(Photo: via Union Hall)
MONDAY
Pasic and Platt: The Orgy
Monday August 29, 8 p.m. at Union Hall: $5
Mo Fry Pasic and Tim Platt are two comedians who have teamed up a few times in the past to disgust, bring dread and even break up. Now, the two are moving their show to Union Hall where they’ll be taking the next logical step and hosting an orgy. Sort of. As the event description explains, they’ll be hosting this show as “a modern couple trying to organize an orgy for, undeniably, the wrong reasons.” It’ll be a show with fewer fast, ridiculous comedy scenes and more slow, serious acting around a ridiculous idea. They’re also joined by a bill packed with other great comedians and actors, including Carmen Christopher, Aaron Jackson, Betsy Kenney and Anna Drezen.
(Photo: via Facebook)
THURSDAY
Groovin’ With Garner
Thursday, September 1, 8 p.m. at Over the Eight: FREE.
Comedian/seriously great wedding dancer Christopher Garner hosts this semi-regular show that features comedians and performers doing comedic dance routines. This week the show features Lorelei Ramirez, Eliza Hurwitz, Lucy Randall, Sefa Castanet and more. I know what you’re thinking: how can something as serious and emotional as dance, one of the great artistic disciplines, be funny? Is this show making a mockery of art—are you some kind of philistine who hates culture and wants to drag us back to the stone age with your so-called “comedy”? And I hear you. But, honestly, it’s not just like dancing-so-bad-it’s-funny. Granted, it’s hard to explain exactly what else makes it funny using any language that isn’t the universally understood language of dance, but you’ll have to take my word for it—it works.
(Photo: via Facebook)
FRIDAY
The Terry Withers Mysteries
Friday, September 2, 7:30 p.m. at UCB Chelsea: $10.
For the last year and a half Terry Withers, a UCB improviser who happens to be the world’s greatest detective, has been solving the grizzliest murders in all of New York City. This Friday, everything ends, as Withers solves his last mystery in what is sure to be a strange and heartwarming finale for the long-running show.
In this completely improvised police procedural show, the audience creates the crime scene and Withers, with the help of his partner Jay (Noah Forman), has to figure out what happened, catch the killer and get back home safely to his family. Past murders have included aliens, people with star-shaped heads and even Withers’ long-lost relatives. If it’s not already clear, this is your last chance to see a truly weird and incredible show.
(Flier: courtesy of Rachel Kaly)
SATURDAY
Ugly X Crying
Saturday September 3, 8 p.m. at the Annoyance Theater: $10.
This one-hour sketch show is completely silent, save for writers/stars Rachel Kaly and Charlie Bardey’s crying—and, of course, the laughs of an attentive and comedy-loving audience. Why, you ask?
Well, presumably after writing a show full of complex monologues and gut-wrenching soliloquies, Ugly X Crying got rid of its dialogue because, as the event page says, the writers are “not on speaking terms with the audience.” As a result of that falling out, the show now has tons of sad faces and some serious audience-performer tension. So swing by, but don’t expect them to forgive you. You know what you did, audience.