Friday, September 15, 2006

You REALLY don't want to miss Comic Sex Night on November 15th

It's kinda gonna be like my 30th birthday party, part 2, except it's open to the public and I'll be 31 and . . . well, I promise it'll be funny. If you don't laugh, I'll make out with you.*

This could be the best In The Flesh yet. Don't miss it. After the reading, at 10 pm, we're heading downstairs for my birthday party, and yes, there will be birthday spankings. And cupcakes. Perhaps some kinky combination of the two.

IN THE FLESH EROTIC READING SERIES
COMIC SEX NIGHT
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 15 at 8 PM
AT HAPPY ENDING LOUNGE, 302 BROOME STREET, NYC
(B/D to Grand, J/M/Z to Bowery, F to Delancey, http://www.happyendinglounge.com)
Admission: Free
Happy Ending Lounge: 212-334-9676
http://inthefleshreadingseries.blogspot.com

New York’s funniest comedians riff about their wildest sex stories⎯from a horny gym trainer to a 30-year-old virgin to hot hotel sex and much more, they’ll make you laugh so hard you just might pee in your pants. With sidesplitting sex tales from Sara Jo Allocco (The Kissing Booth), Claudia Cogan (Check Your Cool), Jessica Delfino (“Rock N’ Roll Pussy,” I Wanna Be Famous), Julie Klausner (Free to Be Friends, Cat News), Todd Levin (How to Kick People), Mindy Raf (Collegehumor.com), Lianne Stokes (And God Created Women), Baron Vaughn (Tell Your Friends, Brooklyn Comedy Company), and music by the very foxy Adira Amram (Me and Bill, “Adira Amram Is An American Idol”). Hosted by Rachel Kramer Bussel.

In the Flesh is a monthly reading series hosted at the appropriately named Happy Ending Lounge, and features the city's best erotic writers sharing stories to get you hot and bothered, hosted and curated by Village Voice sex columnist and acclaimed erotic writer and editor Rachel Kramer Bussel. From erotic poetry to down and dirty smut, these authors get naked on the page and will make you lust after them and their words. Future themed nights include Revenge of the Sex Columnists (September), comic sex (November) and erotic memoirs. Since its debut in October 2005, In the Flesh has featured such authors as Lily Burana, Jessica Cutler, Polly Frost, Andy Horwtiz, Maxim Jakubowski, Emily Scarlet Kramer of CAKE, Edith Layton, M.J. Rose, Lauren Sanders, Danyel Smith, Cecilia Tan, Carol Taylor, and many others. The series has gotten press attention from Escape (Hong Kong), The L Magazine, New York, Gothamist, Nerve.com and Wonkette. This series is not Amanda Stern’s Happy Ending Reading Series.



Rachel Kramer Bussel is a New York City-based author and editor. She is Senior Editor at Penthouse Variations, writes the Lusty Lady column for The Village Voice, and conducts interviews for Gothamist.com and Mediabistro.com. Her erotic stories have appeared in over 60 anthologies, including Best American Erotica 2004 and 2006, and she’s edited her own collections, including Naughty Spanking Stories from A to Z 1 and 2, Up All Night, First-Timers, Glamour Girls, Ultimate Undies, Sexiest Soles, Secret Slaves: Erotic Stories of Bondage, and Caught Looking: Erotic Tales of Voyeurs and Exhibitionists. Rachel has also written for AVN, Bust, Metro, New York Post, Punk Planet, Time Out New York and Velvetpark.
www.rachelkramerbussel.com



Originally from Long Island, Sara Jo Allocco has been performing comedy all over NYC since 2004. Prior to that she took a job in an office playing with handbags, and before that did acting as a child. You might have seen her alongside Julia Stiles and Kirsten Dunst . . . auditioning alongside them that is. One part of the comedy duo Brandy & Sara, she hosts the monthly “The Kissing Booth” at the D Lounge, and “Flickr” at Otto's Shrunken Head. She likes San Loco, procrastinating, Justin Timberlake, and Toto. In that order.
sarajoallocco.blogspot.com



Adira Amram is a Brooklyn based musical comedienne. She has been described as a mix of Biz Markie and Madonna. Her CD Me and Bill, out on North Street Records, won a rave review from Jane magazine. For performance dates and other Adira news check out www.adiraamram.com.



