WEDNESDAY
(image via Caveat / Facebook)
Internet Explorers
Wednesday, December 19 at Caveat, 9 pm: $10
The internet can be a scary place, so that’s why this show has comedians to help you navigate the tangled mess that is the World Wide Web. If only it was a Mr. World Wide Web, and Pitbull was the sole creator and moderator of the online world. How different things might be… But they aren’t, so come to Caveat and see Mark Vigeant, a custom-made Twitter bot, and a merry band of assorted jokesters (including Botnik Studios, an “entertainment group” that uses machine learning) serve up their best material about artificial intelligence, the force that may one day replace humanity.
THURSDAY
(image via Jenny Gorelick / Facebook)
Office Christmas Party
Thursday, December 20 at The Jane Hotel, 8 pm: $10
If you have a full-time job, you’ve probably already attended your office holiday party, mingling with coworkers after hours and racking up a sizable hangover the next day. If you’re a freelancer of some sort, you’ve probably finagled your way into some kind of holiday party and taken advantage of the open bar, because you don’t make enough money to afford a cash bar anyway. Attend one more bash that just happens to be a themed comedy show in a swanky hotel as hosts Jenny Gorelick and Kristen Buckels and performers Patti Harrison, Matt Rogers, Alison Leiby, Zach Zimmerman, and Becky Chicone are your coworkers for the evening, which will probably be uh, different than anything you’re used to.
FRIDAY
(flyer courtesy of Up Close Festival)
Up Close Festival
December 20-31 at New Ohio Theater, 7 pm (some shows at 3 pm): $25
Deemed the “first-ever-of-its-kind,” the Up Close Festival is a theater festival that’s uniquely New York. More specifically, it features performances about the pleasures and perils of Greenwich Village’s history and is organized around urbanist activist Jane Jacobs’s “principles for a healthy community”: population density, mixed uses, old buildings, and short blocks. It’s staged in the West Village’s New Ohio Theater, an old, mixed-use building that was saved by the New York Landmarks Conservancy. After you see the shows (which are suited for all ages and involve topics from nearby music venue The Bitter End to pizza rat), you may find yourself with a renewed interest in exploring your surroundings.
SATURDAY
(image via Brooklyn Comedy Collective / Facebook)
The Urban Cafe Variety Slam
Saturday, December 22 at The Brick, 10 pm: $10
While you never know quite what you’re going to get at an open mic, you can pretty much guarantee there will be at least 1-3 cringeworthy moments, often from straight white dudes or anyone who spends half their set talking about how they’re really bombing tonight, they’re so sorry. But this is a “fake open mic,” so things will be a little different. Comedians (including Brett Davis, Rachel Pegram, Steven Markow, Charlie Bardey, and host Kyle Gordon) will do their best “musical characters” and surely in doing so summon some spirits of memorable open mic participants. Only this time, you can laugh at them without fearing some sort of acoustic guitar revenge.
