The Definitive Guide to Comedy
Ruby Karp made her debut on the Upright Citizens Brigade stage when most kids her age were barely out of kindergarten. By the age of 8, Ruby had appeared on Amy Poehler’s Smart Girls at the Party webseries and had become a regular monologist for the UCB’s premier improv showcase, …
Alaina Bamfield is a Brooklyn-based stand-up comedian from Lansing, Michigan. She self-financed and filmed her debut comedy special, Untouchable, at The Independent Comedy Club just north of Detroit. Untouchable, which debuted on YouTube on June 7, 2026, is a half-hour of jokes that almost exclusively touches upon her experiences as …
Blink and you might’ve missed Damien Warren-Smith’s Netflix debut, making a brief cameo onstage during the Stamptown variety comedy special. But New Yorkers can see all of him in the fall of 2026 as he has made his Off-Broadway debut with Garry Starr: Classic Penguins, a hit show at the …
Elf Lyons is a British comedian and writer who performs in both the worlds of stand-up and clown, having studied in France with the late Phillippe Goulier. Her 2017 show, Swan, received a nomination for Best Show at the Edinburgh Fringe, while her 2024 show, Horses, earned Best Show from …
Stuart Goldsmith is a British stand-up comedian who has performed on BBC’s Live At The Apollo (BBC), Conan, and Russell Howard’s Stand Up Central. He began his career as a street performer at age 17, and over the course of 32 years at the Edinburgh Fringe, has evolved into one of the world’s preeminent …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “My position on Bristol is clear: I love multiculturalism and hate air balloons.” A Bristol native and host of The Comedian’s Comedian podcast (no relation), Goldsmith notes how seeing England for above takes the wind out of the sails for any anti-immigration arguments, simply by revealing how much empty …
⭐⭐⭐⭐½ Tom Cashman asks for audience prompts beforehand to offer encouraging words, but the truth is, the Australian comedian and co-host of that nation’s Down Under edition of Taskmaster doesn’t need any hyping. He’s already obsessively energetic in both his preparation and performance, which translates into a buzzy hour of …
⭐⭐⭐½ “Either magic is real, or free will isn’t,” Chelsea Birkby says, “and that’s what we’ll be tackling tonight.” Does Birkby exert full control, or does she merely want us to know what lengths she will or will not go to to keep us in the palm of her hands …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ Amelia Hamilton unintentionally may get a bad rap for being known as a rapper. Hamilton serves up rhymes to beats, certainly, but looking around at the audience, it’s difficult to get past the notion that more than a few seem confused to find themselves at a comedy show that …
⭐⭐⭐⭐ “Grinding is my love language.” She’s joking about growing up a Jersey girl, but Jenny Gorelick could just as easily be describing how hard she hustles, personally and professionally, in her attempts to find love and commercial comedy success. Gorelick might apologize to every man she’s ever dated for …
