The best comedy shows in NYC this month

Once a week, after closing time, 10 people convene at the city’s oldest magic shop, Tannen’s, for a cozy evening of prestidigitation by the young and engaging Noah Levine. The shelves are crammed with quirky devices; there's a file cabinet behind the counter, a mock elephant in the corner and bins of individual trick instructions in plastic covers, like comic books or sheet music. The charm of Levine's show is in how well it fits the environment of this magic-geek chamber of secrets. As he maneuvers cards, eggs, cups and balls with aplomb, he talks shop, larding his patter with tributes to routines like the Stencel Aces and the Vernon Boat Trick—heirlooms of his trade that he gently polishes and displays for our amazement.

By day, Original Barbershop in the East Village is a classic (and well appointed) place to get a solid haircut. By night—at least on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays—it's host to an intimate, hot AF comedy show called "Live at the Barbershop." While it's easy to think of this as a comedy speakeasy, it's actually a well-established, well-regarded show that's been around for nearly a decade, draws a consistent sold-out crowd and doesn't require a secret password to get in. Here's what you need to know before you go. Each night's lineup of comedians is a surprise, but they rarely disappoint. There's a very limited number of seats (and they're packed in pretty tightly), so make sure to buy your tickets in advance. This arrangement allows the comics to engage with the crowd more too. Speaking of tickets, they're amazingly affordable for a New York comedy show. No food or drinks are available. It's BYOB, so there's no minimum drink requirement (which is often a buzzkill) and no service that interrupts your view or your experience. The crowd tends to be young and engaged, so don't be boring.

And Scene is a half-scripted comedy show where actors and improvisers are paired up to perform scenes together. The actors can only say the words as they come in the script, and the improvisers don't know what play they're in, making for a truly chaotic and hilarious evening. Upcoming shows are on April 21, May 19, June 16, July 21, August 18, September 15, October 20, November 17, and December 15.   

Coming off of his award-winning solo show "Connect the Dots," funnyman Natan Badalov will test out new material at Astoria's Tootles & French. The in-progress show will see Badalov try to wrench laughs out of tough subjects like empathy, family dynamics, and the Middle East. The show's on the first Sunday of each month (that's January 5, February 2, March 2, April 6, May 4, June 1, July 6, August 3, September 7, October 5, November 2, and December 7 in 2025). Tickets cost just $5 plus a one-drink minimum.    

Club Video—a "DIY freak video party" showcasing experimental comedy shorts from 30-plus creators—has moved into new and even bigger digs for its tenth iteration, which will take place at SILO Brooklyn on Wednesday, May 7. Participants, ranging from Adult Swim collaborators to alt-comedy internet darlings to first-time video makers, all have the same prompt: their videos have to be under three minutes and they can’t have been screened anywhere else before. There are no submission fees and no judging panels—just "an exciting and supportive space for innovative and genre-bending work," organizer promise. And make sure to stick around for the afterparty featuring a set by DJ John Swan.

We're not gonna lie, we already miss Alan Cumming, Dylan Efron, Gabby Windey and everyone else on The Traitors. But while you won't see your favorite reality stars here, you will see some top-notch comedians playing their own hilarious version of the famous TV murder mystery. On Monday, March 31 at 9:30pm, join host Christopher Morucci and sidekick Kendall Davis at an ancient castle (a.k.a. Caveat on the Lower East Side) to watch as New York's most deviously funny folks act as Traitors and secretly try to eliminate the Faithful and claim the prize for themselves. Among the night's players are Colleen Cass, Kalynn Chambers, Michelle Chan Bennett, Bibek Gurung, Chloe Hale, Michael John Ciszewski, and more.

At this live show, two comedians will watch Planet Earth, then you can try and stump them with animal trivia. Each time the hosts get a question wrong, they take a shot. Drunk Planet Earth is hosted by comedians Brian Morabito (Comedy Central) and Stephen Buckley (UCB). Find this delightfully nerdy free show at Caveat on the Lower East Side on Friday, January 24; reserve your ticket here. Upcoming shows are on: April 26, May 24, June 28, and July 26.

Tim Mountain, Emma Carey and Kevin O’Malley host “final_final_FINAL_final(3).pdf.doc,” an energetic, bimonthly comedy show at Brooklyn Comedy Collective in East Williamsburg. During the show, the hosts write a ridiculous and ridiculously funny screenplay in five hours based on audience suggestions from a Google Form. They then enlist top-notch comedians—including Sylvie Borschel, Audrey Garrett, Irving George, Seerat Jhajj and Elika Kaplan—to do a staged reading of it that night. The Sunday, April 6 edition of the show will be an all-original episode of a fictional animated series.

Jenny Hagel, an Emmy-nominated writer-slash-performer for Late Night with Seth Meyers, loves two things: comedy and telling people what to do. In her live show "Jenny Hagel Gives Advice," which is coming to Union Hall for several dates this spring (March 29, April 30, May 17, June 28), she hilariously gets to do both at the same time.  Hagel invites audience members to submit written questions about their relationships, careers and finances, then she and a special guest (the March 29 show will feature Justin Guarini—yes, that Justin Guarini) will give their best and most delightfully unhinged life advice. To humorously cap things off, our host then invites a real-life therapist on stage to either double down on the advice given or instruct the audience to totally ignore everything they heard over the past hour.

From writer-comedian Lily Blumkin (The Daily Show) comes a hilarious solo show about growing up and getting worse. “Nice Try” comes to New York City Fringe on Saturday, March 29 at Caveat, offering up an honest look at how we use the past to make sense of our present. When Lily heads home to pack up her childhood bedroom, she encounters objects that remind her of characters from her personal history: a well-meaning dad, a self-indulgent rabbi, a critical cosmetics employee, an inanimate clump of hair, etc. She looks back on these adolescent humiliations fondly, until her younger self comes barging into the scene.