• I try to watch every hour special that comes out and like every person that does comedy, I compare myself to what I see. Sometimes, I’ll be honest, I’m like, “Yeah, I could do that.” Other times, I see a special that is doing something so different, so unique, so of the time that I’m like, “Well, now I have to try harder.” I certainly felt that this week while filming Christi Chiello’s “It’s Christi, B*tch” hour at Joe’s Pub. Honestly, it’s Netflix/Hulu/HBO ready. Without spoiling anything, the show is not only incredibly funny, original, moving, full of song and dance (first hour I’ve seen of someone’s that appeared to be choreographed), crowd work, commentary on other specials and faith, archive video and photos but also has great jokes. The hour felt short which is the greatest compliment an hour can receive.
• Participated in my first Comedy Fight Club since it relocated to The Stand last night. First of all, The Stand looks damn good. It’s like really nice and modern. Honestly, it’s nice enough that I would bring my parents there which is the highest compliment I can give a comedy club. Joe Harary and co. really turned the place into something special. As for Fight Club itself, it was really cool to see the show’s evolution. The energy from the original back at Lovecraft Bar to Lucky Jack’s to The Stand has not changed as the show has grown. Gotta give Matt Maran all the credit for that. He had a vision and saw it through. As for the Roast, I lost. That’s generous. The very funny Boris Khaykin DOMINATED. All of his jokes were on point and one of mine felt really soft which led to my defeat. Even though my loss was unanimous from the judges and audience, it was great to have Anna E. Paone there to break the rule of “No pity claps.” She clapped. What a wife. Made it all good.
• Watched so much comedy stuff this week as always. First off, after a month of watching, I finally finished “Broad City.” Man. What a show. They did what everyone in our generation wanted to do. They got to do the heartwarming, absurd show we all dreamed of making and had the best celebrity cameos of any show maybe ever. Each episode toward the end started to feel like an event. The show really is a great snapshot of NYC in the 2010s. Ilana and Abbi are one of the all-time great friend duos (really respect how they make Ilana so problematic too; she goes way farther than almost any character on TV) and the show rarely hit a false note. I genuinely teared up when it ended. Not as good is the tone deaf, phoned in reboot of “Rocko’s Modern Life” on Netflix. What a weird 45-minute cash grab. The jokes are flat, the commentary about computers being impersonal is dated and the trans storyline felt forced and insensitive. Seek it out if you’re curious but don’t go in expecting to love it. On the opposite end, definitely do check out Colin Quinn’s new hour “Red State, Blue State” (also on Netflix). It’s a staggering commentary on the country that peaks with its beyond impressive closer (Spoiler alert: a joke about all 50 states) that I actually dreamed of doing as a special long ago but now that he’s done it better than I ever could have, it’s been rendered useless for me to try. Finally, I watched Matt Ott, Jack Comstock, Kenice Mobley, Shane Torres (who I also listened to on a great episode of “You Made It Weird” this past week), Derek Humphrey, Carmen Lagala, Chloe Radcliffe’s series “The Alley” (might have forgotten some people. Sorry!). It’s a really fast, fun webseries that will leave you wanting more. Kind of like “Cheers” in a bowling alley. The link for Episode One is in the comments.
• Shout out to Randy Epley for running what was the best Comedy Dungeon show I’ve been to yet this past Sunday. As mentioned numerous times before, it’s Anna’s and my favorite show in the City and Randy delivered his sharpest material yet this past week. Very fun to riff with audience members from France, China and Poland too. Also, surprisingly fun this week was the Queen Vic Sunday 7 PM mic. An audience member was turning 30 and she brought a group of friends who self-identified as “Sex and the City” types (the birthday girl was Charlotte). Every comic did crowd work with them and it was a really great change of pace for a mic to see comics treat the room more like a show than a “see what sticks” kind of thing. On a high note, I won $10.00 on ComedyWire with a joke about working out from Nicholas Pappas. If you aren’t writing jokes every day on ComedyWire, you should be. There’s money to be made from writing jokes, guys. Finally, I shot stills of old friend John Field Hohensee promoting his tour guide company this past Saturday at the Brooklyn Bridge. John is a killer tour guide (second favorite in the City after Anna Paone) and also makes great videos. Check out this one in the comments too. Just hit 100K views and is really damn funny and smart.
As for this next week, I’m gonna continue basking in the fact that I’ve lived in NYC for six (!) years now as of Monday and have the good fortune of doing fellow Arizona native Matt Storrs’ show “The Storrs Objection” this Sunday at QED.
Signing off for this week, folks. See you soon
