Conspiracy of Beards: they might be clean-shaven, but they do look shifty. via Facebook

1. Brooklyn Launchpad invites you to perform any kind of art you can think of, provided you can do it in 10 minutes or less (Friday)

2. Party starters Brooklyn Wildlife get out of the lofts and into Public Assembly for a wild night of partying, dancing and body paint. Woo! Body paint! (Friday)

3. Live From Outer Space is a comedy show at the Cobra Club, but we haven’t been to it so we can’t tell you if it’s actually beamed in from a secret comedy base on bars or something (Friday)

4. Satiate your bloodlust with 70s revenge flick Act of Vengeance. Contains the FDA suggested daily requirement of blood and assorted gore (Friday) (more…)

See Eric in his natural environment: desperately hoping people laugh at his jokes in a bar

There’s no shortage of free comedy nights in Brooklyn, but before you start paying a bar money for drinks, it’s good to know the performers are gonna actually be funny. One person we know is funny is Eric Silver, and we know because he’s one of the minds behind Brokelandia. And now he’s one of the minds behind a new comedy night in Williamsburg. (more…)

Basically our middle school style

Middle school students are maybe the worst people on Earth. This includes when we were in middle school too. It’s not their fault, it’s just a really awkward age and people respond to their bodies going through weird changes with casual cruelty and hilarious attempts at seeming older than they are. Like with an over-sexualized talent show act, perhaps. Jo Firestone, co-host of the Punderdome, remembers all of that and is bringing it to Glasslands’ stage on Monday with a show called the Ridgefield Middle School Talent Nite. (more…)

Happily enough, this is not a Pizza Hut ad. Photo via Seth Olenick

While we miss Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal’s Hot Tub Comedy, gone because because LA kidnapped Schaal(boo), their enchanting comedic legacy lives on. Night Train, a new comedy show hosted by Daily Show correspondent Wyatt Cenac, launches on Monday, November 5 and will take place every Monday at 8pm, at Littlefield (yay!). (more…)

The road to comedy success for Kurt Braunohler was paved with $2 tips, stoned baking (actual baking) and a whole lot of fibbing. Kurt cops to a long history of lying to get jobs; he once inflated his job history to say he worked for Oprah, even getting his uncle to pose as a fake reference from the gig (it worked, by the way).

You may know the South Sloper from  Hot Tub, the weekly show he co-hosted at Littlefield with Kristen Schaal (or maybe from our No Office Holiday Party last year.) Or possibly from his hilarious faux-game show, Bunk on IFC, which has its first season finale tonight. That came after years of working as a “classic awful IT guy” in the city and a stint at a stoner bakery in Park Slope. He took a crappy job to make sure he stayed hungry for comedy, put together his own variety show just to keep active, and pioneered a Park Slope greeting card trolling scheme. Kurt tells Brokelyn how he made a successful comedy career, with bonus tips on how you can do it yourself! (more…)

Wyatt seems pretty smug about Get It Out There

When you hear the word “experimental,” you probably recall the time you watched Godspeed You! Black Emperor loop projections throughout their entire set or the time you let psychologists film you for money. What you probably don’t think of is comedy. BAM and the IFC are determined to play around with the usual comedy formula (whatever that means) with their aptly named new live series, Get It Out There on April 25. As consenting guinea pigs for up-and-coming comedians to test out new work and push the boundaries of entertainment, the cost for you is free. Performers — or shall we say artistes? — on the first billing are no small beans: Wyatt Cenac (Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart), Mike Lawrence (TBS’ Conan), Damien Lemon (Comedy Central’s Russell Simmons Presents The Ruckus, MTV2’s Guy Code), Giulia Rozzi (VH1, Stripped Stories), and host Jared Logan (John Oliver’s New York Stand-Up Show). (more…)

Chris Gethard eats his words.

The first time I attended the Bushwick Book Club, I had just moved to Brooklyn and was on the only-spend-$6-a-day plan. Prowling for free events, I read a vague post for what sounded a lot like a monthly lit-kid singalong. I hate singalongs (sorry, Bell House), but my curiosity got the best of me.

Stationed at Goodbye Blue Monday in — you guessed it — Bushwick, Susan Hwang and Sweet Soubrette host one of the wackiest and most inspired open mics I’ve seen. The concept is simple: each month, a book or author gets picked, then participants write a song about the subject and perform it at the event. What results is an “hour-long orgy of book-related songs,” as the website calls it, that satisfies the snobbiest affectations of music and prose lovers alike. From accordion odes for Frankenstein to piano diatribes on Nabokov, emotions run high in the dimly lit speakeasy, and performers often leave the stage to both raised eyebrows and thunderous applause.  (more…)

FRIDAY
7pm: bring your written break-up stories to read aloud at word’s v-day edition of ‘just working on my novel‘ (10-minute time limit), free.

8pm: is it hot in peru, or is it just us? alistair r. noble of the hollow earth society lectures on the phallic stone monuments recently discovered near — wait for it — lake titicaca. observatory, $5.  (more…)

Is this a funny joke? No clue.

We’re hoping you are as pumped about the Brokedown Throwdown on Sunday as we are. Especially if you’re a brokester jokester — cause we’ve got a tasteless comedy contest coming your way. It’s a “Yo Momma So Broke” throwdown, in which you bring a pocketful of your best broke momma jabs and go head to head in a battle to the diss-induced death. Some inspiration:

Yo Momma so broke that Greece is bailing her out. (Thank you @DiscoVietnam on Twitter!)
Yo Momma so broke she steals Pepto Bismol. She’s a Pepto-Clepto! (Thank you Barry Schwartz on Facebook.)
Yo Momma so broke she pays more taxes than GE. (Another winner from @DiscoVietnam!) (more…)

Stock up on Red Bull because this weekend because the Upright Citizen’s Brigade Theatre is hosting the 13th Del Close Marathon in Chelsea. Check out over 150 comedy shows that go all night long throughout the weekend for just $25; That’s like $0.16 per show! Oh, and Brokelyn comedy geekery will ensue. Everyone and their mother take classes at the UCB, including contributor Eric Silver, the lovely Andrew Linderman, Sarah Bibi’s roommate and, at 6:15am on Saturday: me, Sue Smith, your menstrual cup using, Spring-Gala-hosting, sick-cat-loving Brokelynite, performing with my group Squirt!.

We’ll all be there with bloodshot eyes and caffeine shakes. And you can also catch some of your favorite comedy stars from Hollywood, including Scott Adsit, Horatio Sanz, Bobby Moynihan, Donald Glover and Paul Scheer. Festivities officially start Friday at 6pm and run straight through Sunday at 8pm. Say you wanted to see a show Watch me try to be funny after having been up the whole night before. (more…)