This past Saturday, I made it out to Comix on 14th St (Between 8th and 9th Ave) to see David Alan Grier perform the 10:30pm show. The openers were Pete Holmes and Drew Fraser. Pete Holmes had the crowd laughing hysterically with his rants about the Subway food chain while Drew Fraser had them laughing even harder with a great bit about "wiping." Yes, we will leave it at that.
Fresh off of his recent success with Comedy Central's "Chocolate News," Grier was back in New York City doing stand up. If the sold out crowd was any indication, he is still very popular in the comedy world many years after his "In Living Color" days. Most of you may remember what is arguably his most famous character - Antoine Merriweather from the "Men on Film" sketches where he and Damon Wayans coined the catchy phrase "Hated it!" while reviewing movies.
Grier started off his set with some highlights on the screen from "Chocolate News" before coming out and entertaining the crowd with a solid hour-long set that was both physical and personal. He told stories about his first marriage and he showed the crowd more skin than we needed to see. He was at his best when doing impersonations of girls dancing and drinking in clubs. How he is somehow able to keep a straight face while the audience is laughing uncontrollably is beyond me. He just keeps telling his stories.
If you have not been to Comix yet, you must check out their website and buy tickets to an upcoming show. The black angus burger was fantastic and the service was top notch. There isn't a bad seat in the house and it's a great set up for stand up comedy shows. The customer service clearly shows when you see management walking around the house before the show starts to make sure everybody there is satisfied. Oh, and don't forget to try the molten chocolate cake either. They really do an all around excellent job.
As long as great comics keep getting booked and the people keep leaving as happy as they did last night, expect Comix to be a NYC staple for a long time to come.
Comix 353 W 14th St New York, NY 10014 212-524-2500 www.comixny.com
I'm back with an actual update on life! And you might want to make sure you have a bit of time, because this could be the longest blog yet.
For those of you wondering - work is going great. I've been working for a month now and glad to finally be back in the routine of working five days a week again. My days off are different every week. We have a small staff - It's just myself along with my property manager Beth and my assistant property manager Jamie. I'm a leasing consultant and give tours to prospects that are looking to live in Jersey City. I'm still learning the property, but have already leased a few apartments!
So let's back up a few weeks and go over the fun stuff.
Butch Walker at The Blender Theater - November 13th, we got to see one of our favorite solo singers rock it out in NYC and he was awesome, as expected! Since it was a short 8 show promo tour to promote his new album, there were a lot of new songs in the set. Butch rocked out for an hour and 45 minutes and threw in some classics which are always great to hear. Cigarette Lighter Love Song, The Best Thing You Never Had, and #1 Summer Jam are still some of my favorite live songs. The one thing that can be said about Butch is he always leaves every show drenched in sweat and he really knows what it means to perform night in and night out. Truly an entertainer.
Butch Walker at S.O.B.'s - I found out that Butch was playing a secret show at a bar in NYC 3 days later on an off day. It was a radio station sponsored show and I entered and won 2 tickets. We were really excited to see him play a bar, but it turned out to be slightly different than I was anticipating. I was expecting a real dumpy bar and a real in your face kind of show. Well, I was slightly off. :) It was actually an upscale cabaret type of set up. Lots of tables everywhere for radio station VIPs and guests. We stood behind a few tables in the center. Sitting down shows don't usually do it for me because energy is always lacking. Butch did an 8 song, 45 minute set that consisted of nothing but new songs. While I think the new album is great and it was great to hear the new songs again...no old songs at a Butch Walker show is very bad! He still played really well and has a new song called "Going Back and Going Home" which I think is the best one he's written in 2 albums. Jenn actually recorded the song on her camera and will post it for you to see and hear.
Night before Thanksgiving - Well, as some of you may know - our block is one of the blocks that the Thanksgiving day balloons are blown up on. It makes for an interesting night because there are people everywhere. One really cool thing is that you aren't even allowed on our street unless you live here or are with someone that lives here. It's all fenced off and the police officers check your IDs. We walked around and saw some of the balloons. One interesting moment was when we walked right by Richard Kind ("Spin City," "Curb Your Enthusiasm") and my face lit up. I said to Jenn "There's the guy from Curb!" and she saw him too. Good times! We didn't say anything to him, but that was one of those cool moments where you have to think "We live in New York City!"
Thanksgiving Parade - I will give 100% credit to Jenn on this one. Personally, I wanted to get out there at 8:15 or so and watch the parade from a few people back. Jenn was determined to get out there early, so we were up and out there by 6:45am! At first, this sounded like a very bad idea, but it turned out to be a great idea. Thank you Jenn! We actually got the last 2 spots on the barricade between 76th and 77th on Central Park West. At 7am, they closed off the area and it became an area for NYPD families only. Luckily, we were already in. The Thanksgiving Day parade was awesome! We were around some really friendly people and we were also around some screaming little teenage girls which gave us some good laughs when Miley Cyrus and other Disney teens came out. We were literally right there when Al Roker cut the ribbon for the parade to start. I can't think of a better place to watch it standing up. It really was awesome seeing it so close and right in front of you. After the parade, we came home for 2 hours and then went to Isabella's.
