THE COMEDY LOCAL

Independent New York comedy

[thecomedylocal]

Wanderfest at Houdini Pizza Friday—after that, only the wind knows

An interview with the Wanderfest comedy show creators, Kelsey Caine, Jack Comstock and Martin Urbano on our main site, here.

Wanderfest Friday Aug. 25th at 8 p.m. Houdini Pizza Kitchen 1563 Decatur St Ridgewood, NY 11385 Admission is free!

Liza Treyger (Comedy Central Half Hour) Joe Pera (Seth Myers) Ana Fabrega (Chris Gethard Show, Portlandia) Mike Recine (Comedy Central Half Hour) Shalewa Sharpe (Bridgetown) Emmy Blotnick (Comedy Central’s Comics to Watch) Luke Mones (Caroline’s Breakout Artist) Chloe McGovern (No Exit) Musical guests Max Azulay and Alex Mullen (Funny or Die)

[szpartytime]

Thanks to everyone who came to the July Sasheer Zamata Party Time! And thanks to Wyatt Cenac, David Cross, Maria Heinegg, and Cocoon Central Dance Team for being amazing! Pictures taken by the incomparable Mindy Tucker 🔥 The next show is part of the Brooklyn Comedy Festival and will be Sunday August 20th (this Sunday!) at the Bell House in Brooklyn, w/ Ilana Glazer, Eman El-Husseini, Tim Dillon & music by Khaya! Get your tix: http://www.thebellhouseny.com/event/1528002-sasheer-zamata-party-time-brooklyn

[thecomedylocal]

21 NYC Entries Selected as 2017 NYTVF Finalists

Anyone you know? Here they all are at one go.

Check out their films at our main site, TheComedyLocal.com, and check out all 52 of the finalists at NYTVF.com.

Eternity Fraternity Created by Kevin Barker, Ben Miller, and Nina Quill - Brooklyn, NY

Weird Creatures Created by Manolo Moreno - Brooklyn, NY Co-starring and Co-written by Jo Firestone (Writer - The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon)

Yummiloo Created by Traci Johnson, Bob Mowen, and Anthony Weintraub - New York, NY Created by Traci Johnson (co-creator Blues Clues)

Benefits with Friends Created by Graceann Dorse - Brooklyn, NY

City of Angles Created by Delaney Buffett and Katie Corwin - New York, NY

Dark of the Night Created by Eric Yearwood and Alex Meyers - Brooklyn, NY

Detective Detective Created by Pearson Jenks - Brooklyn, NY

Flatbush Misdemeanors Created by Dan Perlman and Kevin Iso - Brooklyn, NY

Giving Up Created by Kris Lefcoe - New York, NY Executive Produced by David Wain (Wet Hot American Summer) and starring Ben Kronberg (The Half Hour on Comedy Central), Zandy Hartig (Children’s Hospital), and featuring Jo Firestone (The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon) and Kyle Dunnigan (Inside Amy Schumer)

Let Me Die a Nun Created by Sarah Salovaara - New York, NY Starring Ana Fabrega (Portlandia) and Hari Nef (Transparent)

New York is Dead Created by Jenn Harris, Matthew Wilkas, and Randy Harrison - New York, NY Created by Jenn Harris and Matthew Wilkas (Gayby), Directed and Executive Produced by Randy Harrison (Queer as Folk), Featuring Bebe Neuwirth (Frasier, Cheers) and Jeff Hiller (Nightcap)

Night Crew Created by Mike Cabellon, Adrien Pellerin, and Katie Sicking - New York, NY

Primos, Inc. Created by Lucien Flores and Michela M. Smith - New York, NY Starring Jon Rua (Hamilton, In the Heights) and Federico Rodriguez (Bull) Projecting Created by James III, Jonathan Braylock, James Carr, and Jerah Milligan - New York, NY

Royally Created by Rachel B. Joyce - New York, NY Featuring Christina Seidel (Boardwalk Empire)

