An Exploration of the NYC Comedy Scene
By: Becca Gmerek
If you’re looking for something to do on a Friday night, or any night for that matter, New York City is full of options. You just have to find them! I, like most people, love to laugh. So I figured I would dive into New York’s comedy scene and see exactly where all of these Saturday Night Live comedians come from.
My first step was researching all of the comedy clubs. Finding them was not an issue. The issue was trying to decide which one(s) to go to! I finally narrowed my options down to four that had good reviews and some pretty famous alumni (bonus for them only costing $0-$15)! I invited some friends and we spent a weekend hitting up New York’s infamous comedy clubs.
Our first stop was The Magnet Theater. We walked in and were immediately greeted by a small bar offering cups of boxed wine and beer to take into the show. The theater itself was a small black box style room with limited seating. If you’ve seen Friends, think the little theater that Joey has his play in. It’s pretty much exactly that. If you haven’t seen Friends… It’s a small room with a couple rows of stadium seating and a small stage down front. Tonight’s show was improvisation and the audience was a key player. Before going to our seats we were asked to write down a confession and put it in a bucket. During the show the comedians would take turns picking confessions from the bucket and creating skits based off of them. It was a hilarious twist that really got the audience involved. They were only able to get through about five of the confessions and of course, my luck, they chose mine. It ended up being the funniest skit of the night and not at all embarrassing because nobody even knows it was you that wrote it! Unless you tell somebody… The show was really fun and I would totally go back!
After that we went to The PIT Loft. PIT stands for Peoples Improv Theater and they have a pretty impressive list of alumni including Ellie Kemper (Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt), Kristen Schaal and Hannibal Buress. Needless to say, I went in with pretty high expectations with them having that kind of roster! The show I went to ended up being the complete opposite of what I expected. It ended up being a scripted “comedy” show and to be honest, the only people that were laughing in the theater were the people that knew some of the actors. I don’t want to let this ruin my view of the venue itself because I’m sure they have some great shows… but this one was definitely a miss. I genuinely thought I was being punk’d at one point and was waiting for Ashton to come out with the cameras. I’m sure some people would actually like the show but it just wasn’t my cup of tea. I went in expecting to be crying of laughter and instead I left wondering exactly what part I was supposed to find funny. However, I don’t want to let this ruin The PIT for myself or anybody reading this. I want to go back and try a different show and I would still recommend it to people, just maybe don’t go see a show called Dark Matter (sorry I really didn’t want to out them like that but if I can help someone save $8 and half an hour then I have to!).
We called it a night after we left a comedy show contemplating the universe cause that is just not what we signed up for. After our first night, even though we had a miss, I still felt optimistic! We had already seen two very different shows and I couldn’t wait to see what else New York had to offer.
My next stop was The UCB Theatre in the East Village. UCB stands for the Upright Citizens Brigade. It was founded by Amy Poehler and her improve group from Chicago! This theatre is pretty well known and is breeding ground for future SNL talent. The style of comedy for this show was improv, similar to the first show I saw in some ways. For this show they asked the audience to yell out random words until the comedians heard one they liked. Once they decided on a word, they started to monologue/riff until they settled on a story they wanted to act out. This kept going for the entire show and something cool they did was they connected all of the stories each time. I now know that this is called long form improvisation, which means the performers create an entire show consisting of interconnected scenes, ideas and characters completely made up on the spot. This style of improv was brought from Chicago to New York by The UCB. I enjoyed this show a lot and loved the amount of audience participation. You could tell as the show progressed people got more and more excited to play along and it got harder to choose just one word from the audience. I look forward to seeing some of these comedians on SNL one day and being able to say I saw them when they were just starting out!
Last but certainly not least was The Gotham Comedy Club. This venue boasts the more traditional stand up comedy that I was expecting to see when I first started looking for comedy clubs. They’ve hosted acts like Jerry Seinfeld and Gabriel Iglesias! I pass this place everyday on my walk between the subway and work and I always wondered what it was, so it was super exciting to finally go in. If you’ve ever watched The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel on Amazon, the club was kind of like the bar she performs in. It’s a little stage surrounded by a bunch of dinner tables. This layout was definitely different from all of the other clubs I visited, but it was a welcome change. They have a rotating cast of up and coming comedians as well as people that are already well established. You really can’t go wrong here because they always have new acts and you get to see multiple comedians in one night!
After having gone to four very different comedy clubs/theaters, I can’t really pick a favorite. They were all so unique that there isn’t one that I prefer to the other. In NYC you can go out one night and hit so many different clubs and types of comedy that it really just depends on what you’re in the mood for! I’ve lived in New York for over three years now and I can’t believe it took me this long to go to a comedy club. I feel like I’ve been missing out on an entire subculture of New York that I never really knew existed! So, if you’re ever looking for something to do at night (pretty much any day of the week) hit up a comedy club and have a few laughs, you can’t go wrong with any of them!
