New York Comedy Festival Starts Today: Here’s Our Top Picks

The New York Comedy Festival starts today, and they’re offering more shows and opportunities to watch comedy than ever before. With over 100 shows to choose from, and more comedians performing than we can count, how can you possibly decide where to go and what to see at this year’s festival? We’re here to help.

We cover the country, but New York’s our home, so we’d like to think we know where to go and what to see. This year there are so many brand new shows on the festival slate and many of them from young and great talents- some so young even we haven’t had the chance to discover them yet but we’ve done our best to pick out the top things to do and see.

One of the most exciting additions to this year’s roster is a brand new comedy hub at Ian Schrager’s hip and trendy Public Hotel on the Lower East Side. The NYCF’s partner, TBS, is sponsoring the Hub, which will offer multiple spaces including a hub, a lounge and a main stage to see panel discussions, tapings, podcasts and showcase shows. Be sure to make your way down there at some point in the festival. The rest of the events are scattered throughout the city and the boroughs and we’ve chosen events at some of our favorite venues to spotlight.

Night by Night Guide. 30 Shows to Do and See at the 2017 NYCF

TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 7th TOP PICKS:

  • Above Average Showcase. 6:30pm at the Public Hotel. Matteo Lane, Ken Reid, Joel Kim Booster, Jacqueline Novak and Jordan Carlos will perform on TBS’s main stage.  Great talents and a great way to kick off the festival.  Tickets are free and available on the TBS/NYCF site.
  • You Know What Dude.  7:00pm at the Public Hotel. One of New York City’s favorite podcast, Robert Kelly’s YKWD will perform a live show at the TBS Hub.  Tickets are free and available on the TBS/NYCF site.
  • Midnight Run Screening with Brian Regan. 7pm at the Film Forum. When will you ever get a chance to watch a movie with Brian Regan? Enjoy one of Brian’s favorite funny movies with the man himself in attendance. A Q&A with Regan follows.  Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • Keeping Joe Podcast. 8:30pm at the Fat Black Pussycat.  One of our favorite new podcasts! Joe Machi doesn’t want to do a podcast, and every week the group bickers and tries to convince Joe to stay.  Liz Furiati, the Comedy Cellar manager, sits in to oversee the anarchy. WARNING: This podcast has the potential to turn into a musical at any time. Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • RoastMasters. 10pm at The Stand. Luis J. Gomez hosts New York City’s incarnation of Comedy Central’s Roastmasters Show.  Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • Midnight Snack. 11:15pm at New York Comedy Club. A one of a kind comedy show. Hosted by Josh Adam Meyers the Frontman, Jeremiah Watkins on the Sax & Avery Pearson on the Keys. Featuring Dulcé Sloan, Sean Patton, and Matteo Lane. Go to NYCF site for tickets.

WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 8th TOP PICKS:

  • Full Frontal with Samantha Bee, Live Taping.  5pm to 8pm.  Samantha Bee took late night by storm with her coverage of the 2016 Presidential election and she’s still going strong.  Don’t miss a chance to see it all happen live.  Tickets are free and available on the TBS/NYCF site.
  • Sara Schaefer Little White Box. 10pm Union Hall.  Cross the river to catch this former New Yorker turned LA comedian back in the city. Whether you know Sara as co-host of MTV’s Nikki & Sara Live, or her appearances all over tv, or her outstanding web series Day Job, or her podcast, Lies which is going to become a radio show, or even if you don’t know her at all, this is a show not to be missed. Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • Stand Up on the Spot 9:15 New York Comedy Club. Recently featured in GQ Magazine as one of the “Five Funniest Nights in America” SOTS brings up comedians with no prepared material, who create material, on the spot, based on audience suggestions.
  • Tuesdays With Stories, Live.  11pm at the New York Comedy Cellar.  Tuesdays With Stories is celebrating four years, and it is BE-LOVED.  Joe List and Mark Normand are a gigantic hit. We just wrote all about them in a four year anniversary interview, check it out, and go see the live experience. Go to NYCF site for tickets.

THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 9th TOP PICKS:

  • Witch Hunt. 6:30 at New York Comedy Club.  This monthly stand up series is a hit on both coasts, and is presented by super producer Luisa Diez in NYC and LA comedian Merrill Davis.  This New York edition will feature lineups that are female dominated (but not exclusively female). Some of our favorite women will be on this edition including Yamaneika Saunders, Jess Kirson and Liza Treyger. Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • Tim Dillon’s Bus Tour. 9:30pm NYC. A smash hit last year, Tim Dillon returns with his double decker bus tour of New York City. Tim explains New York as a pathology more than a place. From real estate to food to people that have wronged him, the tour is filled with helpful hints for travelers and people who want to understand that the devil is real.
  • Ari Shaffir’s Renamed Storytelling Show.  8:00 pm at Union Hall.  Many comedians put on storytelling shows, but Shaffir elevated the comedy subgenre to an art, and a killer tv show.  Well shit happens, and Ari can no longer use the show’s former name, but he will not stop getting your favorite comedians to tell you stories grouped around a theme.  No lineup listed yet but you can guarantee a great show. Go to NYCF site for tickets.
  • Writers of Conan Live. 9pm at the Public Hotel. Head back downtown for another edition of the Writers of Conan Live at the TBS Comedy Hub.  Conan loves and supports comedy- maybe more than any other late night host, and he not only brings the most comedians to perform on his show, he also hires them as writers.  The line up will inevitably be amazing.
  • Big Jay Oakerson: The Crowdwork Sessions Volume 2 Album Taping.  Big Jay’s first crowdwork album, The Crowdwork Sessions was a huge hit and now you can be in the audience for the taping of Volume 2. One of our favorite comedians anywhere on the planet, Big Jay’s taping will not disappoint anyone unless you have issues with some adult language.  Expect this show to pack out even at this late hour.  Go to NYCF site for tickets.