Sneakers Created by Rachel Wolther & Amy Zimmer - New York, NY Featuring Ana Fabrega (Portlandia), Jaboukie Young-White (Rough Night), Gary Richardson (Don't Think Twice) Solving Leah Created by Leah Bonnema, Melissa Pinsly, and Franklin Zitter - New York, NY Featuring Will Miles (The Chris Gethard Show) Splunch Created by Moujan Zolfaghari, Timothy Dunn, Michelle Ciotta, Silvija Ozols, Johnathan Fernandez, Hudson Meredith, Trevor Williams, Michelle Francesca Thomas, David Sidorov, Mehdi Barakchian, and Kristen Bartlett - New York, NY Co-written by Kristen Bartlett (SNL)

Tuff Boys Created by Ryan Harrington and Isaac Himmelman - Brooklyn, NY

Max Riddle Created by Jeff Skowron and Matt Yeager - New York, NY Featuring Brandon J. Dirden (The Americans, The Get Down) and Mary Birdsong (The Descendents, Reno 911!)

Giving Me Life (In The Land of The Deadass) Created by Dafina Roberts - New York, NY

From Jappan Created By Raj Trivedi - New York, NY

After Oil Created By Jessica Naftaly and Shailyn Cotten - New York, NY

[sarcasticvoyage]

Episode 31 of our comedic soap opera, Contentment Corner, is available now!

Click the image to hear it immediately.

Go to contentmentcorner.com for episodes 1-30 and bonus material.

Subscribe via iTunes.

Subscribe via not-iTunes (RSS).

write to us!

[thecomedylocal]

[shortmikeshort]

Improv and First Drafts

Below is the first draft of the intro to a project I’m tackling this year. Feedback appreciated.

I struggled with this book for a long time.

It’s hard to write a book about improv. The art itself is so here-and-gone, and encompasses so much possibility, that trying to concretize any of it into a book is a daunting, paralyzing task.

See, I really wanted to add something new to the conversation. I wanted to develop some amazing new technique or format or style that unlocks the next level of improv. I wanted to craft some perfect little philosophy that sums up the answer to every improv problem. Here’s the one single thing everyone’s been missing and I’ve figured out and now no one will ever have a bad scene ever again, until they do.

And that’s the real trick. The longer I do improv, the more I believe that there is no individual shortcut, not really, to doing successful scenes. There is no 100%, all-the-time way to play that keeps you from creating the dreaded “bad scene.”

Well, there is, but it’s a simple truth that’s hard to confront. Sexy names for methods and rules are easier to sell and allow the beginner to think they’re making real progress. But the real method requires almost Buddha-like Enlightenment. Plus, improv is highly contextual. I just can’t give you one easy trick to do a good scene because I’ve never seen you, dear reader, play. I didn’t see that scene that you’ve been retreading in your mind. I don’t know what you need. But more on that later.

Not to mention how conflicted I get. Improv is a joy. It’s supposed to be fun. And very often you’ll see blogs and books touting the wonderful effect improv has on your life. What magic this performance art has! What amazing things it imparts! And they’re right, the values and techniques of improv can help you in every day life. Openness, vulnerability, ownership of your feelings, playfulness, and mindfulness—all of these things make us better people. It’s also true that the art form itself is a joy, but it can be surrounded by terrible things. Marketing your show, dealing with gatekeepers and office politics, playing with oddballs off the street, dropping thousands of dollars to follow a theater’s program (and starting over at level 1!) before you can perform for them… the list goes on. Sometimes I don’t like Improv. It’s a real downer how much stuff is in between you and just doing a show.

And we have to face the truth. The biggest downer of all. There is something about improv that assaults people’s egos. Perhaps it’s because it seems like it is so easy. Unlike painting or music, there are no additional tools save the body you have to learning improv. You just get up there and talk to the other person, and say some funny stuff in between. So when we fail, when we do a scene that is hard to watch, when our hardest efforts get only a forced grunt of a laugh, we can’t help but take it personally.

