No industry BS. Networking ability = doesn't matter. Below are my picks for the best comics in NYC who do NOT have any of the following:
1. A TV credit (doing standup)
2. An appearance at the Just for Laughs Festival
3. A nomination for an ECNY standup award
I'll go by alphabetical order for the rest, but the top dog deserves a special shoutout:
Yannis Pappas
You can see Pappas headline tonight at Comix. He also does a weekly marathon show Sundays at Bar Four in Park Slope that is a hot mess — it's sloppy, drunk, goes on forever, and is more fun than just about any other comedy show in the city. This guy is the real deal.
Here's the rest (with whatever video clip I could find for 'em)...
David Angelo
Sean Donnelly
Andy Haynes
Sam Morrill
Mike Recine
Nick Vatterott
Last year's winners.
16 comments:
Great choices once again. have you given any thought to my suggestions of calling them the Sandies?
I'm not familiar with all the guys so I learned a little as well.
My two cents on the people that I have seen enough times:
Angelo -- superior joke writing and the ability to deliver "that" style of joke.
Sean -- Exudes fun on stage. And I love having him make fun of me once a week at ochi's. he's my personal don rickles.
Mike Recine -- He's gotten really good in the last year. He was already funny when I first saw him but his writing and performance have just gotten a lot better. Also I am from NJ so i feel more connection to some of his bits.
Nick Vatterot -- the energy and speed with which does his act makes it twice as funny, which is not a technique that most can pull off.
Best part: Pete Holmes' introduction of Mike Recine.
I'm most familiar with Andy Haynes out of all of these guys. He's really hilarious. And as a Chicagoan, I want to see Nick Vatterott really blow up in NYC.
Last year's winners were great picks. I'm not that familiar with Cunningham, but the rest were prescient choices! A year later, most of them seem to be on the bubble.
Hey, I kinda like The Sandies. Next year!
While I agree that these are all great comics, I'm surprised that they're all, unless I'm mistaken, white men - in both years' picks...
There are no women or other ethnicities on this list, true.
Maybe all the deserving minorities have made it already!
Damn this matriarchal, xenophilic establishment, always keeping the white man down.
PS Congrats to all the Sandies nominees, and others deserving (of sandier color and gender*).
* The sandier gender is women.
I know it doesn't make sense, I just didn't want to leave women out.
I'm surprised that they're all, unless I'm mistaken, white men - in both years' picks...
Well, I just go with who I think is funniest. As far as gals go, the ECNY awards have a sep category for female comedians so that skews things when you consider there's a much tinier % of female comicsin the overall scene. Like Brooke Van Poppelen would totally be on this list...except she's been nominated already.
Using math, just like a man.
(Also just like a guy whose name is three-quarters identical to the word "math.")
Good point, Math Ruby!
A fair point indeed re: the ladies. But what about the non-honky comics?
what about the non-honky comics?
What non-honky do you think should be on the list?
Well, a bunch of ladies but since we've ruled out ladies...
Mark Viera. To Myq's point, a bunch of folks I initially thought of have one or more of the credentials listed at the top of this post. Other non-honkies I plan to keep an eye on: Chao Williams and Charles McBee.
Kath, haven't seen any of those guys so can't say. That's another rule I guess: I need to have seen you. So factor that in.
Matt, I think discriminating against people you don't know is unfair. This business, man.
Kath, I would love to see your list of women. Even though we've ruled them out.
Everyone, I would like to start calling non-honkies "nonkies." Just to save space. And have fun. Mostly fun, considering all the space I'm wasting here.
I'm glad Sandies is catching on. My dream is to win a Sandy(spelling?) after having helped originate the term, and be the first Indian Sandy. Also I don't think there should be an issue about the gender or race of the comedians because as we all know NYC has many different comedy circles and for this list to include them all is tough. the venn diagram of Matt's comedy cicrle intersects some much more than others (last year's luke cunningham has some nice venn diagram jokes (yes myq, i am using geometry, like a man)). Our comedy, like our city, is racially segmented. With the proliferation of themed shows, many of the comedians of different backgrounds never run into each other. I met a few new comedians just tonight, who were funny, but probably because of their background, not likely bump into me regularly.
Also I'm going to make a bold claim and say that of women pursuing comedy, the majority of them skew towards improv and sketch so a lack of ladies in standup is a symptom both of the nature of the art and nature of the genders. Ergo, women are just as funny as men, but there is not a large enough sample size of women in standup to produce as many good lady standups. and Ergo, minority comics are just as funny white comics but their sample size is both diminished and partially segregated by economic and cultural forces.
Aalap, you make some valid points, although I don't know many ladies who do sketch or improv (I do neither). I think it would be interesting, albeit perhaps tiresome, to compare the number of ladies who do standup to the number of nonky men in standup and test your theory. I'll leave that to you gentlemen and your math skills.
That said, congrats to all of Matt Ruby's favorite white men in comedy.
White male comics have a higher probability of getting stabbed in their sleep, simply by virtue of there being more of them in this city.
White male comics even have the edge when it comes to marrying me.
Alap said: Ergo, women are just as funny as men, but there is not a large enough sample size of women in standup to produce as many good lady standups.
I've heard that women comics don't ask for spots as often as men do. They don't pound the pavement as hard as guys do. Until I see numbers, I don't want to believe that there aren't as many women as there are men performing stand-up in this town. I just want to believe they are too lazy, insecure or stupid to get their stage time.
ARE ANY OF YOU IDIOT WOMEN READING THIS TO PROVE ME WRONG?
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