New York comedy goes underground - and to the rooftops

NEW YORK • No one expected so many people to come to Michael Che's impromptu comedy show in June.

The Saturday Night Live performer did little to publicise it, except mention it on Instagram the day before.

But that was all he needed to do. Two weeks earlier, Mr George Floyd had been killed by Minneapolis police officers, provoking nationwide protests, many of them organised on Instagram. Che's show ended up being promoted by several #BlackLivesMatter accounts.

"We had to close the gates, we were trying to spread people out, we were handing out masks," said Mr Edjo Wheeler, executive director of Culture Lab LIC, the community centre that had organised the show in its carpark.

Spectators lined the chain-link fence around the lot. People stood on nearby rooftops.

"There was a glut of humanity staring down upon us," recalled Ms Rebecca Trent, Che's friend and the owner of the Creek & the Cave comedy club in Long Island City, Queens, who had helped organise the show. She estimated that there were some 750 people in attendance. Mr Wheeler thought it was closer to 2,000.

It was a good sign for comedy during lockdown in the United States, where vaunted clubs such as Carolines and the Comedy Cellar remain dark while independent producers and comedians hustle to make gigs work outdoors.

Ms Trent and Mr Wheeler continued to put on comedy in the carpark, capping audiences, installing lights and using the bed of a rusted pick-up truck as a stage; in a step up from some other outdoor alternatives - parks and rooftops - that had cropped up during the shutdown. There were food trucks and an outside bar, too.

By late summer, however, just as outdoor comedy in New York was starting to see some success, the carpark shows - in addition to other official outdoor comedy events where alcohol was served - shut down.

The New York State Liquor Authority had strengthened its announcement that the only kind of live entertainment permitted where food and drinks were served - even from food trucks - would be music. Restaurants could host live music, but not live comedy.

As the city continues to reopen indoor spaces, including museums, bowling alleys, gyms and, most recently, restaurants - all at limited capacity - comedy clubs, most of which have liquor licences and serve food, remain shuttered, mostly unable to produce events without expensive workarounds.

Comedians, meanwhile, have returned to more underground ways of performing outside.

But now, as the weather starts to cool, those options could soon vanish.

Recently, a group of comics and comedy club owners gathered outside the New York Comedy Club in Manhattan's East Village to get the governor's attention.

"We're holding this rally to ask that New York state give live entertainment the same consideration that's been given to other industries," said Ms Kambri Crews, the owner of QED Astoria - one of the event's organisers - on behalf of the newly formed New York Comedy Club Coalition.

The coalition had submitted a five-page proposal to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo early last month outlining its demands.

Speakers at the rally argued that sanctioned comedy club shows could be better regulated through ticket sales and contact tracing. Banning them, they said, would only encourage a speak-easy culture. But not much has changed.

"Nothing is moving fast enough," Ms Trent said. "None of these decisions seem to be based in logic."

In the meantime, the rules have not stopped some enterprising clubs. The New York Comedy Club, for example, has begun hosting BYOB (bring your own bottle) pop-ups on private rooftops, where its owners do not have to worry about the liquor authority revoking the business' licence.

But the opportunity often comes at a hefty price.

Rental spaces can run anywhere from US$2,500 (S$3,400) to US$5,000 for the day, said club co-owner Emilio Savone, adding that the New York Comedy Club still pays monthly rent on its two permanent spaces, though the landlords have reduced rent by about half since the pandemic.

NYTIMES