Amy Schumer Produces Comedy Special for Rachel Feinstein, Tracy Morgan Drop in at The Stand, and More News From the NY Comedy Clubs
Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York who loves to Jump Around. Follow his regular column, right here, to find out what’s happening in comedy, and who Jeffrey Gurian ran into this week in and around New York. This week, Jeffrey stopped at The Stand, The Village Underground, Bravo TV and more! Also Jeffrey is going up this week at Broadway Comedy Club for his first headlining gig ever! Scroll down for details and please join us to support comedy’s biggest supporter this Thursday!
I branched out a lot this week and caught a bunch of different kind of comedy things, including a Bravo reality show!
Amy Schumer Produces Comedy Special for Her Best Friend Rachel Feinstein
If there was a highlight to my week it was seeing Rachel Feinstein tape her Amy Schumer-produced hour special for Comedy Central at the Gerald Lynch Theatre on West 59th Street. In fact it was called Amy Schumer Presents Rachel Feinstein. In the lobby waiting to attend the second taping of the night I ran into lots of comedy peeps like Kyle Grooms, Keith Malley and Chemda from Keith and The Girl, comedy executive Maureen Taran, Joe Machi, Pat Brown, and Mark Farrell who’s producing the Patrice O’Neal documentary. Cipha Sounds is so humble that he didn’t even tell me when I saw him the night before that he was opening the show which was a fun surprise! After his warm up set, there were three falst starts to the show. Every time he announced that Rachel was coming out the audience went nuts and Cipha came back out to say they were adjusting the lights or something. It was funny. Finally Amy Schumer came out to THUNDEROUS applause, and didn’t perform but thanked everyone for coming to support her “best friend” Rachel Feinstein, and it was a perfect way to get people even more psyched than they were already!
Rachel came out in a very sexy dress with cut-outs on top, and brightly colored shoes, and said she was told to keep pulling down her dress which rode up every so often. She did a hilarious hour of material with all the characters and voices that people love and expect from her. After the show we went backstage to congratulate her, and ran into Vanessa Bayer on her way out. I congratulated Rachel on a super show and then told her I’d see her at the after party at The Hudson Hotel. I walked the few blocks to the party and came upon a forlorn looking Jeffrey Ross standing outside the hotel. He told me he had just left his phone in the Uber that brought him there, and he didn’t know what to do. Jeffrey told me to go up to the party but I felt badly leaving him there like that so I started calling his cell over and over again hoping the driver would eventually hear the buzzing and call us back. On the 11th try he did, and Jeffrey gave him a nice tip to drive back and bring him his phone.
I went up to the party which was at a dark bar, but light enough to see a few people. Sam Morril was there talking to JoAnn Grigioni, the Comedy Central executive in charge of the show and I congratulated her on a great event as well. It was wall to wall comics and executives, and I finally left to get some rest, but don’t tell anyone that I sleep because no one will believe you!
Tracy Morgan Drops in at the Stand and the Audience Went Berzerk; New MTV Prank Show Starts Filming
I stopped by The Stand for an official visit and got the lowdown on what was coming up for the New York Comedy Festival. First of all Aaron Berg dropped the news on me that the night before he was hosting and Tracy Morgan came by to do a set. The audience went berserk, and Tracy went up and did about 15 minutes talking about the the past year and all the things he had been through. Aaron said he actually felt emotional seeing Tracy looking so good, and so happy and filled with gratitude to be out performing again after his ordeal. He said that Tracy got two standing ovations, one when he came up and one when he finished. People do love Tracy Morgan. I have not seen him yet but I’m sure I will soon!
Giulio Gallarotti was there and told me he will be doing an hour at The Stand for New York Comedy Week, on Saturday with Ben DeMarco hosting and Ricky Velez doing a spot as well. They are all part of the Fat Baby crew. Ben DeMarco did some crazy shit when he put on a black wig that looked either like a girl’s wig or a Beatle wig and went up on stage as an Australian comedian named Mooopie Boooman who is very proud of the fact that he had “three “o’s” in each his first and last name. He did his entire set like that, in an Aussie accent, cracking himself up every so often, as well as the audience and kept referencing the three O’s in his name over and over again. Derek Gaines is also doing an hour on Friday.
