Once again, Comedy Central has released their annual list of up-and-coming stand-ups getting a half-hour special on the network and this year that list is positively stacked with Brooklyn comedians. Seven of the 14 comedians on the list are New Yorkers and, amongst them, are a handful of long-time Brokelyn favorites, including Jo Firestone, Joel Kim Booster and Julio Torres, and we couldn’t be more proud. Now, we’re not trying to say that these hilarious, hard-working comedians got the opportunity because of Brokelyn, but one of them did spend a summer day in Fort Greene with our former editor, so…
As Splitsider points out, Comedy Central selects a few of the best, fresh-faced comedians every year to record a half-hour special for Comedy Central Stand-Up Presents, now in its sixth season (and no longer called The Half Hour, presumably because what is up with that vague name?). The show tapes in New Orleans at the Civic Theatre in April and airs on the network in the fall (if you’re running away to Louisiana, for some reason, you can pick up tickets here).
Here’s the full list of this year’s stand-ups, released earlier this week, with those based in New York in bold (for pride/bragging purposes):
Adam Cayton-Holland
Anthony Devito
Jo Firestone
Solomon Georgio
Casey James Salengo
Sam Jay
Josh Johnson
Joel Kim Booster
Lashonda Lester
Chris Redd
Yamaneika Saunders
Julio Torres
Shane Torres
Jenny Zigrino
So, before they big-time us all, let’s all take a moment to appreciate a few of our local favorites.
First off, our old friend Jo Firestone (already a writer/performer on The Tonight Show and our nation’s pre-eminent Betsy DeVos surrogate) has been killing it around Brooklyn for years now. Besides doing stand-up at seemingly every local venue every night of the week, Firestone, along with her dad Fred, is also the creator and host of the beloved pun competition-turned-board game Punderdome 3000 at Littlefield, whose next show is on April 4th.
You may recognize Julio Torres as the “space prince” and “precious jewel” we interviewed last year. Torres is a new writer on Saturday Night Live this season (already having gifted the world the brilliant “Wells for Boys” sketch that we can’t help but picture Donald Trump watching) and he appeared briefly on Louis C.K.’s Horace and Pete. In the borough, Torres co-hosts the monthly stand-up show Future Forms at Throne Watches with fellow comedic geniuses Mary Houlihan, Sam Taggart and Joe Rumrill. If you want to catch him before the special, the next Future Forms is March 30th at 7pm at Throne Watches’ new location off the Morgan L.
We also profiled Joel Kim Booster last winter, although still no word on whether he’s successfully pitched a show about a gay ghost. Booster has been on The Meltdown with Jonah and Kumail, he has appeared on Logo and TruTV, he was one of Paper Mag‘s “Ten Comedians You Should Know” and this past summer he destroyed on Conan. Around Brooklyn, Booster has appeared regularly in Lake Homo High at the Annoyance, Live on Broadgay at Littlefield, he co-hosts Fuck That Movie at Videology and he’s also performing at the March 30th Future Forms at Throne Watches.
So keep an eye out for those specials airing this fall and catch our local stand-ups (and maybe some of next year’s picks) around town while you still can.