Perhaps not my most successful haul of NY comedy, bagging only four shows across two (and a bit) venues, but it can't be wall to wall standup on every visit.
Just before we arrived I saw that Roy Wood Jr, Mark Normand, Joe List "and more" were appearing at The Stand as part of a takeover by the Freestyle guys who have a Monday night bar show at The Bowery Electric. The last time I went to one of these things (Comedians You Should Know's visit to Littlefield) it was, with the exception of the headliner, a flat-out disaster. However I had enjoyed my Freestyle visit in October and with those three bankers on we were surely guaranteed a good show.
By the time I bought the tickets Sam Jay was listed instead of RWJr but that's still all fine. Plus we had the "and more" to look forward to. Who would that be? Ooh it's exciting to think of the possibilities! The show was in the smaller, upstairs room and one of the staff who I've spoken to several times before (I think his name is Richard) was seating us. "Good job on yesterday" he said before giving me a fist bump. I hadn't been in NYC the day before, I'd had a badminton match in Edinburgh. I did play pretty well it has to be said, but as I hesitantly returned the fist bump I concluded that he had probably confused me with a comic. Voicing this he quickly backtracked before my girlfriend added "we HAVE met you before". "Oh sure" he flailed, digging deeper with "millions of times".
Remembering that they had Lagunitas at the bar but not in the showroom, I nipped out to try to get a couple but apparently they no longer serve it there either, so headed back into the venue. I was going to order Jai Alai (a beefy 7.5% IPA) but they were out of that too so opted for a Montauk Wave Chaser as my third choice. One of the three Freestyle guys came on and did some inexpert crowdwork, addressing the obvious issue that there were only maybe a dozen audience members. Mark was next up and delivered his usual, super-professional "COMEDY!". Freestyle boy number two came on and, maybe it was the contrast of following Mark but seemed to die particularly hard. Joe List was next on stage and was the best I've seen him. Joe and Mark do a podcast together so having them on the same bill seemed quite appropriate.
By this time I was out of beer but was told that we'd had the last two cans of Wave Chaser. Fuck sake, I'll just have a Founders. "Sorry we're out of that". CHRIST ON A BIKE STAND NYC!!! This is worse than Cabaret Voltaire during the Fringe when you go in and all they've got is Guinness and a can of warm Kestrel!
The roller-coaster continued with Freestyle boy three dying on his arse and this was followed by a short, amateurish rap battle between FSB two and three. And there it ended! No Sam Jay and no "and more" unless the rap battle was what they had in mind. It certainly wasn't what I had in mind. The quality of Joe List and Mark Normand seemed to accentuate the gulf between the two sets of comics.
Thursday was a benefit show at the Village Underground for Operation Smile. In the past the Keeping Joe guys have always turned up for this charity and when we booked tickets Joe Machi was listed. However as it got nearer his name was dropped. However verified celebrity Todd Barry was still scheduled, as were Matteo Lane and Daniel Simonsen. The VU is my least favourite of the three Cellar venues but we got reasonable seats (disappointingly it was only about half full) and the show went well. Eagle Witt was the only comic new to me and I'd be happy to see him again. Afterwards in the Olive Tree I tried to persuade Matteo to call my girlfriend a "skanky whore" while impersonating Joe Machi but he wouldn't do it. She's still disappointed.
On Saturday my girlfriend was off to see a terrible play so I repeated my strategy from October and went to the open-mic at The Stand. The weather was filthy so I was worried no one would turn up but there was a decent crowd including some folk I saw last time and one who did the same material word for word. It's not for me to tell him how to develop comedically but I'd have been looking for him to do a little more than say the same words in the same order after three months.
A strange thing did happen. After a very confident girl had been on stage (and got virtually no response) she packed up her stuff and headed for the exit which I was sitting beside. On the way past she patted me on the arm and said "Bye!". Once again I'm puzzling over who people keep mistaking me for.
Monday evening was terrible play time again. Before arriving in NYC I had pencilled in revisiting the Freestyle bar show, but after the shambles of their night at The Stand I felt I couldn't face the possibility of being recognised in the compact venue. The Stand (yes again!) usually have their free Frantic show at 10pm but due to some industry event happening it was being brought forward to 7:30pm. Given that it had Dan Soder, Aaron Berg, Ian Lara and Big Jay Oakerson listed, the desire to hunt around for some obscure, alternative bar show with an untried lineup in the middle of nowhere was not strong.
I'm glad I went along because it was the best Frantic in recent memory and certainly the most consistent since they relocated to their new venue. Emma Willmann was a name I knew but not someone I'd seen. I was really delighted by her. The whole Ari Shaffir thing was kicking off at that point and Aaron Berg spoke about it at length, including alleging that the New York Comedy Club (let's be brutally honest - no one's favourite location) had pledged never to work with him again. Big Jay, who I hadn't seen in ages, closed the show. I had forgotten how skilled his crowdwork is.
For the final night I had pencilled in returning to Ambush Comedy in Brooklyn (which runs in the back of a pizza place). I have a lot of time for this little show and like to try to support it. I even went as far as reserving tickets on Eventbrite, so fully intended to make it along. There was one issue with the lineup but not enough to derail the plan. However I happened to be reading the blurb for another comedy night and noticed a picture of one of the acts who was also set to appear at Ambush and somewhere in the very back of my mind a tiny alarm bell sounded. Checking my list of comics, I realised that this development was a VERY bad thing indeed. We had a -1 AND a -2 on the same bill. Had I been on my own I might have still risked it through a loyalty to the night but I didn't want to put my girlfriend through that.
Even though we binned the evening comedy we did visit Williamsburg as I wanted to take a look at Ed Farrell's new Old Man Hustle Comedy Club.
He has a tiny bar of the same name on Manhattan's lower east side but this is a much more professional setup. The space was previously home to a bar called Videology which had a lounge/cinema in the back. It's this area that he's converted into a modestly-sized performance space. We were going to have a Happy Hour beer but there weren't many options so ended up paying full price. That did entitle us to a spot on the open-mic later in the day but I decided against making my standup debut.
I'm still feeling guilty about ditching Ambush though.
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