This trip was possibly even stranger than the one in November. More masks on the street, more restrictions indoors and longer queues for the many, many testing sites set up along almost every street.
We were booked for a two week trip and even before departing for the US had decided to have a more restrained time than usual. What that translated to was five bouts of comedy, split across only two establishments. Many bar shows had ceased operations over the festive period as, to quote one producer, "everyone has COVID".
First up we had a pre-booked New Year's Eve show. As the date approached I was getting an increasing number of emails (including from the Comedy Cellar itself) announcing that there was last minute availability, and in the case of The Stand, that discounts were available. We were to be at The Fat Black Pussycat for the not inconsiderable sum of $40 plus a mandatory $10 service fee for wait staff. Not being one for stadium-style comedy gigs that $50 may be the most I've ever spent on one show.
The line-up was solid with both Todd Barry and Daniel Simonsen listed and no known poison. We arrived early but had to hang around outside as The Fat Black "Lounge" was sharing an entrance with the Village Underground and an 8pm show there needed to be seated before our 8:30pm seating could begin. You would normally enter via the bar of The FBPC but they were using that area as a fourth venue for the evening and it was all set up for those punters. I've had some issues with the bouncers at this venue before but they were efficient and good-natured on this occasion.
Liz Furiati, general manager and frequent executive producer on assorted comedians' specials, was on the door. I approached with "Hi Liz. A mouth is a mouth", a phrase she would frequently mock Phil Hanley with on the Keeping Joe podcast. She cackled evilly and proclaimed that I had made her end of year. We got great seats (in contrast to some of the other Cellar venues but we'll get to that) and I would have taken a picture of the decked-out room but by now our phones were safely tucked away in sealed envelopes, as is the norm.
Ian Fidance was ridiculously energetic as the host, Harrison Greenbaum was good as ever but I didn't take much from new-to-me Zarna Garg. Todd Barry was next and excelled. As with last time I saw him he gently remonstrated with the crowd when they didn't sufficiently enjoy a joke, but later in his set when he fluffed a punchline conceded "that one might be on me".
I was delighted but a little surprised when Daniel Simonsen was "passed" at the Cellar. His style has always been very distinctive and could never really be described as mainstream. However his set of mainly self-deprecating material, specifically focusing on how awkward he was and how that generated discomfort in others was arguably the biggest hit of the evening. Other than my big fan-boy crushes, I can't think when I last enjoyed a comic that much. Finally we had Greer Barnes who, despite being of a decent age, I had never seen before. He went on some improvised tangents with mixed success but the whole set was delivered with an almost mesmerising amount of charisma. My girlfriend commented that she'd like to see him in a play. I'd be very keen to see him perform again but properly, not in a play. All plays are dreadful.
We had dinner booked in the Olive Tree afterwards and despite looking fabulous was very quiet. Matteo Lane was heading past us at one point so I told him we had tickets to see him in London in March. He seemed pleasantly surprised but didn't dwell on the matter.
I could claim that we were so buoyed by the success of this evening that we booked The Stand for the following night but that would be a lie, we had booked it a couple of days before. However we were refreshed and excited to see more standup. The main attractions were Sean Patton and Adrienne Iapalucci but Ian Lara was also on the bill. Again, another selling point was the absence of anyone we actively despised.
In its old location The Stand was my favourite New York comedy club but since its move to bigger, glitzier premises my main complaints have centred around their irregular drinks availability and the frequency with which my credit card is declined at the end of the evening. Thankfully all drink options were selectable so after ordering two beers (Tiny Juice IPAs from Five Boroughs Brewing since you ask) we settled in.
Onika McLean (new to me) was a very acceptable host and both Ian Lara and Oscar Aydin performed well. Disappointingly Sean Patton and particularly Adrienne Iapalucci were a bit flat. There was some whining about the audience lacking energy which always gets on my tits. It's like telling a girl to cheer up. It's unlikely to be anything other than counter productive. Gavin Matts went further and opted for a surreal rant on the topic of the audience's lack of interest that just drove the show further into the ground. He was the last act and I was more that happy to leave but they surprised us with an unlisted addition. This did pique my interest initially but the act, Max Manticof, was wholly underwhelming so I don't really understand what was happening there. On the bright side, my credit card worked.
I've been to The Stand's free Monday night show many times and very often have the same experience. I get excited by the prospect of seeing Aaron Berg host, Kerryn Feehan hosts instead, I get grumpy about her lack of talent, watch the show for a bit and then leave, usually without seeing Aaron. Did that happen this time? Let's wait and see.
As well as Kerryn and Aaron, the bill featured Sean Patton (again), Mark Normand (one of my faves), Josh Johnson who I like, Derek Gaines who I don't, Gavin Matts (fresh from his ill-advised Saturday night detour), Max Manticof (hmmmm) and the unknown Hannah Berner. We did briefly flirt with the idea of turning up 15 minutes late in the hope of missing Kerryn ("I'm a declining 8") ruin the show right from the top, but we figured the risk that we would instead be missing Aaron was too great.
We got seated close to the door (always handy) before being told that hardly any beers were available downstairs. Of course! Saturday night's success couldn't last all the way through to Monday. I went upstairs and brought our own down. Inevitably Kerryn was the host and as always she complained that the crowd "weren't getting it" when they were simply reacting appropriately. Sean Patton came up first and did pretty well, followed by a decent Josh Johnson (who I just found out writes on the Daily Show) and then Mark Normand. He started by announcing that everything he had to work on that night "was shit" but he absolutely stormed it, despite looking at little scraps of paper almost continuously. He referred to the audience at one point as a "hot crowd", confusingly at odds with the host's evaluation.
