICK] [$] 8:00 pm ($12 plus 2-item food/drink min.): John Mulaney (one of the finest stand-ups in the country; writer/performer for Saturday Night Live; Conan O'Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central Presents, one hour special & CD/DVD New in Town, VH1's Best Week Ever; for John's great bit on Weekend Update, please click here), Tom Papa (host of Jerry Seinfeld-produced NBC comedy The Marriage Ref; numerous appearances on David Letterman, Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno; three Comedy Central specials), Gregg Rogell (Conan O'Brien, Jay Leno, Louie, Comedy Central), Greer Barnes (David Letterman, Chappelle's Show, For the Love of the Game), Godfrey (Comedy Central Presents, Louie, 30 Rock, VH1; films Zoolander, Original Gangsters, Soul Plane; 7 Up Yours ads), and Robert Kelly (Louie, Comedy Central, Opie & Anthony) performing stand-up at Comedy Cellar (117 MacDougal Street, between 3rd Street & Minetta Lane) hosted by Dan Naturman (David Letterman, Jay Leno): John Mulaney, Tom Papa, Gregg Rogell, and More

8:00 pm ($5): Making great use of UCB East's previous incarnation as an indie movie theatre, tonight features screenings of select films running five minutes or less—most of them funny—crafted in the style of TV pilots. The shorts receiving the most audience votes get to continue with additional episodes, while the others are "canceled" at Channel 101

[FREE] 8:00 pm: NYC stand-ups (not announced) performing at Queens LIC's The Creek upstairs theatre hosted by the brilliantly surreal and hilarious Joe Pera, plus Charles Gould and Dan Licata: Dan + Joe + Charles' Show

[TOP PICK] 9:00 pm ($5): Jessi Klein (fresh, unique, deliciously organic comic who's one of the best stand-ups in the country; head writer for Inside Amy Schumer,writer for Kroll Show, former staff writer for Saturday Night Live; Comedy Central, VH1, NBC, CNN, Adult Swim), Michael Palashak (visiting from LA; David Letterman, Jay Leno, Comedy Central Half Hour), Nick Turner (Jimmy Fallon, Comedy Central, VH1, host of Nick Turner & Acquaintances), and more performing at The Slipper Room (167 Orchard Street) hosted by Seth Herzog (Jimmy Fallon, VH1): Sweet

[FREE] 9:00 pm: NYC stand-ups (not announced) perform with composer Matt Garrisona's four-piece jazz band playing in the background at Queens LIC's The Creek downstairs lounge hosted by Mike Finoia: Code Name: Comedy and Jazz

9:15 pm-Midnight ($5): Long form improv known as The Harold from UCB Chelsea house groups Graceland, Sherlock & Cookies, and Bucky—plus 16 advanced improv students perform "cool, weird Non-Traditional Harolds ranging from the Silent Movie Harold to the infamous Black Tuesday (Tragic) Harold"—at this second half (continued from 7:30 pm) of Harold Night

[TOP PICK] 9:30 pm ($5): Brilliantly innovative improvisor Anthony Atamanuik (Death by Roo Roo, 30 Rock, Conan O'Brien, The Nights of Our Lives) "has been kidnapped by an alien race and imprisoned in a cell that looks just like the UCB East stage. Will Tony be able to gain his freedom...or will he discover he's actually been imprisoned his entire life?" Plus razor-sharp stand-ups Erin Lennox (host of DTF, co-host of The Orphanage), Michelle Wolf (adorable & irresistible dark comic; IFC), and Matt Koff (Onion News Network, WitStream), all performing at UCB East with producer Andy Rocco: The Tony Show

[FREE] 10:00 pm: Big Jay Oakerson (Comedy Central Presents, HBO, Showtime, MTV), Luis J. Gomez, Dave Smith, and other NYC stand-ups performing live on stage for this podcast show at The Creek upstairs theatre in Queens' Long Island City: Legion of Skanks

[FREE] 11:00 pm: Open-mic stand-up at UCB East hosted by Boris Khaykin, John Trowbridge, and/or Katie East: Tuesday Night Open Mic

To view HyReviews.com NYC Comedy Picks from previous weeks, please click here.

Celebrate Mother's Day every day by watching Andrea Rosen's wonderful new docuseries airing on NickMom at 10:00 pm...

Olde English is a sharp group of sketch comics who performed together for years on both stage and video...but one day simply drifted apart. Then the director of the group, Ben Popik, suggested a project: Each member write 15 pages of a screenplay...while getting to see only the last five pages of the previous writer.

It's a fun gimmick to create a marketing hook for the movie. Naturally, the results of the film made from the screenplay are mixed; but they're not the crazy quilt you might expect.

A critical element that makes the latter work is phenomenally talented actress Megan Raye Manzi. While she has to play wildly different versions of her character in each 15-page sequence, she creates a solid underlying core that's always compelling and emotionally believable, allowing us to care deeply about her character throughout. Manzi is the invaluable glue that holds the "fiction" part of this project together.

Further, the execution of the screenplay is only one side of the coin of this movie. The other major component is documentary footage of the members of the group interacting before, during, and after the project. The latter is handled so subtly and artfully by director Popik that what The Exquisite Corpse Project is really about didn't sneak up on me until near the end—and then hit me in the head in a way that I'll long remember.

