The Brooklyn Comedy Festival is upon us, and you might be forgiven for thinking, “Hey, aren’t we living the Brooklyn Comedy Festival every day?” Well yes in a sense we are, but who are we to look an entire comedy festival gift horse in the mouth, especially when it means stumbling into a number of bars means a chance to see some of the city’s best comics all performing together, including in some shows that usually only happen in Manhattan. Still, unless you clone yourself you’re not going to be able to make it to every show in the festival (and if you do clone yourself maybe do more than just watch comedy). So, we’re here to help with our recommendations on which shows you should be checking out each night week in order to maximize your laughs.
MONDAY
FRESH PERSPECTIVES, BKCF EDITION
8:30pm, Muchmores, 2 Havemeyer Street (Williamsburg), FREE
There’s a lot of comedy to see this week, so you’re definitely best off seeing a free show to start things off. The delightful Julio Torres and his co-host Joe Rumrill are welcoming an astounding 10 comics and 1 sketch comedy team, including people like the Papa John’s-obsessed Tynan Delong and the Annoyance Theater’s Mitra Jouhari. Most importantly, the lack of an admission price means more money for you to spend on drinks after the show for comics you enjoyed.
TUESDAY
COMEDY (AT THE GROCERY) AT THE BREWERY
7:45pm, Brooklyn Brewery, 79 North 11th Street (Williamsburg), $6
Usually Comedy at the Grocery is at Arlene’s Grocery, which means you have to go all the way across the damn river to see it. On Tuesday though, it comes to us, and brings a number of heavy hitters to Brooklyn Brewery. There’s Hari Konadbolu‘s incisive comedy on politics and race (and occasional forays into pie), Joe Pera‘s charmingly low, low energy jokes and Last Week Tonight writer Josh Gondelman.
WEDNESDAY
FRIENDS OF SINGLE PEOPLE: BKCF EDITION
8pm, Littlefield, 622 Degraw Street (Gowanus), $7
Friends of Single People, the only dating game in which both the person looking for love and every potential date are represented by friends pretending to be them in an attempt to make sure their are no snap judgments on physical appearance, is always a weird and funny good time. For the Brooklyn Comedy Festival though, a panel of comedians including the likes of Greg Johnson, Anna Drezen and Danny Tamberelli will be there to share their wisdom on the potential love connections. Comedians cracking goofs on couples getting to know each other of course is a wonderful aphrodisiac.
THURSDAY
THE SPECIAL WITHOUT BRETT DAVIS: BKCF EDITION
9:30pm, Union Hall, 702 Union Street (Park Slope), $10
Like Comedy at the Grocery, The Special Without Brett Davis is making the journey across the East River, because this is the Brooklyn Comedy Festival and not the Geographic Borders Don’t Matter Festival. Anyway, you might know Brett Davis from the Macaulay Culkin Show, but you never know which horrible and obnoxious character he’s going to pull out to host variety show The Special and make life uncomfortable for a group of comics including Good Cop Great Cop, Lorelei Ramirez and Mary Houlihan.
FRIDAY
LATE NIGHT BASEMENT: BKCF EDITION
8:30pm, Livestream Public, 195 Morgan Avenue (Bushwick), FREE
So if you’ve followed our advice on the past couple of days, you’ll have spent a little money on these great laughs. Reverse that trend by hitting up this month’s Late Night Basement, which is rolling out the big guns by hosting Heems (who came out with a damn good album in Eat, Pray, Thug) and Mulaney‘s Seaton Smith.
SATURDAY
BROOKLYN COMEDY FESTIVAL PRESENTS: CLOSING NIGHT
8:30pm, Knitting Factory, 361 Metropolitan Avenue (Williamsburg), $10
Whew, last day, and then you’ll never have to laugh again! Oh wait, we forget, there’s still all that comedy happening here all the time. Anyway! Hit up the official closing night show, because it features the likes of Sasheer Zamata, Myq Kaplan and in a surprising twist, the promise of SURPRISES in all caps. So you figure those will be good surprises.
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