The Who, What, Where of Funny

So the comedians who come here, are they people who live in the area?  People you’ve known? It’s a combination.  There are some who live in Astoria or Williamsburg and so they love the short commute.  [For] Judah Friedlander... 30 Rock tapes at Silvercom, which is up the street, so that helps a great deal.  He would just basically finish work and then send me a text and be like, “I’m going to come tonight.”  So that was wonderful.  So we have that.  But... I’ve been a comic for ten years.  And so a lot of the people - especially the people who first tried it - are friends, colleagues, just people I’ve known for a long time.  When Kristen Schaal came here, that was because a few days earlier, I was on a show at Gotham [Comedy Club]with her.  And I was talking to her afterward, and I was like, “I’ve got this spot in Long Island City.  Wanna come out?” and she said sure and, a week later, she was here. [Photo: Judah Friedlander at Laughing Devil via Steve Hofstetter] What’s the structure of your shows? We are a showcase club.  And so what that means is that 99 percent of the time, we’re going to have anywhere from four to ten comics - typically six - on our stage doing anywhere from five to twenty minutes a piece.  In August, we’re changing the format a little bit to something that no one really does.  We’re going to be doing a hybrid of a showcase and a headliner club.... [New York comics] rarely get a chance to stretch and actually do the kind of time they would do on the road, and it will give us a chance to see more.  When someone is kicking ass, it sucks to get them off stage.  So it will be a lot of fun to do that.  And we’ll rotate who is headlining.... It’s six comics, so it’s a different show each night.  We have people [in the audience] who come more than once a week. How do you screen comics before they come here? We have a whole new talent process.  But I believe we have the most open new talent process in the ball game.  And part of that is because we’re comedians.  But it’s... very structured.  You know exactly where you stand.  We never string anyone along.  People might get pissed if we say no.  But it’s a zero sum game.  When we hire someone, that means we have to fire someone else.  And so we’re really only going to give spots to someone who is really deserving of it.  And there might be someone who is never deserving who will get turned down, and there might be someone who will be deserving soon, just not yet. But we have two open mics a week, where I just sit there and give [comics] critiques and feedback and suggestions and say, “I think this really worked,” “I think this worked, here’s why” and it’s great.  All the comics stay for the whole thing because they want to hear feedback for other people’s sets too.  And the comics help too.... We’re trying to build a community.
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