As we were all hanging outside the club in this amazing Spring-like weather Jade Catta-Preta came along and joined us and told me she was in town from LA to do a prank show for MTV called Lady Like, with all women and Matteo Lane. They started filming last week and play around with switching stereotypes. It’s Jade, Blair Socci, and Nicole Byer from Girl Code. I asked Jade if she ever accidentlaly laughed while pranking people and she said she almost did when one of the girls sprayed whipped cream on a guy’s crotch and actually bent down and started licking it off. She said at that moment, she almost lost it!
One night as I pulled up to The Stand to see if anyone was hanging out, my boy Paul Virzi threw a copy of his debut album Night At The Stand through the window of my car, as a little present. He taped it at The Stand and it got to #4 on the Billboard charts. He’s totally psyched about opening for Bill Burr at Madison Square Garden on Saturday as part of the New York Comedy Festival. I will somehow be running back and forth between that and Judd Apatow and Friends at Carnegie Hall! I haven’t quite figured out how I’m going to do that yet, but trust me, I will!
I jumped down to the Village Underground to catch Cipha Sounds comedy show in honor of the release of his new series No Small Talk on Jay-Z’s Tidal streaming service, and got there early enough to catch the end of Tom Papa’s show Come To Papa. William Stephenson was on stage reading a script out loud with Tom in which he played a character named Mr. Virus who was, … if I got it correctly, … threatening to infect Tom’s computer. Kyle Grooms came in and we kept each other company laughing in the back of the room, while Cipha did his thing. Cipha has turned into one of the great hosts on the comedy scene. Next time I see him I have to ask whether he was kidding or serious about his Mom being a gang member in the 70’s in a gang called “The Savage Skulls” which I knew about having grown up in The Bronx. I had to laugh cause I used to tell people that my Mom had been in The Crips and left very suddenly to switch sides and join The Bloods.
In between acts, Kyle told me he started a room in Miami where he spends a lot of time. It’s a monthly show on Wednesday nights called Wednesday Night Live, which he does from the Flamingo Theatre Bar, inside the Four Ambassadors Hotel. He said since the Miami Improv closed there’s been a need for another room. So far he’s had Mike Vecchione come down along with Greer Barnes, Imagine and Ruperto Vanderpool, all strong acts.
Ardie Fuqua Opens Up About Performing Again After the Car Crash
Ardie Fuqua opened Cipha’s show and that was great seeing him back on stage again. After his set we went upstairs together to sit and catch up. He was wearing one of his super cool suits and headphones, which is an interesting look that maybe only Ardie could pull off. He told me he cursed out a lot of people that week and in trying to commiserate with him I said, “Bad week huh?” And he said, “No GREAT week. I LOVE cursing people out! Especially people who deserve it.” Ardie said it was “an honor to be asked to do a show after having been off any stage for 18 months” and that he was very grateful to Cipha for giving him the opportunity. He said it wasn’t about killing anymore for him it was about sharing your truth, sharing the pain and talking about your insecurities in a forum where you take your sadness and add punchlines. He said that life and comedy were about overcoming obstacles. This was his third time back on stage since the accident, his first being just a few weeks ago. He said it felt great performing again.
Ardie and I walked back around the corner to The Cellar and ran into Mark Normand who literally ran by but took the time to jokingly shout us out as “The two best dressed guys in comedy’! Ardie stopped to give a homeless man some money and told me about “the 3 C’s”, … the things in life that people had a hard time accepting, “Compliments, Criticism, and Currency” and he had a well thought out explanation of all three of them.