As Mark left the stage to thunderous applause making way for Max Manticof and with our beers done, rather than replace them, a thought occurred. We had only seen three actual acts but given that they were most of the names we were looking forward to, wouldn't it be best to cut our losses and run? Upstairs as we were closing out our tab Mark strolled by and we congratulated him. He seemed genuinely pleased at how well it had gone. Following him outside (not in a creepy way) we saw him disappear off in the direction of Union Square at a brisk jog, possibly to ward off the bitter cold. He wasn't dressed very sensibly. Young people these days.....
As I implied earlier, I like to try to visit as many different clubs and shows as I can but that wasn't possible or advisable on this trip, so Thursday saw us back at The Stand. The headliners were Ari Shaffir and Dan Soder but I was looking forward to seeing Emma Willmann. Once again we got seated near the door next to a bloke on his own who excitedly told us that Dan Soder was on (we know) and that he was from Billions. He's not FROM Billions. He was a successful comic before landing the Billions role. We ordered beers (no issues with availability this time) as did Dan Soder's Boyfriend.
Onika McLean hosted again and was even better second time round. Joe List, who I can take or leave was up first to no great effect. There was still no sign of our beers and on querying were told that "it can get backed up when it's busy". We've watched you seat a couple and provide them with pizza and cocktails before you can get two beers to our table?! The relatively anodyne Francis Ellis was next so I used that as an opportunity to go upstairs and get our own. While doing that I heard one of the club staff who often says hello to us promising some people at the bar that he could definitely get them in. He then apologised for not recognising us earlier but with masks on everyone looks the same. Getting back downstairs I found that the wait staff had JUST beaten me to it, so we had 4 drinks on our table. However it was another few minutes, probably nearly 40 from ordering, before DSB got his beer.
Ari was great, Mike Vecchione was listless and Emma was decent. As predicted the guys from upstairs did appear and got crammed in beside us in a space that didn't feel particularly COVID-safe, though that wouldn't be the worst example on the trip. Dan closed the show and while I've seen him better someone in the crowd was AWFULLY pleased. On the way out staff lad (whose name I should probably know by now) apologised to my less than thrilled girlfriend about the tightness of the seating at the end.
Our final show was to be at the Comedy Cellar and by that I mean the original MacDougal Street location, rather than the smaller but more sensibly laid out FBPC of our NYE show. I hadn't been to the MacDougal room for a while and I think had suppressed the memory of how poorly it's laid out. However the usual argument dominated the debate on attending - the line up was good. We had bankers in the form of Sam Morril, Chris DiStefano and Caitlin Peluffo, supplemented by Jon Laster, Dan Naturman and Gianmarco Soresi (all unknown quantities). What could go wrong?
We arrived in good time and I immediately noticed that Subhah Agarwal had been added to the line-up. She's a -1 on my "NY Comics" spreadsheet so that's not ideal. We got seated almost directly in front of the stage, except that I was facing another couple who were about two feet in front of me. I could easily touch them without leaving my seat, plus the two people to my right, plus the people behind me. When a staff member asked me to move even closer to the table to allow the people behind me into their non-existent space I thought "nah, fuck this". My girlfriend asked if we could move elsewhere and eventually the staff member relocated us to a spot to the left of the stage. This time neither of us were facing the stage and my girlfriend was about three feet behind the mic stand. I was all for leaving at this point but my girlfriend persevered and got us moved again. This time she could see but I was facing a wall but if I turned about 120 degrees I could see the stage. A girl to my right asked if I could lean forward otherwise she had no view. This place is a nonsense.
Jon Laster started as the host and did reasonably, though he had to contend with a steady stream of waitlist people arriving for the first 10 mins. Dan Naturman came on and really tanked. The crowd seemed quite restless and touristy. I got the impression they were turning up to tick off a "thing to do in NYC" rather than as fans of comedy. Whenever a US town was mentioned there'd be whooping from somewhere in the crowd. It got tedious. Dan went on for what seemed like hours and when Jon brought Gianmarco up he described the room as "weird". Gianmarco was animated but not to my taste and once Subhah had been inflicted upon us, I was having a pretty terrible time. At least we were finally about to enter the "good" part of the evening. Except Raanan Hershberg then came on. I panicked that he was replacing one of the good three but our server assured us that he was an add-on. I've seen him a few times before, often at bar shows, and he's fine but I was getting really hacked off by this point.
Eventually Caitlin was brought on and what a breath of fresh air she was. I'm not sure why she's not better known but it can only be a matter of time. Sam was up next and was oddly low energy and lacking in focus. Maybe he was on medication (I know he's suffering with a herniated disc right now) or he was just scunnered (excellent Scottish word) with the room but he was not his usual self. He certainly wasn't drunk as he's entertaining as hell on his drinking podcast, We Might Be Drunk. Chris closed and was fine if unremarkable. He's playing the Beacon Theatre in NYC next month with tickets starting at $49 and I'm going to say that that was not a performance consistent with that price point. Again, maybe he was just fucked off with the crowd.
We went upstairs to the Olive Tree afterwards for a drink and when Caitlin walked by I thanked her for being so good that night.
Trip Stats
Shows Entered - 5
Expenditure - $104 (a new record!)
% of times I was happy with The Stand's drink service - 33.3
Single best performance - Daniel Simonsen
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