• This past Saturday, I had the distinct pleasure of filming two of my favorite NYC comics Christiana Jackson and Ben Miller’s half hours at DBA Studios in midtown Manhattan. The room was sweltering with no AC since it would affect the sound quality but it didn’t matter because the show was so fire that the crowd didn’t care. Bobby Sheehan opened the show with masterful crowd work that was equal parts dirty, probing and insightful. This led really nicely to Ben’s brainy 30. It deftly moved from personal to observational material and led to a killer closer. I hope he releases it online someday soon. Christiana, who I’ve known since I moved to NYC back in 2013 and have been a fan of forever, followed him to close out the show and killed it so hard. She worked in the title of her show into the half hour in a poignant and funny way and her set moved incredibly quickly. She was fast, frenetic, funny and engaged the crowd with questions and confrontations. All the performers on the show really were totally different styles but together made for an incredible night of comedy.
• When I was doing comedy in Phoenix, there were a few big fish in the scene. One was the incredibly kind and talented Matt Storrs. I was pleasantly surprised when he moved to New York a little while back. It’s nice to see the guy flourishing in NYC with his show The Storrs Objection at QED too which I performed on this week with my favorite person Anna E. Paone in attendance. There really isn’t any other show like it in the City. This week’s show was centered around the theme of “space.” Each comic has to prepare a 7-minute set based on the topics Storrs gave us (samples include “solar sails,” “worms in space” and “micro hotels”) which was a difficult but rewarding task. Once you’re onstage performing the severely undercooked material, Matt is there with you riffing about the topics and punching things up. It really is like the SATs of comedy; a true test of your abilities. Somehow, it all still works. All the comics on the show pulled the feat off with relative ease and it was really fun seeing everyone go outside of their comfort zone. Don’t wanna brag too hard (yes, I do) but my set ended with the crowd chanting “PERFECT JOKE” which is how I’d like every set to end. Also, it should be noted that not only was the show a great time but also an AZ reunion with Hattie Hayes, Kirsten Alberts and Dan Miller all in the room. It wasn’t mentioned but was a really cool byproduct of the show.
• Took in a minimal amount of content this week. First, I caught the underappreciated 2018 indie “Arizona” starring Danny McBride (in maybe his best role, seriously), Rosemarie DeWitt, Seth Rogen, Luke Wilson, Kaitlin Olson and others. Man, what a weird, hilarious and violent take on the 2008 housing crisis. Kind of plays as a dumber, funnier “Breaking Bad.” It’s streaming on HBO and I recommend you check it out. It’s worth your while. Not as worth your while is the 2004 Coen Bros. movie “The Ladykillers.” I’m a massive fan of theirs but this is a really strange misfire. It’s sporadically funny with quirky performances but the subpar story and subtle racism in the movie are not at all what I expect from some of my favorite directors. They definitely rebounded but this is a weird footnote in their career. Guess that happens. Finally, wanted to shout out a great Medium article I read by friend Ginny Hogan (who was great on The Storrs Objection show as well) about the differences between Millennials and Gen Z’ers. Great satire and the link as always is in the comments.
• Filmed a very fun show last Wednesday for Jora Nefferies and Paige Smith-Hogan at Velvet Brooklyn located next door to Peter Luger. It was my favorite kind of show which is a showcase for a ton of different comics that I was actually seeing for the first time and was being blown away by how many great, new people I’d never seen before. The show went extremely smoothly except for one thing. My camera wasn’t fully charged. It’s never happened before and I made the hosts set up an impromptu intermission. Honestly, that was kind of genius. However, when my battery started to die again and I made them set up a second intermission, it wasn’t as genius. Luckily, Nora and Paige handled it with relative ease doing some very fun crowd work guessing people’s jobs based on the neighborhoods they resided in.
• One last show for the week for me. Got to tape sets at the extremely packed, high energy party of a show Dyking Out at Stonewall Inn hosted by Carolyn Bergier. The show is an arm of Carolyn’s podcast and has a massive following. She’s doing it right. Not only that, she also books stellar lineups. The sets from Wanjiko Eke, Melody Kamali, Samantha Ruddy, Chewy May and Kate Willett varied in tone but all got major laughs. This is the future of comedy right here and it was pretty cool to witness it.
• Finally, wanted to say a New York goodbye to my friend and former cohost of “It’s Everybody’s Birthday” Jesse Swatling-Holcomb. The dude is moving west with his incredibly funny and talented girlfriend Emily Austin and they will be missed in the NYC scene and as friends. Looking forward to seeing them on the West Coast sometime soon though.
As for what I’m up to this week, I’m doing my pal Greg Suarez’s show on Monday and hosting Sam Zelitch’s mic on Tuesday. Both should be tight.
I’LL BE BACK
