I had two comedy nights pencilled into my five night (Fri-Wed) trip. My girlfriend had a ticket for an Alan Cumming play on the Sunday which meant I could go and see some terrible comedy in an obscure location, plus we had planned to go to Stand NYC’s Frantic Monday pop-up the following night if at all possible.
Late Friday afternoon my girlfriend insisted on going for a sleep and to say she was not keen to get up would be an understatement. Consequently I found myself with a free evening but had done no planning whatsoever. Amateur. As with most big cities, the Friday and Saturday evening comedy crowd can be quite different from the rest of the week, so I plumped for a visit to The Creek And The Cave in Long Island City. They have a regular feature where a performer does “A Week at the Creek”, starting at 7pm and usually from Monday to Saturday. Jordan Temple was appearing, who I'd caught at a bar show called Brown Mirror in December, so that became the plan.
I arrived late but still had time to get a beer before the host (Paul someone) started. He brought on Shalewa Sharpe who I’d seen before and after another 15 minutes Jordan came on. Unsurprisingly he did the material I had enjoyed at Brown Mirror. The rest of his set was a bit unpractised – later on I realised that his week was starting that night, so I was getting the roughest version of the show. It wasn’t the best but I didn’t begrudge the $5 entry fee (which was going to charity) and the crowd were a nice bunch.
When the show wound up around 9:30pm I figured I might as well try to cram something else in. I’ve attended Old Man Hustle (in Manhattan’s Lower East Side) before so headed across there and got a seat at the bar. They’ve no drafts but I got $1 off my bottle of Lagunitas as it was warm (how don’t you have cold bottles when that’s all you sell???). Host Meghan Walsh was pleasant enough and brought up Mike Albanese who I’ve seen before and enjoyed. I’m not sure whether I was tired or he was poor or maybe I was in a good mood the last time I saw him but things weren’t great. When the bartender Rachel finished her set next, I decided it was time for bed and headed home.
The following day it became apparent that Frantic Monday wasn’t on that week. However the Stand’s 8pm Saturday show had Judah Friedlander, Ari Shaffir and Sean Patton – an absolute belter of a lineup! There was also no poison on the rest of the bill, so despite it being a weekend and a little under $30 per ticket after tax, we booked ourselves in to make up for Monday not happening.
On the morning of the show (!) Ari tweeted that he was going to miss the gig as he had to go to a friend’s wedding. I’m not sure how much notice he got about the wedding but there was no point in complaining. The show went ahead (the venue was a decent space called The Zinc Bar) and everything worked out. Sean Patton stormed it and I enjoyed seeing Bonnie McFarlane for the first time in a while. Dan St Germain closed.
For the Sunday night gig I opted to visit Eastville Comedy Club’s new custom-built location in Brooklyn. I’ve been meaning to get there for a while but things haven’t worked out. Not that it’s terribly relevant to me but they’ve been adopting a policy of a zero-drink minimum which, while common for bars shows, is very unusual for permanent comedy clubs. I don’t know if this is a temporary tactic to draw a crowd while they establish themselves or a permanent change in philosophy.
The lineup was scheduled to be Christian Finnegan (who did the Fringe in 2018), Jordan Carlos, Krystyna Hutchinson, Patrick Schraeder and Raanan Hershberg, all for the princely sum of $5! The room is a slightly better shape than the old venue but the ceiling is quite high (considering they could presumably have dictated a lower one) and with tiling on the walls and (I think) the floors, the metal chairs make a racket when moved and there’s no sound dampening. Christian was great, Krystyna not so much and Jordan was replaced by the excellent Liza Treyger who was as good as I’ve seen her.
I flirted with the idea of trying to fit another show into the evening (Comedy at the Beauty Bar was the most likely candidate) but the weather was shitty and the subways aren’t as frequent on Sundays so I just called it quits.
It then became apparent that Hot Soup Comedy, one of my favourite NYC bars show, was restarting on the Tuesday night in a new location (their previous spot – the Irish Exit – had closed a few weeks before). Given that we were in town and it was a chance to support their relaunch, attendance seemed like a no-brainer. Other than the three producers (Vider, Normand and Ruby) they had Dan Soder, Shane Torres, Courtney Maginnis (host of Let’s See What Else?), Samantha Ruddy and Raanan Hershberg (again!).
The venue is actually pretty decent – a separate room beneath a busy Midtown bar – though could do with a more defined stage (see photo). There’s a trivia quiz on immediately before Hot Soup so the end of that initiates a lot of chair and table moving to set the room up better for comedy. The evening went well with Dan Soder being the highlight. Matt Ruby was maybe a little more subdued than normal. I hope they make a success of the new spot - I’ll definitely be back.
Trip Stats Comedy shows seen – 5 Comedy shows failed to see – 1 Suspiciously last minute cancellations by Ari Shaffir - 1 Total ticket expenditure – $40