In a nutshell, this is a transcendent story about creative relationships...and the nature of relationships in general. And that turns what in lesser hands would be a gimmicky comedy into a genuinely great film.

As an added bonus, at the 1:01 mark, Olde English member Raphael Bob-Waksberg gives the finest description you're ever likely to hear of what it means to be a screenwriter in Hollywood.

You can watch the vibrant work of Ben Popik, Megan Raye Manzi, and the other very talented folks involved at your convenience, because this movie is available for download anytime for a mere $5 here. You can also check out the trailer here. Highly recommended.

Comedy genius John Oliver performs on May 20th with Janeane Garofalo and more at the Morrison Motel

[TOP PICK] [DISCOUNTED] 8:30 pm on Monday May 20th ($15 if you mention HyReviews.com [otherwise $20], which includes one drink. As of 5/16, this show has SOLD OUT. You can try calling 212.989.9319 to reserve a spot on the waiting list, but there may be a bunch of folks ahead of you): John Oliver (star correspondent of The Daily Show—and who'll be hosting this summer while Jon Stewart is off directing his first film—co-star of NBC's Community, star of Comedy Central's New York Stand-Up Show, screenwriter, and genius stand-up comic), TV & movie star Janeane Garofalo, Liam McEneaney (Comedy Central, VH1's Best Week Ever, Showtime, host of Tell Your Friends), and "a special guest" performing stand-up at the Cornelia Street Cafe for John Morrison's Morrison Motel

Something I've known for years is finally making it into the mainstream:
Pete Holmes is not only a comedy treasure, but one of our greatest comics ever.
First Pete broke into Hollywood as a sitcom writer for NBC and FOX; then he started the highly popular
podcast You Made It Weird; and now he's slated to have a show directly following Conan O'Brien.
On top of all that, Pete currently has an hour-long special running on Comedy Central,
with an expanded version available on CD and DVD: Nice Try, The Devil. Some samples & classic bits:

Almost all the recommendations and discounts HyReviews.com provides appear directly
on this site. However, occasionally I may feel an offer is so special that it merits extra attention.
Also, sometimes comedy clubs, theatres, and others contact me with offers that they
don't want on a searchable Web page but that they're happy to provide to my readers.

If you'd like to take advantage of such opportunities, please provide your name and email address, and once in a while you'll receive a notice directly from me about cool deals.

Special thanks to comedy photographer supreme Anya Garrett for creating so many of the stellar photos that grace this site...and the sites of hundreds of NYC comics.

For a comprehensive list of links to all the sections
on this site, please see the Site Index below (or click here).

Best NYC Comedy Tonight

Previous Daily Comedy Picks

Comedy Videos of the Month: Kroll Show

Previous Comedy Videos of the Month

HyReviews.com Joke of the Week

NYC Comedy Club Discounts

Become a Comedy/Theatre Discount Insider

Top NYC Comedy Venues

Other Notable Comedy Sites

Comedy in the Moment: Del Close Improv Marathon

Comedy Scene by Scene: SketchFest NYC 07

Exceptional Comics

Interview with Carolyn Castiglia

Show Report 3/28/08: Kumail Nanjiani's Unpronounceable

Show Report 2/28/08: Invite Them Up Ends Glorious Six-Year Run

Show Report 2/10/08: Alternative, Alshmernative—Kristen Schaal

Show Report 11/12/07: Andy Blitz Sees the Future

Show Report 9/24/07: Dave Hill Turns Things Around

Shockingly Delightful: Offensive Fest 2007

Hy On Theatre

Hy on Theatre Discounts: See Great Shows for as Little as $4

FringeNYC 2012 Coverage

FringeNYC 2011 Coverage

FringeNYC 2010 Coverage

FringeNYC 2009 Coverage

FringeNYC 2008 Coverage

FringeNYC 2007 Coverage

FringeNYC 2007 Performers Gallery

FringeNYC 2006 Coverage

FringeNYC 2005 Coverage

Notable NYC Actors

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Please note: Note a word has been changed in the ads below. My comments are in boldface.

I have a wonderful poetry book, creative, wild images and a really good magical story to tell.

[So you have a poetry book with images...and you also have a story in an undefined form. And for some reason you need to sell the poetry before you sell the story...to "someone." That's a bit confusing, but whatever; it's not like you're claiming to be a wordsmith...]

It's got spirituality, love, tragedy, adventure, crime, violence, music, sex, a little bit of everything.

[Actually, you left out drugs.
But that's okay; at this point, drugs are heavily implied...]

I have a diary of our letters to each other, and the poems are like letters I wrote to God in a creative way.

[As opposed to the non-creative steamy porn that you actually wrote to your stud boyfriend God.]

[It's a hip-hopera DVD titled Trapped in the Closet.
Thing is, God turned insane in 2000. (Which explains a lot...)]

[Idea #42: Raise cash as drug mule.
Cops will never suspect crippled old coot like you.]

If you have any other type of writing or editing need, I can probably tackle it as well. To get in touch, please email me at hy@hyreviews.com.