Thanksgiving meal at Isabella's - Since places book up, the only time available was 1pm. While it wasn't anything like a homecooked meal by either of our moms, it did the job. We had a 3 course meal which included pumpkin ravioli appetizers, the Thanksgiving entree (turkey, stuffing, mashed sweet potatoes, cranberry jam, and veggies), and I had pumpkin pie for dessert while Jenn had sorbet. Isabella's has good food and I wouldn't be against going back there if we aren't in Florida for Thanksgiving.
My brother Kevin came up and stayed for the weekend!!! He was our first official guest and we were so excited to spend some time with him. Lauren and Renee will have to make it up to NYC at some point!
Kevin hasn't been here in about 15 years so this was all brand new to him. We took him to as many places as possible in a short time, but there's still more to see. He got in at 11:30pm on Thanksgiving night and by 12:30am we were at the legendary Gray's Papaya eating those fantastic and snappy hot dogs. It was absolutely DEAD here that night and we were all kind of tired, but I at least wanted to squeeze one quick destination in! It's amazing how few people were on the streets.
We woke up the next morning where he got to start experiencing "subway life" and not driving. After a quick stop down at the World Trade Center site, we went to Ess-A-Bagel which is still the #1 bagel place I've ever been to. Like Dave Attell taught me at the Comedy Cellar: A toasted everything bagel is the jesus of bagels. I haven't turned my back on that saying since! Kevin had a classic experience with Uncle Bill at Ess-A, with him forgetting to make his bagel. After Ess-A, we started walking. We started at Barney's and walked about a mile down 5th Ave where we saw some of the holiday windows. Some good, some bad. It was all interesting though. We hit all the 5th Ave destinations such as Trump Tower, the amazing St. Patrick's Cathedral, FAO Schwarz (which the line was too long to get into - holiday crowds are insane!), Rockefeller Center and the ice skating rick, Radio City Music Hall, etc. We went to Top of the Rock which is still really awesome. It's 70 stories up in the Rockefeller Center and has the most incredible views of the city. It was cold, but I still look at the city in awe and it showed Kevin a really good perspective of everything. After that we saw the Christmas tree. Standing next to it, we were all slightly disappointed by it's lack of size. But once we walked further back, we realized it was actually pretty cool! To think, we were sitting there dissappointed at a 5 story high tree. We walked through Bryant Park and saw the skating rink there which looked really fun and we saw all the temporary holiday stores that are there right now.
After coming home for a 45 minute break, we went right back out to face the Times Square crowds. The hope was to try and see a show. We didn't have a completely solid plan, but we were going to try the Young Frankenstein lottery at 5pm and see what happens before making a decision. We went and entered the lottery before walking around Times Square. We saw the new red steps outside of the TKTS booth and witnessed the long lines there. Times Square is cool to see all the lights, but holiday time is a very bad time to be there! Way too many people. While we did not win the lottery (Jenn did, but that's it), they offered the losers balcony seats at the Hilton Theatre for only $27 a ticket. We bought 3 of those and saw Young Frankenstein for cheap! Jenn and I had already seen it and loved it, but I wanted Kevin to witness what a Broadway show is all about now that he can appreciate it. Massive sets, great songs, great dancing. I love that show!!! After the show - around 11pm, we headed over to Arriba Arriba, a Mexican place in Hell's Kitchen which Jenn and I like a lot. After having some fajitas and burritos, time to call it a night.
Saturday morning we woke up and walked about a mile of Central Park (from 77th to 59th).....Kevin took some pictures throwing up leaves (memories of when he was a small child) and we just enjoyed the quiet and peacefulness of the park. After leaving the park, we walked another four blocks until we got to Carnegie Deli. Carnegie Deli luckily didn't have a wait when we got there, but by the time we left, there was a line outside. It was packed enough to where they seated 3 parties in a table that had 8 chairs!!! A party of three, a party of three, and a party of two. Oh the scene that is Carnegie. Kevin and I shared a "Woody Allen" while Jenn checked out the bacon grilled cheese. Everything was amazing!!! This truly is the mother of all delis.