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 10th TOP PICKS:

  • Comedies & Cocktails Panel: Harold Ramis Film School. 5pm Public Hotel.  Harold Ramis Film School Program Director and film director Jack C. Newell will helm a gathering of comedic minds talking about behind-the-scenes stories about what it was like working on comedy classics like Groundhog Day, National Lampoon’s Vacation, and Caddyshack, insight on how the next generation of comedic storytellers is creating content, and why Chicago is the best place on Earth to hone your comedic voice.
  • Screening: Everybody Has an Andy Dick Story. 5:30pm Roxy Screening Room.  See the film that the Chicago Comedy Film Festival doesn’t want you to see.  A documentary about one of the most outrageous personalities in the business.
  • Tom Segura: No Teeth No Entry.  7:00 at Town Hall.  He’s one of the best storytellers in the business and hosts one of the funniest podcasts on any platform. His two Netflix specials turned him from a best kept secret to a one of the hottest tickets in the festival.
  • Joey Coco Diaz Headlining.  10pm at Gotham. (various times all weekend). Diaz is headlining Gotham all weekend giving you multiple chances to see him kill.
  • Nacho Bitches. 11:30 at New York Comedy Club.  Two words, free nachos. Corinne Fisher and Blair Socci host this weird and wild late night show.  Michael Che, Gary Gulman, Pete Davidson, Ari Shaffir, Chris Gethard & Kevin Meaney have been regulars on the show and you don’t know who will show up this time. Blair’s moving to Los Angeles we hear, so hurry up and catch this special event.

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 11th TOP PICKS:

  • Late Late Breakfast. 2pm Creek and the Cave.  Two years ago this was one of our favorite events at the New York Comedy Festival.  This show promises great lineups and they put their performers through the ringer asking them to perform under absolutely hilarious but awful conditions.  This is truly a party.  So far on the list is Aparna Nancherla, Sean Patton, Langston Kerman, Sonia Denis, Giulia Rozzi, Casey James Salengo, Emmy Blotnick, Joyelle Johnson and Clare O’Kane. Shit gets weird.
  • New York’s Funniest Stand Up Finals. 4pm Carolines Comedy Club.  It’s one of the most packed out shows of the entire festival every year and a chance to find out ahead of the rest of the world which young stand up comedians are going to be the ones everyone is talking about over the next few years. Killer show, and you’re not doing anything else at 4pm.  Get down there and support. This is the true center of the fest.
  • Brian Regan. 8pm Carnegie Hall.  Regan is the best of the best. Every comedian loves him, because he is a master craftsman, and he is hilariously funny.  The best in the business bow to Regan, and now he takes his talents to one of the most famous stages in the country- Carnegie Hall. And he’s got a Netflix special coming out later this month. Stay tuned for the first of a two part series interview with Regan out tomorrow.
  • Jim Norton: Kneeling Room Only Tour.  9:45pm Town Hall. You know him from Opie and Anthony, Jim and Sam, Time Magazine, his Netflix Special Mouthful of Shame or any one of his numerous books, podcasts, writing gigs, albums or hour specials.  He brings his latest tour to his NYC home, at Town Hall.
  • Ron Bennington: Crowd Source. 10pm The Stand Comedy Club. One of the funniest people in the business, Ron Bennington, host of Unmasked, Ron Bennington Interviews and SiriusXM’s Bennington Show returned to the stand up stage for the first time in decades earlier this year, and now he’s doing his first stand up hour, with an crowd interactive show called Crowd Source. Be the first to find out what that means, Saturday night.

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 12th TOP PICKS:

  • Search Party Season 2 Streamfest Brunch. 11am to 3pm.  This may be the greatest idea ever. Watch season 2 of TBS hit show Search Party while enjoying “Bloody Marias,” compliments of Patrón, all in celebration of the bloody new season that premieres on November 19th.
  • Sam Jay Headlines: 7:30pm UCBT East Village.  Sam Jay was the talk of Just for Laughs this year.  She recorded an album at The Stand earlier this fall. An excellent way to spend an hour on a fall Sunday.
  • Liza Treyger Sex and the City Trivia Night. 7:30pm Littlefield. Liza Treyger hosts Sex and The City Trivia Night! You’ll answer questions, you’ll drink, you’ll watch a couple episodes and there will be surprise comedian guests on the mic making fun of it all. There will be prizes!  No need to elaborate on why this will be as much fun as you can possibly have while not watching football.
  • Picture This.  10pm Union Hall.  Created by Brandie Posey & Sam Varela and hosted by one of our favorite young New York comedians Ian Fidance Picture This brings together  stand-ups, voice actors, animators, cartoonists, and other artists to live illustrate whatever the fuck the comedians on stage are talking about. It’s an absolute blast and a perfect way to end the fest.

All tickets are available at New York Comedy Festival’s Website or the TBS Comedy Hub Website.  Shows run from Tuesday November 7th through Sunday November 12th. See you out there!

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