• There’s nothing better than going to the first iteration of a new show. The first one is always the best in my experience. Everyone you invite comes to support, you book the best comics you can and the people that run the venue think you’re an incredible promoter. This week, Anna E. Paone, Matthew Benjamin and I went to the first of what I hope is the start of many for Willie Zabar’s new show/mic hybrid that takes place in an artist’s co-op space in Midtown. The place had a great, supportive after school vibe with artist types in the crowd and free wine for all (which would be a sweet addition to an after school program). I got to see a few great show sets from Natan Badalov, Mary Martin and Usama Siddiquee before the mic portion of the show began. The actual mic was just five comics but most of the audience generously stayed. Everyone did well including a comic who went up for the first time. This is a show you should watch out for if you’re looking for quality stage time; I could see this being a great hang with a great built-in audience.
• Watched three 2019 comedy releases this week. The first was “Good Boys” on a very early morning flight from Phoenix to New York. The reviews for the movie were not promising but the trailer was fun and it looked like a nice reboot of sorts of “Superbad.” It’s actually way better than expected. The kids are hilariously wholesome (the scene in the frat house had me LOLing in my aisle seat at 8 in the morning), the storylines come together nicely and the movie has the best comedic usage of a drone I’ve seen in a feature yet. If you’re looking for one that is fun for the whole family this holiday season, you could do a lot worse. Second movie I caught was “Brittany Runs A Marathon.” Jillian Bell is a revelation in this one. She’s been stealing scenes in comedies for the past decade but she totally owns here. The storyline itself is nothing special (20-something gets her life together and runs a marathon) but the details are great. For example, the fake British accent Bell used to cover her insecurities was a very smart screenwriting touch; funny and insightful. It’s streaming on Amazon and is a perfect, easy watch. The last thing I saw was fine but not great. Jeff Garlin put out his new special “Our Man In Chicago” a few weeks back. I admire Garlin for going on inspired riffs where he imagines an audience member’s entire love life but overall it was more fine than special-worthy. A lot of stories about “Hell gigs” and then the last 15 minutes is about him getting his life together. The best part was the very end when he encourages audience members to watch John Mulaney instead saying, “He’s much funnier than me.” He’s right.
• Got a few recommendations for good comedy things on the internet if you’re looking. If you’ve missed it, please check out ComedyWire’s Medium articles. They have a feature called “A Week In The Life of a ____ Comedian” and they cover the daily minutiae of a comic’s life from Monday-Sunday. I binged the entire thing. You get to read about comics’ day to day from touring comics to comics that don’t go up at all in the week they wrote it. It’s a great, honest slice of life that really accurately depicts the life of a comic. The link is in the comments and makes for great content to pass time. The second thing I’d like to recommend is Amamah Sardar’s sketch “Mahershala Ali Yoga Studio for White Women.” It’s less than five minutes, incredibly funny and could honestly be made into a great movie. The link is in the comments as well.
• As for this coming week, I expect it will be better than this last one. One of the major highlights from this past week was me holding it in and not pooping my pants before a Creek mic. This week, I would recommend you check out Rhett Sever’s show at the Creek on Thursday night (link in comments) or my show Free Fries (A Comedy Show): Episode Three on Sunday night at SugarBurg. Can’t lose with either.
Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday are OVER. Glad you could celebrate Comedy Stray Notes Wednesday with me