After Carnegie, we walked around and took some pictures in front of the Ed Sullivan Theatre where the David Letterman Show is taped along with the Hello Deli, where I went in asking if Rupert was working that day (he was off until Monday). We checked out Madison Square Garden and had Levain Bakery cookies, then headed home for a bit before we all went over to a bar by us called the Gin Mill for the UF/FSU game. The Gin Mill was completely packed with Gator fans and Kevin knew more people in that room than we know in New York City alone! Jenn and I made it about 2 and a half hours and then left at halftime to rest up for the night. After Kevin got back, we walked around the West Village a bit and ended up having Italian food at Cafe Del Mare. A good place, but it definitely doesn't get my complete stamp of approval. After that, we waited in line behind some completely obnoxious people outside of the Comedy Cellar. The Comedy Cellar definitely did not disappoint! As a matter of fact, it was the best show we've seen there yet. We had amazing seats and saw Louis CK (Lucky Louie), Jim Norton (Lucky Louie), Robert Kelly (Tourgasm), Ben Bailey (Cash Cab), Sherrod Small (VH1's Best Week Ever), and John Joseph. What a show!!!!!!!! All for $18 plus a 2 item minimum. Seeing Louis CK and Jim Norton back to back was the highlight of the weekend for me because those guys are two of my favorite comedians in the world. A great night indeed.
The last day of the trip was the one really rainy and nasty day so we didn't get to do all of the things I had originally hoped. Jenn wasn't feeling well (we were both getting over colds still) so she stayed home. Kevin and I went to Brooklyn and got to see our amazing cousins and their kids. Seeing Jesse, Shadow, Sky, Diane, Ava, Harrison, and meeting Sky's other daughter Lila for the first time was so much fun. That was awesome and we had such a good time that we stayed there for 4 hours and watched the Giants game and just hung out.
After that, we met up with Kevin's old roommate, Brad Sobel, at his apt downtown. Then the three of us went to Lombardi's for dinner followed by Max Brenner's for dessert. To this point, I would have to say that Lombardi's is the best pizza I've had in NYC. It's the first pizzeria ever in the U.S. and it was delicious! Kevin got to witness the brilliance that is Max Brenner's chocolate pizza.It seriously has to be in contention for the single best dessert ever. We were glad that Sobel came and hung out for a few hours and then we headed home to end the trip. Monday morning I went back to work, and Kevin left back to South Florida. We had an AMAZING time with him as always and can't wait for his return visit.
Have I mentioned the love/hate relationship we have with the World's Largest Macy's in Herald Square? We have been getting clothes for work there because they actually have some very impressive sales. At the same time, it's so massive and so crowded during this time of year that you can't walk anywhere without someone wanting to spray cologne and perfume on you!
On my day off a few days ago, I went back to the Carnegie Deli to try out the potato latkes and matzoh ball soup. Wow, were they great!!!!! Delicious stuff.
On Thursday, I took Jenn to Lombardi's since she had never been there and she loved it.
Letters to Cleo at the Bowery Ballroom - Now this was a real treat for both of us. Most of you probably remember them as a one hit wonder in the alternative 90's world with the hit "Here and Now." Letters to Cleo is one of my all time favorite bands and I have not seen them since I saw them open for Sponge in Ft Lauderdale. It was 1995 at The Edge and I went with my dad since I couldn't drive yet. "Wholesale Meats and Fish" had just come out and Letters to Cleo opened the show. They were GREAT! Fast forward 13 years. I haven't seen them since 95 and Jenn has never seen them but also loves them. They broke up in 2000 and decided to play 4 reunion shows. Los Angeles, 2 Boston shows, and New York City. Thank god we live here because we got to see them and they sounded better than ever. Here was the setlist for those that might know them:
Demon Rock Fast Way Big Star Disappear Laudanum Awake Because of You I Could Sleep (the Wuss Song) Find You Dead Veda Very Shining Co-Pilot I'm a Fool Mellie's Coming Over Jennifer Where the F*** are my Presents? Here & Now Pizza Cutter
Encore: Little Rosa (Just Kay w/ USA on guitar). I Want You to Want Me Rim Shak
20 songs. 90 minutes of brilliance. Best show I've seen in a LONG time. Here's a video of "Because of You"...a song off their "new" cd from 1998 which I think is their best cd of all. Nobody had this cd, yet listen to the crowd at 1:55. Such a great night.
The last exciting thing we've done lately is try a place called Empanada Mama. It's an amazing place on 51st and 9th in Hell's Kitchen that is the best place I've found in a while. Tons of amazing empanadas (a selection of 40 kinds!) and mozzarepas. What a find. I highly recommend that you check this place out if you are in NYC.
A review of David Alan Grier is coming next.......
This past Saturday, I made it out to Comix on 14th St (Between 8th and 9th Ave) to see David Alan Grier perform the 10:30pm show. The openers were Pete Holmes and Drew Fraser. Pete Holmes had the crowd laughing hysterically with his rants about the Subway food chain while Drew Fraser had them laughing even harder with a great bit about "wiping." Yes, we will leave it at that.
Fresh off of his recent success with Comedy Central's "Chocolate News," Grier was back in New York City doing stand up. If the sold out crowd was any indication, he is still very popular in the comedy world many years after his "In Living Color" days. Most of you may remember what is arguably his most famous character - Antoine Merriweather from the "Men on Film" sketches where he and Damon Wayans coined the catchy phrase "Hated it!" while reviewing movies. 