Ryan Hoffman and Nick Ruggia of Temple Horses do a cool show downtown in a very cool place with a weird name, Open Door Gastropub. It’s a beautiful restaurant with a stage in the back and a large room for performing. They produce it with a comic named AC Roe who was a radio guy down South before he came up here. AC and Ryan met when they did a film together and in April started this show and it’s going really well. They’ve had Greer Barnes, Derek Gaines, Damien Lemon, Godfrey and even White comics like Mark Normand, and Sean Donnelly! (LOL) The night I was there I went up right before Keith Alberstadt. They also produce the New York Comedy Shorts Festival which takes place this Saturday at this same Gastropub! I’m like, “Why Temple Horses? Where did that name come from?” Ryan explained that he and Nick always thought there should be an animal somewhere in the name, so when Nick suggested Temple Whores, Ryan thought he heard Temple Horses and the name stuck. The REALLY cool thing about these guys is that they do a paid show, because it bothers them to ask fellow comics to work for free so they pay every comic that comes to the stage, which is really awesome, and very admirable.
When Tom Rhodes was in town last Thanksgiving, and stayed with me he introduced me to a friend of his at The Cellar one night, a very talented comedic actor named Lucie Pohl, who travels the world doing her one woman shows. Born Jewish in Germany, she has a show she’s been touring called Hi Hitler which as a little girl is what she thought people were saying. It’s at Under St. Marks Theatre and I was at the second of two sold out shows. It was just extended for three more, in the last week of November. She is a tour-de-force doing so many characters, and accents the entire way through. Non-stop hilarity and I was blown away by her talent!
Gary Levitt co-produces a weekly show at Hi Fi Lounge called I Don’t Get It which is hopefully not what the audience is saying. I’ve done the show and was always impressed with the talent they draw. So I was willing to drive out to Brooklyn to check out his podcast The Gary Hour which he does with actor/sketch comic Matt Kaplan. Great studio, interesting dudes, and we did a fun hour plus, talking comedy, Healing, overcoming obstacles like FEAR, and all kinds of cool stuff! Check it out.
Got to do a little thing on Bravo TV’s Million Dollar Listing this week because everyone loves comedy! I was on with Luis D. Oritz who co-stars with Ryan Serhant, in a show where they showcase luxurious homes and fight to get their share of the market. We were at a $16 million penthouse on West 57th Street in the Metropolitan Tower, and when Luis asked me what I thought about it, I jokingly said it was OK, but I would have preferred a higher floor. (It was on the 77th and 78th floor) He asked if I wanted to buy it. I asked him if he had change of a 20 million dollar bill, and whipped out my big pen which I only use for signing big deals! We had laughs and a lot of fun. There was also a lot of drama, including a real confrontation on the set, but Luis handled himself really well, and I got to tell him that after it was over. He’s a great guy with incredible style.
Coming up on November 16th at Gotham is the annual Laugh For Sight event, which is celebrating it’s 10th anniversary. This year’s show will be Hosted by Boomer & Carton’s Craig Carton, with comedy by Robert Klein, Artie Lange, Gilbert Gottfried, Todd Barry, Rich Vos, Bonnie McFarlane, Daryl Wright, and of course producer Brian Fischler and his seeing eye dog Nash. There will be a Silent Auction/Cocktail Hour Hosted by Susan Michel at 7pm, and the laughs will start at 8:30. Tickets are $50 with a two drink minimum and VIP Preferred Seating with an open bar is $150. Tickets can be purchased by calling 212-367-9000 or at this link.
Come Check Out My Headlining Debut This Week, Half Price Tix For Readers of This Column
And lastly I, Jeffrey Gurian, will be making my headlining debut this coming Thursday November 12 at Broadway Comedy Club on the 10 P.M. show in a show produced by Ron Herron of Herron Entertainment, where tickets are going for a lot less! Also on the show besides other fun comics will be FOX News reporter Tamara Holder. Hope you will come out and support! I need all the help I can get! For industry comps for execs and comics write to me at jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com. Half price tix for readers of The Interrobang are available at ronherroncomedyshows.com using the discount code GURIAN
Hope to see you there!
Anyway, that’s it for me! I’m OUT!!!
Jeffrey Gurian is a comedian, writer and all around bon vivant in New York City. Subscribe to his YouTube channel, Comedy Matters TV. Below, photos, Jeffrey Gurian with Jeffrey Ross and a very large thumbs up, Jeffrey with Cipha Sounds, Jeffrey sitting with Ardie Fuqua and Ricky Velez, Jeffrey hanging with Rachel Feinstein, and Jeffrey with Bravo TV’s Luis D. Ortiz
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