Inside Amy Schumer is Filming in NYC, The Iron Sheik Checks Out Comedy and New York Comedy Club Has a New Booker
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 covered the scene at Gotham Comedy Club, The Stand, Greenwich Village Comedy Club, and New York Comedy Club.
Inside Amy Schumer Filming in NYC
I walked out of my house right into a shoot for Inside Amy Schumer, this week. It’s one of my favorite shows of all time. It was crazy! Lemme tell you how it went down. I was on my way to a doctor’s appointment when I left my building in the East 50’s to find a crowd out front on the street. Then I saw the cameras, so I went over to ask them what they were shooting and some guy said it was for Comedy Central. I was like, “What show?” And the guy said “Amy Schumer”. I was like, “Is Amy here? She’s a friend of mine.” And he pointed to a little park that’s adjacent to my building, and sure enough there was Amy filming a scene with two or three other girls. As I walked into the park someone from the show tried to stop me by saying they were filming, as if I had planned to walk into the scene, and ruin the shot, but my super and the managing agent of my building were there and quickly intervened saying, “You can’t stop our tenants from coming into our space. This belongs to the building.” Amy had no clue this was going on.
I stood waiting quietly on the side as she did a few takes of her and her “friends” walking out of the park and down the street and when she saw me standing there she yelled out, “Hi Jeffrey, nice to see you!” and I had just enough time to tell her that I live in the building, because people always wonder how I turn up everywhere. This time was a total accident. And then they walked her into a huge trailer that was parked on the avenue, and I ran off to my doctor’s appointment. Sad to say that may be the closest I get to being on Inside Amy Schumer which is a show I absolutely love!
Corinne Fisher and Kyrstyna Hutchinson Tape Ted Talk
I talked with Corinne Fisher about her recent Ted Talk which she gave with her comedy partner Krystyna Hutchinson at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She said it was very exciting and quite an honor, and there were about a thousand people. She said they didn’t realize they had so many fans in NC and that they did an impromptu show at a local bar with only 12 hours notice and had to turn away more than 100 people. She said that two 13 year old girls had actually traveled far just to see and meet them. And the talk, which was a TEDx talk went to about 20 minutes, and it will be up on the official TED website in about two weeks. I asked Corinne how she was notified that she was accepted to do the talk, and she said the word came while she was hosting the Halloween version of Nacho Bitches. She was dressed as Ronald McDonald when Krystyna who was dressed as the singer Lorde came and told her!
Simon Cadel Talks About New Series and Web Series
Sixteen year old comedy wunderkind Simon Cadel made a guest appearance at a Ron Herron show at Greenwich Village Comedy Club and Tom Saunders the co-Executive Producer of Arrested Development and Creator and Executive Producer of Simon’s new show Raising Expectations was there to watch him perform. Simon is in all 26 episodes of the new show which was shot in Canada. He was there with his Momager, Betsy who travels with him wherever he goes, and who kept me up to date on what he was doing while he was shooting in Canada. He plays a character named Emmett Wayney one of five Wayney children, whose parents are played by Jason Priestly and Molly Ringwald, and Emmett is the only one not considered multi-exceptional! The logline describes his character by saying, “What he lacks academically, athletically, or artistically he makes up for with relentless enthusiasm and curiosity.” Simon’s also launching a new web series which he started shooting last summer at JFL in Montreal with T.J. Miller and Jake and Amir as his first guests. It’s called Talking Funny with Simon Cadel and more on that very soon!
Mackenson Louis Finished Shooting TV Pilot
I took a ride over to The Comic Strip to see what was being billed as a “clean show”. It was being produced by comic/producer Mackenson Louis a Haitian born comic who’s been in New York since he was 8 years old. I asked him what was behind his desire to book only clean shows and he told me he had started performing in Church, because his mother was a Baptist Minister, and he started out doing plays for the congregants. He just finished shooting a TV pilot which he is shopping called Comedy Joyride, a sketch show he describes as a combination of Chappelle Show meets In Living Color, with a twist of SNL in it’s prime. Also in the cast is Wild ’N Out’s Jacob Williams with whom I recently filmed some sketches for the upcoming Brandon T. Jackson/Rip Micheals sketch show Off The Rip. Mackenson got the pilot filmed by the news crew of News 12 Long Island because one of the directors for the news is also one of the producers of the pilot.
Talking with Tyler Richardson and Larry Beyah
I saw Tyler Richardson performing at The Stand. He described himself as “the whitest Black dude anyone ever saw” and it’s mostly because of the way he dresses and the way he speaks. He was ostracized from his community growing up for “not being Black enough”, and I found that very interesting and disturbing at the same time. Tyler said he didn’t want his kid, (when he has one!) to grow up with the same issues he had to deal with and not have to explain themselves to anyone as he has had to do growing up. As a comedian he gets the opportunity to make this point in his comedy, which people in other fields do not have the freedom to do. His Mom used to tell him that when women got to be 30 years old they’d appreciate him, which didn’t make his 20 year old self feel much better. He’s competing with Aaron Berg this Tuesday, in Carolines annual March Madness brackets, and has a couple of filmed sketches on Funny or Die. He’s also excited about auditioning for Just for Laughs on March 16th at Stand-Up New York, as he’s never been up to JFL in Montreal and is really hoping that this is his time.