Stand up comic and writer Claudia Cogan was recently called a "hilarious up-and-comer" by Time Out New York and an "acerbic wit" by the New York Post. After completing her training at the UCB Theatre, she was on improv teams for over a year and is still a regular performer at the celebrated venue. She has done her stand up at Caroline's, The Improv, and Stand Up New York, to name a few. She's been featured on Sirius Raw Dog Comedy network and her writing has been spotlighted by Gawker.com and MSNBC.com.
getthefoutofhere.blogspot.com



Jessica Delfino is a dirty folk song singer who also tells raunchy jokes. She was described as "a cross between Redd Foxx and Jewel" by The Onion and "Best Guitar Slinging Potty Mouth" by The Village Voice in the "Best Of" Issue. She spent her summer at The Montreal Comedy Festival and then followed with a 6 week US tour with The Trachtenburg Family Slideshow Players and Corn Mo. She loves touring. Take her with you somewhere. Or at least visit her online at www.jessydelfino.blogspot.com.



Julie Klausner is a comedy writer and a performer, and she is also a lovely young woman. Her show, Free To Be Friends, was an official selection of the NY International Fringe Festival, and she has done many more lovely and cool things, such as her Channel 102 series, Cat News, and lots more stuff as well, including writing for Robert Smigel's TV Funhouse cartoon on SNL and doing cartoon voices on E! and for the new Comedy Central series Freak Show. She recently got to play the part of "Abortion Girl" in the Les Freres Corbusier production of Hell House.
www.julieklausner.com



Todd Levin performs his little comedy skits and zingers for all of you nice people. He has appeared on Comedy Central's Premium Blend and at the 2006 US Comedy Arts Festival in Aspen. His writing has been published in Salon, Time Out, Glamour, McSweeney's, Heeb, Cracked, The Onion and on his own web site, tremble.com. He also co-produces the popular NYC-based comedy reading series, HOW TO KICK PEOPLE, at Mo Pitkin's House of Satisfaction on the last Wednesday of every month.
www.tremble.com



Mindy Raf is a stand-up comic, actress, and writer living in New York City. She is regularly performs at the Laugh Lounge, with Chicks and Giggles, and at the Teabag Variety Hour where she recently received the "Comedian of the Year" award. Mindy authors a widely-read relationship column on CollegeHumor.com that has been featured in The New Yorker and the New York Post. She is a contributor to The Phat Phree comedy site as well as the stand-up publication, The Comical. Mindy is also a regular actor for the popular Internet sketch comedy program, The Post Show. Mindy additionally writes and does voiceover work for a radio service that provides comedy content to broadcasting stations worldwide. For more info, please visit www.mindyraf.com or read her popular humor blog at http://thisisnotreallyablogforreal.blogspot.com



Lianne Stokes has a really hard time with numbers. She was always awful at math. Which means that she's constantly overdrawn in her "WAMU" checking account. A budding quirky creative type, she’s been doing stand-up on the New York indie scene for five years. Known for her high-energy style, she appreciates that "Dudes think she's funny." Most recently Lianne's had the pleasure to write and workshop her solo show, "And, God Created The Woman" around town. Oh! She's also got a blog. Yes! And, she's super proud that said blog is often linked to Gawker.com. In another life she dreams of being a fashion designer and boutique owner. Ahh! Dreams.
liannestokes.blogspot.com


photo by Semyon

Baron Vaughn is a daredevil. He defy the heavens and fate itself to get out of bed everyday and make his way in front of an audience that he tries to convince of his hilarity. He's been to the HBO Comedy Arts Festival and was recently named one of the 25 Sexiest New Yorkers by the New York Post. He still has no clue if he'll ever pay off his student loans.
www.baronvaughn.com

* Please note that this is my little attempt at humor, but I swear, you're gonna laugh. Not at me, but with me.

I rarely wish I lived in LA, but I wish I could go to this

This sounds totally amazing. I haven't read I Hate Myself and Want to Die but can recommend the other three. Especially Tania Katan's book, My One-Night Stand With Cancer, which not only has a cupcake on the cover but makes cancer (and lesbianism) FUNNY. Yes, really. Funny and touching all at once; I dare you to read it without crying.