A finished product in art and music and writing can be refined. It can be painted over, tuned, edited. Every critique by a viewer or a listener can be taken into account, and the work can be adjusted to the effect the creator desires. There’s no going back on an improv scene. By its very nature, it must be left behind. If you desired funny and you didn’t get it, no redress can be made. It’s like the dreadful, blood-draining feeling one gets during an awkward date or stilted job interview. That dread can stick.

Of course, the difference is that there are no lasting consequences to a bad improv scene. We forget that, but it’s true. (The worst consequence is that someone in the audience, having never seen improv before, will think it is all bad and will walk out never to return to another improv show ever. But even that can be managed, and dare I say if any audience member is so open-and-shut about an entire thing based on a single experience, then they were probably not going to be the type of person to enjoy any improv anyway.)

This book laid in the back of my mind and across dozens of half-started essays for years. I couldn’t find the one thing you can always say about improv. You see, Improv traffics in dichotomies. There is a craft, and there is also an art. You must be bold but also bend to your scene partner. You must act but also write. You must discover but also invent. You shouldn’t ask questions until you do, and you shouldn’t say no until you find that’s exactly the thing you should say right now.

It is amazing, it is awful. It is meaningful and immaterial. It’s the greatest thing I’ve ever devoted my time to, and it’s the least important thing I’ll ever do in my life. How do you write one book about any of this?

What I decided upon was this: I had to write a love letter.

And the thing about love is that you want all of the thing you love. The pretty parts and the ugly parts. The parts that make you jump for joy and the parts that make you shake your head. Love grows with and love accepts. I love improv, even though sometimes it’s a bit of a slog and I fall out of love now and then, and there’s nothing shameful in saying that.

I’m not the most well-known of performers or most experienced of teachers. I’m just one person who has a passion for the art form and is a deep thinker about the craft. What I want to do is use what I’ve learned to help you get better, revisit my mistakes so that you don’t make them, and share my thoughts to get your brain working too.

Let’s go.

[90s90s90s]

[thecomedylocal]

Beer Bellies and Bikinis Caitlin Hefner

Pour one out for summer! (Right onto your work shirt.)

Watch our 3 Hot Summer Comedy Jamz on WordPress

—@ComedyLocal

[thecomedylocal]

Go see Dead Darlings, “Shame Edition,”

July 17

Spotlights in the Spotlight: Our featured New York comedy show

Bring out your Dead Darlings, or at least come out to see Dead Darlings, “Shame Edition,” the variety salon show hosted by Amanda Duarte(originator of #pussygrabsback and co-host of fierce podcast, Girl Friday, with Erin Gloria Ryan).

Guests include:

Ashley Nicole Black (Full Frontal with Samantha Bee)

Kenny Mellman (Kiki and Herb, The Julie Ruin)

Adam Feldman (cabarettisto; drama critic, Time Out New York)

Wednesday July 12, 8pm

Judson Memorial Church, 55 Washington Square South

$10 Suggested Donation to benefit the family of Charleena Lyles

Follow along @ComedyLocal

And read TheComedyLocal.com 

[hyrude]

tell me why this budgetless gay youtube series made for fun by a group of friends has the best editing and writing of anything i’ve watched in a year.

also tell me how this single scene can contain every single one of the top three most iconic lines in history.

[thesheertruth]

It’s The Gay and Wondrous Life of Caleb Gallo and it’s very good

[hobolunchbox]

Classic Christie

[thecomedylocal]

A seriously hilarious, hilariously serious Song for July.

Very Serious Musical Theater Girl Lily Karlin

Watch the rest of our 3 Hot Summer Comedy Jamz on WordPress.

[jamesslanning]

Greenpoint, Brooklyn

[thecomedylocal]

2017 Summer Jam "TO THE CRUST" Eric Williams

Watch the rest of our 3 Hot Summer Comedy Jamz on WordPress.

