The magic is there.

Comics may say this is bullshit but from the perspective of a frequent audience member, my experience with showcase shows is:

•70% of them are good, standard fun shows

•20% are just off. The crowd is just off and not responding. The comics are off. It isn’t anyone’s fault. It just isn’t there. You know you are in a 20%er when every comic that comes on stage tells you how much they hate you.

•10% are pure magic. Everyone is on. The crowd is laughing and present. The comics are on. The comics and the audience feed off the energy of each other and the room. The show exists as its own living, breathing entity almost, independent of any one comic or joke, in a sort of flow zone. The magic is there. Whenever I leave a 10% show, I am vibrating with energy.

I can only describe The Comedy Cellar as a flow zone for comedy. On a Tuesday in November, I went to two shows at the Cellar, one in The Village Underground and one in MacDougal Street and both rooms have the magic.

This is true even though the first show was a 10%er and the second show was a 20%er.

Show #1

Here was the lineup for the first show:

To me, the highest art that exists is sitting in the front row of a small comedy club. It’s the only way to be 100% focused, undistracted, and present for the show and it’s more immersive. It’s like you are experiencing the show with your entire body. Lamest sentence ever written, I know.

My husband prefers to sit in the back. We compromise. For this show, I won. I showed up early, secured the front row center next to two of the most attractive people I have ever seen in my life. (They were from Switzerland).

I spent the next half hour waiting for the show to start not believing I was in the front row at The Comedy Cellar. I felt like a six year old on Christmas morning.

How do I describe it? It was just beautiful, magical flow the entire show. I cannot describe what it felt like to be in that room. So I guess I am stuck just saying what happened.

Mark Yard was late because he got a flat tire so another MC opened and did some nice crowd work. Dan Naturman, who currently has Louis CK’s favorite joke, and my favorite joke about being an uncle came on next and crushed. Mike Yard arrived, bringing laid back stoner energy, and making repeated references to “the globe industry,” a term so silly it just got me. Yard saw that I was enjoying the term way too much and deliberately said it again for me. Front row magic.

And then they announced a surprised drop in.

Jim Norton!

I adore Jim Norton but didn’t make it a priority to see him on this trip. That was a mistake. Jim Norton absolutely murdered with the best set of the night. He has wonderfully filthy material, especially his Prince Harry and Meghan Markle material and he expertly handled a heckler in delightfully dirty fashion. Jim Norton is a must see if you ever go to New York.

Then Colin Quinn came up and was wonderful. My favorite moment was when he reflected on the fact that his “interracial handjob” joke didn’t do well because he had followed Jim Norton, who is so dirty, that an “interracial handjob” sounds like a quaint soccer mom thing in comparison.

Then up came Sam Morril, a phenomenal joke writer and one of the major reasons we chose this lineup. We have seen him on the road in Chicago but it felt good to see him in his home club. One of the benefits of seeing him in a showcase format is that he didn’t do any of the crowd work he is great at and publicizes on his instagram. I love Sam’s crowd work but it was nice to just see 15 minutes of his act.

And then we found out about Jordan Jensen. What a powerhouse. It’s good she was last because it has to suck to follow her. I can only describe her style of comedy as ADHD comedy. She talks faster than any comic I have ever seen and flits rapidly between subjects. She’s a savage and my most favorite new discovery from this trip. Go. See. Jordan. Jensen.

I left the show beaming.

The only other time a show had this kind of magical flow was in the Original Room at the Comedy Store when we saw Andrew Santino, Jeff Ross, and Sebastian Maniscalco all in the same night, and Chris Rock dropped in. This is the absolute height of what standup comedy can be. It doesn’t get better than this.

Show #2:

Then, we went to a couple of bars and headed back after a while for show #2. Husband won this time thankfully as I was quite liquored up at this point. We sat in the back at a table full of college students and two Australians doing a U.S. trip. The MacDougal Street location, by the way, is the location down the stairs that Louis CK descends at the beginning of every Louie episode.

You know the one…

Here was the lineup for show #2:

This show was one of the 20%ers. The crowd sucked. The front row and crowd generally was mostly tourists who don’t really appreciate comedy. My table was great but, as a whole, the audience mostly sucked. And the comics told us as much.

The first tip off was when Will Sylvince did crowd work with the front row and they all acted like they were in a boring asshole contest where the winner gets $1000. Cipha Sounds, whose cringe music I saw at the Comedy Jam in DC back in June, is a very good comic. He would later open for Chappelle at The Stand on Thursday and I enjoy his comedy as much as I hate his DJing.

After Jordan Jensen, Daniel Simonsen is my favorite new discovery from this trip. He’s Norweigan and makes fun of himself and his robotic voice and affect. It was original, well-written comedy. He was the only comic all night not to comment on the audience. He just did his material. It was refreshing.

I don’t have any memory of Nimesh Patel from that night. Blame the alcohol.

Adrienne Lapalucci is a good joke writer but damn if she isn’t depressing. We saw her one other time this trip and she just comes across as hating life. She despised us and told us repeatedly how awful of an audience we are. She wasn’t wrong.

Seeing Dave Attell late night at The Comedy Cellar is like seeing an elephant in Africa. This is his natural habitat and he just dominates. He was the absolute highest peak of this show and towered over everyone else. He ripped the audience and instead of resigning himself to a bad set like every comic before him, he made fun of us in a way that heightened the show. It was like a “well the audience sucks but I am still going to have fun” kind of a mentality.

We were seeing a pro at work. One of the greatest of all time. He brought Will Sylvince on as a partner for some of his trademark roast jokes and they just had a blast up there. Attell thought he was the last comic that night. He performed for half an hour and it just felt like the show was over when he left the stage. It always does.

No one should ever follow Attell. Ever.

But we still had one more left. By the time Godfrey came on stage, I was barely able to keep my eyes open. The show was just too long. Godfrey wasn’t our cup of tea but I can appreciate the skill. The show ended at 2AM and we walked back to our hotel, seeing only workers taking out the garbage on our way back. I collapsed in a joyful, exhausted heap and fell quickly asleep.

Obviously if you go to New York, you have to go to the Comedy Cellar. When you get in, the experience is unparalleled. Just be aware of the relentlessly shitty reservation system.

Other random thoughts:

•Olive Tree Cafe has damned good food. I wanted to eat there just to soak up as many Comedy Cellar vibes as I could on this trip but the food is great independent of the vibes.

•The Comedy Cellar requires audience members to put their phones in pouches for every single show. It isn’t a Yondr pouch. It’s just a standard pouch that you seal that you could buy at Walmart but it is just as effective. I adore this practice. It makes the audience way more present during the show and eliminates so much bullshit. They let you take your phones out after the show ends to snap pictures. Great practice. I love a phone free comedy show.

•Any comic can drop into the Cellar at anytime but if you didn’t attend a given show, you’ll never know who dropped in. They don’t post it to instagram or talk about drop-ins on any public forum. This is unlike every other comedy club. I wish The Cellar would do this too. It’s fun to see who drops in!