"Jill Soloway says comedy and tragedy go together," The Jewish Journal

In Jill Soloway's collection of essays, "Tiny Ladies in Shiny Pants," the Emmy-nominated writer and co-executive producer of HBO's "Six Feet Under" recalls the time she lost her virginity at 17 to a 36-year-old with a golden chai dangling from his neck.

"I was running from the bathroom back to his bed," she writes, "leaving slivers of myself everywhere: The girl who wanted to be here; the girl who didn't want to be here; the girl who thought the whole thing was exciting; that he was an idiot; that his apartment was tacky, yet sexy; that I was turned on; that I wasn't; that this was fun; that it wasn't."

However traumatizing the experience was then, she jokes about it now. "If you can laugh with your friends over something, you own it," said Soloway, lounging in jeans and a T-shirt in her Silver Lake home. "I don't think it's a contradiction to find painfulness funny."

On Sunday, Sept. 17, Soloway will explore the ways comedy and tragedy fit together by moderating a discussion, "Laughter in the Rain: Mining Humor from Pain," at the West Hollywood Book Fair. She will lead a conversation with Tania Katan, author of "My One-Night Stand With Cancer: A Memoir"; Brett Paesel, author of "Mommies Who Drink: Sex, Drugs, and Other Distant Memories of an Ordinary Mom," and Tom Reynolds, who wrote "I Hate Myself and Want to Die: The 52 Most Depressing Songs You've Ever Heard."

I Love Jack, Sunday, September 17

I Love Jack-- comedy variety show
Sunday September 17th and every subsquent Sunday
8pm
M. Shanghai's Den (129 Havermeyer Street Brooklyn)
$2.

This week's guests: Adira, Amram, Carla Rhodes, Dan Allen, Will McKinley, PJ Zeller, Regie Cabico

With your host Rachael Parenta and DJ Your Friend Jesse Spinning tunes

Rachael Parenta (the woman who loves Jack)


PRESS RELEASE:
"I Love Jack" is a live variety show performed in the style of a 1940s
radio program, but with a distinctly modern comedic sensibility.

New York City Comedian Rachael Parenta serves as the affable host of the
program, and Jack – Rachael's handsome, intelligent and absent boyfriend
functions as a centerpiece for her comedy.

As with "The Jack Benny Program," "The Burns and Allen Show" or other
classic radio shows of a bygone era, "I Love Jack" will feature regular
supporting characters, such as special guest announcer Will McKinley. Like
Jack Benny's beloved announcer Don Wilson, Will references imaginary
sponsors such as the "We Hate the Periphery Foundation"- an organization
committed to ridding the world of the awful people found in your extended
social circle.

In addition there will be recurring comedic segments, such as some "Shiv of
Shovel" wherein the live audience gets to vote on whether an evil person
described to them by Rachael should be:

a) shivved in the belly or
b) have a shovel taken to their head.

In addition to this wackiness, "I Love Jack" will also feature some of the
finest established and up-and-coming alternative comedians and variety
artists that New York City has to offer.

Highlights of the show will be podcast, thus insuring that love for "Jack"
is a truly international phenomenon.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006

3 Lower East Side comedy shows tonight


NYUCFChicks
Originally uploaded by Undiscovered Superstar.
Anything but Stand-Up at Chicks and Giggles - see flyer

and

It's the premiere of

LES is MORE (click through for next week's lineup AND a funny birthday cake pic in the comments)

Hosted by Eric Andre

Susan Prekel (Live at Gotham)
Jess Wood (Def Comedy Jam)
Eric Kirchberger (Premium Blend)
Amanda Melson (Writer of Stand-Up Nation with Greg Giraldo)
Elon James White (BcCo)
and Musical Guest
Joshua Grosvent (Co-Host of Comedy is for Humans)

September 12
Essex Ale House
179 Essex (corner of houston)
Lower East Side, NYC
SHOWTIME 9pm
1 Drink Minimum

And Check Your Cool at 9:30 at Parkside Lounge, which I posted about below.

Monday, September 11, 2006

What happens when you miss The Kissing Booth


_DSC2816
Originally uploaded by brianvan.
Or leave early...I did not see this in action, or I'd probably have jumped in this shot. Seriously, SO much fun.