Can you go to the crust? "TO THE CRUST" Written/Produced by/Starring: Eric Williams / @EricWillz Director of Photography: Grant Goldberg Song Production: Doug Widick and Sweet Tea Studios Travis Kent as Paul Ester Steinberg as Friend Dancers: Jacob January and Tyler Logan Special thanks to Matt Lummus, Mia Weinberger, Astoria Pizza, and that hot guy on 30th avenue who literally deep throated a slice of pizza. www.ericdanielwilliams.com

The Comedy Local thinks it must be pepper(oni)sexual.

Follow! @ComedyLocal

[spikeytim]

INSIDE A UFO

Engines roar, computers bleep Aliens snore, sound asleep Tin foil walls, cold as granite Destination: Some strange planet

[thecomedylocal]

And I am Not Lying is Weird, Wonderful Treasure

Good storyteller-comedy is really nice to listen to.

I mean, I loved Jeff Simmermon‘s new comedy album, And I Am Not Lying, because it’s genuinely powerful storytelling let off-leash by the law of comedy (a Newfoundland, running free before 9 am in the Prospect Park of my metaphor). Simmermon is a New York stand up and storyteller who has won several Moth StorySLAMS, including a 2014 GrandSLAM. His stories have appeared on This American Life, The Moth’s podcast, and in The Paris Review Daily. So, these stories are no slouches.

But I also just loved hearing it.

As an empire, And I Am Not Lying includes a live, basement rock show-style variety hour. The show “combines stand-up, storytelling, burlesque, sideshow and music on the second Friday of every month at UCB East,” according to its website. I’ve known about its presence in New York’s independent comedy world for a while, making me eager for the album.

As a comedy album (and as a pink vinyl record), Jeff Simmermon’s voice leads you through 12 narratives like a velvet rope through a shitstorm. Literally. I listened to the album while I walked to work through Brooklyn, dodging dog poo and dirty diapers left on curbs. I heard every word through the roar of the B41 and the boomboxes of guys vaping on hoverboards.

Don’t expect Garrison Keillor. And I Am Not Lying, recorded at the Black Cat music hall in Washington DC in 2016, feels more like an older brother telling you all the grossest, best things. By the end of the album, you know it’s Jeff Simmermon, who you feel like you know pretty well by then, and who you want to do well, telling you all the grossest, best things.

And they’re great things. These stories would be the treasure of a man’s life. If I lived these stories, they would be my Truth. They would be Lifeblood. On jeans. The livid dad in corpseface. One chicken’s tribute to GWAR! Kangaroo hunting, cancer, divorce and shrimps, fully formed, springing from the butt of Zeus. Listen to it, so you know what the hell I’m talking about.

Listen to it. And I Am Not Lying is funny, awful, memorable and listenable, and one of the best albums I’ve heard in a long time. And if Jeff Simmermon approaches me in Forbidden Planet in ten years and says, “I was in a …”  Without hesitation, I’ll say, “chicken band,” because it is impossible to forget.

—Sara Harvey @SaraHarvy

Check out And I Am Not Lying on iTunes

Tracks: 1 – Intro 2 – Fake Job 3 – Doctor Gorilla 4 – Vomit Fist 5 – Royal Quiet Deluxe, Chicken Band vs. Reverend Al Sharpton (Part 1) 6 – Royal Quiet Deluxe, Chicken Band vs. Reverend Al Sharpton (Part 2) 7 – Buy A Gun 8 – ‘Roo Shooter 9 – Cancer Survivor 10 – Dating After Seven Years 11 – Subway Groceries 12 – Brown Birds, White Lightning, by the band Royal Quiet Deluxe (Bonus)

http://www.jeffsimmermon.com/ twitter.com/jeffsimmermon

[thecomedylocal]

I really believe in taking full responsibility for my role in a story. A personal story can span a number of timeframes and locations; the only constant is me. I like to think about why I reacted the way I did, how I got myself into a situation, what it is that I wanted that either led me in deep or made me ignore any number of warning signs to press onward.

Jeff Simmermon via The Nerds Templar