Also at The Stand I got to ask frequent host Larry Beyah how he got started in comedy. He has so much energy he literally starts performing before he even gets to the stage. He’s yelling out while he’s still in the audience making his way to the stage. He told me he had been in the Air Force serving in Kuwait, and had never performed before but he used to kid around with all the guys to raise the mood, and to build what he called “Esprit De Corps” which I think is a saying The Marines use. Anyway, all the other guys thought he was very funny, so when he got out of the service, he went into comedy. And that’s where he learned how to yell like that. So people could hear him over the noise of the jet engines. This guy doesn’t even need a mic! So if you wanna be a comic enlist in the Air Force!
Pride Show Fundraises at Historic Stonewall Inn
There was not one seat empty at Chrissie Mayr’s amazing Gay Pride show that she held at the legendary Stonewall Inn on Christopher Street. Chrissie co-hosted the show with Oscar Aydin and they took turns bringing up the comics. The audience was great and they raised a lot of money. Mark Normand told me he ran his Conan set, because he’s doing Conan on May 23rd and was really excited about that. He’s also doing Louis CK’s new web series Horace and Pete in about two weeks, for the second time, playing himself, and hopes it could be a recurring part.
Comic Frank Pellegrino was there working the door and told me his new Yonkers comedy club Ha should be open by April and could even be open by the end of March. They’re just waiting for one plumber to finish his work, which sounded like a joke to me. A whole business is waiting for one plumber to find the right wrench! It’s gonna be in the Ridge Hill Shopping Mall, and should do great cause there’s no other comedy club around.
Richie Redding Talks About Touring With Katt Williams
Over at New York Comedy Club this week I caught up with Richie Redding hanging out in the private office waiting to go on stage. He’s one of the comics on tour with Katt Williams. Katt notoriously called out Kevin Hart this past week and then went on Atlanta radio V-103 with Big Tigger and made a very rare actually heartfelt apology to Kevin and his Plastic Cup Boyz. It’s the Conspiracy Theory tour. They tour on the weekends, and have 30 cities coming up down South, including The Carolinas, Miami and even Hawaii which I think is WAY down South. Only ‘A’ markets as he put it. And on March 25th they’ll be at Barclay’s in New York. He and other comics like Red Grant, Mark Curry and Corey “Zooman” Miller travel on a G5 private jet which seems to be the thing for the very most successful comics these days, and they have private catering with a personal chef. He said that Katt usually does like an hour and 20 minutes on stage and that he’s got tons of new killer material.
I didn’t hang around to catch the next show because moments before I had just finished my own headlining set at New York Comedy Club, for my first time and I was pretty beat! We had Amarie Castillo as the host who took off right afterwards for the airport to get to New Mexico for a friend’s wedding. The young Dan Lamorte who will be taping his first special at New York Comedy Club this June was a feature as was Von Decarlo in a rare purely stand-up set, since she often performs in a musical improv group at The PIT. Von told a very personal story onstage that could have been quite embarrassing, and I won’t repeat the messy details, but she pulled it off because she’s a woman that truly owns her power!
Amy Hawthorne Named New Booker for New York Comedy Club
Afterwards I also got to personally congratulate Amy Hawthorne in her new position as the official booker of New York Comedy Club, and she told me she’s very aware of who was nice to her BEFORE she got this position as opposed to who will try and be nice to her now! She was in the office with owner Emilio Savone and they let me hang out in there with them so I could just chill in a safe place before I had to go on.
New York Comedy Club Goes to SXSW with Paid or Pain
Emilio is excited about going to SXSW this coming week with the crew from his show Paid or Pain, including Jay Nog who came up with the idea for the comedy-sex show, and his co-host ex-porn star Lisa Ann. They’re also expecting Todd Glass to do the show with them. It’s the first major festival for Paid or Pain, and it’s being sponsored by Fleshlight. If you don’t know what that is, ask your parents!
The Iron Sheik Checks Out Comedy at New York Comedy Club
While I was there there was a back-up of human traffic trying to get into the showroom. I was wondering how it could be that crowded that you can’t even get into the room but someone had wheeled in “The Iron Sheik” in his wheelchair and was helping him into a seat. He’s been roasted on both coasts and has been known to get up on stage, but this night he did not perform. At least not while I was there.
Telling you all this has made me tired, so now I’m gonna go take a nap! That means 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. Photos below include Jeffrey headlining at New York Comedy Club, Jeffrey with Von Decarlo, Jeffrey with Mackinson Louis, and Jeffrey with Chrissie Mayr.
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