Check Your Cool on Tuesday

I like to reprint these show emails as is so you get the full wittiness. Check out this great new show (and pac-man!)

Hello The Public,

This is John F. O'Donnell, Claudia Cogen and Jiwon Lee. We are three
of the most inspirational human beings alive in America today. And
we've combined our forces to bring COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY COMEDY
to you.

This weeks lineup is SPECIAL!

in addition to the three of us, you get....

Jon Friedman (Rejection Show)
Vince Averill (DC Comedy Fest)
Sean O'Connor (Here's The Thing)
Ruby J. Wendell (From L to the mothafuckin' A)

Come on out and support the forces of good!


CHECK YOUR COOL
@ The Parkside Lounge
317 East Houston, corner of Attorney St (1 block East of Clinton,
south side of the block, take the F to 2nd Ave. and Houston, walk 3
blocks East)
Tuesday Sept. 12th
8:00 PM
No cover, two-drink minimum (don't forget $3 PBRs!)

RSVP to parksideloungecomedy@gmail.com and get a free game of Ms. Pac Man.

Interview with Wendy Spero



I interviewed the fabulous, hilarious, totally awesome Wendy Spero, author of Microthrills: True Stories from a Life of Small Highs in the newly redesigned, awesome Small Spiral Notebook
- check it out, as well as the chapter "Free Spatulas" from Microthrills

Sunday, September 10, 2006

I heart The Kissing Booth


_DSC2914
Originally uploaded by brianvan.
Last night several of us migrated from the Black and White Ball to the D-Lounge for The Kissing Booth and much hilarity ensued. Brian Van (with a little help from people he kindly let borrow his camera) took 136 photos (!!!) of the crowd. There was much dancing, drinking, silliness and hotness. I'm SO going back for all the fun, and the dance medley.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

Cute comedians


Claud and Justin
Originally uploaded by rkb1.
Were in abundance last night at Lolita for Claudia Cogan's birthday party.

Among them were Justin Purnell, pictured here, EDP (sorry, never know how to spell his last name), Giulia Rozzi, Margot Leitman, Brandy Barber, Victor Varnado, Liam McEneaney, Erik Andre, John F. O'Donnell, and people I'm sure I'm forgetting (sorry!). I met someone new and I can't remember her name but she runs a weekly show that's near Nevada Smith's...that's vague, but if that's you or you know who it was, please tell me. I'm kinda bad with names, as many people have sadly found out.

Thursday, September 07, 2006

UCB date for Jane magazine virgin

29-year-old virgin Sarah is blogging at Jane magazine and letting readers pick her dates for her. On a date with Cody, they went to UCB. Here's Cody's take:

Sarah suggested we check out the comedy show at the Upright Citizen's Brigade. I've never been to a comedy club before, but I thought it was a great idea for a first date. And going with a real stand-up comedian was sure to make it even better. The cheap admission and even cheaper beers also make for a nice first date.

The comedy show was funny and it was nice to see Sarah laughing her ass off. We got to talk a bit more between the skits and agreed that some of the comedians got to be less funny the drunker they got.

Wednesday, September 06, 2006

Mo Pitkin's Anniversary Show tonight

The countdown is on to Mo's Big First Anniversary Party!

Mo Pitkins House of Satisfaction celebrates one full year of enticing East Village entertainment. Join us for our signature comfort food as Mo's invites our favorites to perform for you on Wednesday, September 6th for two shows.

7:30 PM Show
Host 'Mr Showbiz" Murray Hill
Eugene Mirman, Seth Herzog
The Shark Show, Phoebe Legere
Todd Levin, Dave Hill
World Famous *BOB*, Jon Friedman
Laura Cantrell, Andy Borowitz
Nick Kroll, Christina Courtin & The Running Kicks
Jesse Hartman & Freestyle Love Supreme


10:00 PM Show
Host 'Mr Showbiz" Murray Hill
Andy Borowitz, Laura Cantrell
Oh My God, Nick Kroll
Seth Herzog, World Famous *BOB*
The Shark Show, Todd Levin
Lenny Kaye, Jon Friedman
Julie Atlas Muz, Christina Courtin & The Running Kicks
Jesse Hartman & Freestyle Love Supreme

$15