People often ask me what shows, besides my own, they should check out in NYC. I'm posting this entry to satisfy that need and will update regularly. Much of this list was informed by my friend and comedian Myq Kaplan.
One-stop shopping for good NYC shows: The Comic's Comic blog.
specific shows to check out (starting with free ones):
- Whiplash at UCB, 11pm mondays (hosted by Leo Allen)
- Sage Standup at Bar 82, 9pm tuesdays (hosted by me!)
- Big Terrific at Cameo, 8pm wednesdays (hosted by Max Silvestri)
- Comedy As A Second Language at Kabin, 9:30pm thursdays (hosted by Sean Patton and Chelsey Calloway)
- Hannibal Buress's show at The Knitting Factory in Brooklyn, 9pm sundays
other cheap shows:
- Tell Your Friends at Lolita Bar, 8pm tuesdays (hosted by Liam McEneaney)
- Punch Up Your Life at Housing Works, 8:30pm tuesdays (hosted by Joe Derosa and Jared Logan)
- anything at UCB
other free shows:
- Hot Soup, 8pm fridays
- Too Cool For School, 8pm fridays
- Bar 4 in park slope, 9pm sundays (hosted by Yannis Pappas)
other great shows:
- Moonwork, some saturdays in the village ($20 to get in, worth it, great shows, includes free beer)
- Sacapuntas!, first wednesday of every month at Bower Poetry Club. (hosted by Dan Allen)
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In this two-year-old video, Bill Cammack is right. Voting is a representation of power. Let's do it fellas. Step up ya game and vote!
But first, a word from Matt Damon
The Working Families Party is a progressive organization that, from my perspective, helps keep the Democratic Party in New York on its toes. Dems dominate so much of the political space in much of New York that the lack of competition leads to many officials taking votes (and taxpayer money) for granted.
The WFP supports many of the same candidates who run as Democrats, but when you vote on the WFP line, you help this third party maintain legitimacy in the eyes of politicos and journalists. Here's a short explanation:
Working Families is a third party with a twist. In New York, “fusion” voting lets one party (like the WFP) “cross endorse” the same candidate as another party. The votes from each party are tallied separately, but then combined for that candidate’s total. It gives voters a way to “vote their values” by voting for the party of their choice without spoiling an election.
The WFP has been the most aggressive defender of affordable MTA fares, for example, whereas most democratic officials and the party had not so much to say. There are several progressive issues the WFP has fought for and even won.
Vote E all the way. Working Families Party.
Thanks.
Me messing around with some experimental glasses at Bar 82 one night this past summer.
Many thanks to Diamond, who wrote a flattering piece about our now-three-year-old show. Yep, I've been hosting this show for three years! Here's an excerpt of the review:
The atmosphere at Bar 82 is unlike any other. It’s intimate and compact. In a sense, the acts have no choice but to interact with the crowd, whether it’s tough or not. But hey, it’s New York, what do you expect?
A lot of pressure is put on the host to keep the crowd awake in between acts but bearded Baratunde Thurston enjoys the challenge, especially at Bar 82.
“I love performing. I also write and have done on-air work, but there’s nothing like performing,” said Thurston, clad in a gray sports coat and burgundy glasses. “Performing in front of people brings an energy that you can’t get on Twitter. This is like coming home. Even though I perform a lot of places, I don’t miss many shows here.”
Bar 82 is definitely worth a look-see. Their prices are reasonable for drinks and the Sage Comedy Show is free of charge with no drink minimum. Why wouldn’t you?
Tomorrow night we have the amazing W. Kamau Bell in the lineup, and I'll be out of town the rest of the week, so it's your last chance to see me until next week, New York! Full info at SageStandup.com
This is long overdue, but I'm excited to announce a new way to help me cover my rent: The Baratunde Store!
It's hosted over at Zazzle and includes two designs to start. One is the Property Of Massa Thurston hoodie.
This is a reference to my signature standup joke:
The other is the Mayor Thurston t-shirt, a reference to my historic Foursquare mayoral campaign for leadership of NYC restaurant Delicatessen.
Hey folks, a friend of mine is working on a research project trying to connect students to their teachers, parents, and other community members via texting. Here is his description of the use cases. BTW, his name is Uche Amaechi, and he lives in Somerville, MA.
The usecases I see are:
1. Teacher sends message to all kids reminding them of homework, field trips, events etc.
- 1.1 Kids can respond directly to teacher
- 1.2 Kids can respond to the group
2. Teacher sends message to individual kid about whatever
- Kid can respond directly to teacher
3. Teacher sends messages to set group of kids (or kids and adults)
- 3.1 Kid can respond to teacher
- 3.2 Kid can respond to group
- 3.3 Kid can respond to individual kids in the receiving group
General question: What's the easiest and fastest way to do this given:
- That most of these kids might not have smart phones, although the teacher presumably does
- Many of these kids will not have computers @ home
- We want to give teachers (and students) the ability to disconnect from the group
- We want the receiving parties to be able to see who else is receiving the particular message
- We'd like to be able to track the conversations. So we can track the conversations that come through the teacher, but what about point to point communications.
The only group SMS service I've heard about is tatango, but that seems to be focused on one-to-many broadcast, not many-to-many or one-to-one, at least. Any others come close to covering all the needs above?
Many of you know that I'm a huge fan of Skins, a British show about the extreme lives of teenagers. I was introduced to the show by a friend in Boston back in late 2007 or early 2008. He handed me some CD-ROMs with video files on them and said, "Watch this. You're gonna love it." He was absolutely right. It's safe to say I became obsessed. I actually made a digital mixtape of nearly all the music in Season 1 as a gift for a fellow fan. That's 110 tracks, people!
My short description of the show is that it's a cross between Gossip Girl and Kids, that is silly, meaningless, lighthearted combined with soul-crushing, heart-breaking super depressing. The adults are caricatures, and the teens are completely out of hand. In general, the show is dark. No one is happy. These kids have a non-stop string of seriously heavy problems, and the only way they make it through is with each other. Oh, and drugs, lots and lots of drugs.
While it's not a reality show, it has a realistic feel for the way it takes on heavy issues: homosexuality, parental neglect, pregnancy, a broken education system, to name a few. The music is stellar, and for a while was my primary way of discovering artists. The writing is sharp, with much of it done by actual teenagers, and it's hilarious.
Now MTV looks like it's going to ruin it with a U.S. version of the show, airing in January 2011. Check out this extended trailer and exclusive clip in the player below. It's in multiple parts, so wait through all the segments before continuing.