THURSDAY

(flyer by Lorelei Ramirez)

Not Dead Yet
Thursday, July 20 at C’mon Everybody, 8:30 pm: $5 advance, $7 doors

This comedy show, hosted by the multi-talented and highly strange Lorelei Ramirez, really gets to the bottom of the human condition based on its title alone. Sure, we aren’t dead yet, but we will be soon. Whether it be from being cooked alive due to climate change, from inhumane health care policies (though that one seems a tiny bit less likely now), from an aggressive ghoul with a mustache that no one can see but you… Or maybe you’re just one of the lucky few to pass peacefully. Either way, you’re still here. So you might as well go to this comedy variety show.

The show itself (which is monthly) is packed to the brim with notable creatives serving up a whole bevy of funny n’ weird stuff across disciplines. There’ll be comedy by Becca Blackwell, Brett Davis, Sydnee Washington, and Katie Boyle; readings by poet Sasha Fletcher; videos by Lukey Walden and Alan Resnick, and even music by Drag Lomax and Tredici Bacci. As the teens say: what more could you want?

FRIDAY

(flyer courtesy of Philip Markle)

The Sparkle Zone
Friday, July 21 at The Duplex, 9:30 pm: $8 advance, $13 doors

Though comedy theater The Annoyance closed its doors several months ago now, as I have noted in this listing and elsewhere, the people who used to populate it are still ceaselessly doing shows. To note them all would be to practically write a book, so I’ll just focus on one happening this Friday.

Philip Markle’s The Sparkle Zone ran for a year at The Annoyance, and has consistently featured many of the creative comedic minds to come out of the Williamsburg theater. Now, the bejeweled show is hopping over to the big ole isle of Manhattan to set up shop at The Duplex. It claims to still be the whimsical, queer, charismatic cabaret-style show it always was, which makes the West Village cabaret space seem like a perfect fit. Friday’s show features Annoyance staples such as Andrew Tisher, Annie Donley, Zach Zimmerman, Sophie Zucker, Ian Lockwood, and more, plus musical improv, choreographed dancing, and more.

SATURDAY

(image via IRT Theater)

Jessica
July 22-August 6 at IRT Theater, 8 pm (select shows at 3 pm and 7 pm): $18

Usually when people make art about the future of technology, they’re not brainstorming from a place of expertise in the field. Sure, they might bring in a consultant or dramaturg or two, but I don’t even need to get into the countless ways pop culture has tried to portray cutting-edge technology and truly missed the mark. This play, coming to Greenwich Village’s IRT Theater by way of Sanguine Theater Company, could be a little different.

Jessica centers around a girl who goes missing and her friends’s efforts to program an android that effectively reconstructs her consciousness. They do this through plying the android with memories and stories, but not everything fits so nicely into its digital brain. Understandably, this leads to drama. Though this AI drama may not be pulled out of thin air: the playwright Patrick Vermillion “daylights as a software engineer” and has received acclaim and accolades for his work as a playwright, director, and comedian. It seems like he has a unique combination going on there, and that it’s one worth paying attention to.

SUNDAY

(flyer courtesy of Tessa Skara)

Rock Goddess
Sunday, July 23 at The Duplex, 9:30 pm: $8 advance, $13 doors

Sometimes people like to refer to particularly edgy or daring comedy as “punk rock.” But there usually isn’t any actual music involved, or even any spiky hair or safety pin jewelry. If you’ve been hungering for someone new and fresh to fill in the middle section of the venn diagram comparing “comedy” and “rock music,” perhaps you should be taking note of Tessa Skara.

The self-proclaimed “Courtney Love of comedy” will be doing her rock comedy cabaret show this Sunday, also at The Duplex. If you thought cabaret shows were ruled by the piano, think again, because this one features a real live rock band. Only the songs will be about stuff like weird adolescent sex habits, Diva Cups, therapy gripes, and Mary Jane-induced epiphanies. Rock on.