Monday June 7th, 2010

Uwtl yet again. Just engaged in a bit of a comedy marathon by taking in two awesome shows at UCBNY.

Started off w/ an hour of new stuff from the incomparable Mike Birbiglia who was as good as i've seen him in quite some time.

Then Whiplash, a late Monday night weekly comedy show that I discovered way too late in my NY run.

The lineup as listed was unbelievable with some of the best in NY comedy: Eugene Mirman, John Mulaney and Anthony Jeselnek. The two former def amongst my personal favorites while the latter young master of the kilker one liner is quickly becoming one of my faves as well.

Also enjoyable throughtout the show was the presence in the audience of a certain young comedian I've come to know a little bit over the last few months, who gained much attention from acting quite the fool throughout many of the acts. He seemed like he was truly enjoying himself but it was still ridic.

Then late in the already late show, a man with a thick bushy beard started lurking backstage, occasionally poking his head out. The large in width and now even larger in notoriety, Zach Galifianikis, proved to be the unannounced surprise headliner/ late replacement for a no show on the bill.

A little blurry I know, but you know it's him.

The man (a personal favorite of mine ong before The Hangover) came out to massive applause and then proceeded to do what most hugely famous comics are able to do once they've hit the big time: make the audience laugh at every single thing that comes out of their mouth.

For the next 15-20 minutes very few written jokes were told as the great bearded one went off script and jumped into audience interaction, asking a number of unwitting spectators a little about themselves.

Often this kind of plan B would be just plain terrible, but with Mr. G, a ridiculously smart and gifted improviser, much gold was mined from this diversion.

After all, you can't blame the guy for lack of sharpness or fresh new material as he's def been quite busy lately. I can only hope that he sticks with standup despite his newfound success in movies and that I'll see him at the top of his game one of these days.

Overall, a great night after a prettty good day in NYC. UCB was a huge part of it and I can only hope that UCBLA will fill that gap quite nicely as well.