Stand Up NY Comedy Club ✓ Critic’s Pic (NYC Comedy Show)
Feb 27th, 2019, 90 Minutes Stand Up Comedy Show
Stand UP NY, 236 W 78th St, New York, NY 10024 Telephone : (212)-595-0850

Very Good Comedy Show is a grassroots touring project leaving audiences smiling across the country. Each entertaining performance is like TV late night live with standup, improv, video vignettes and a house band that always keeps the party going. Co-produced and hosted by NYC comedy club regulars Aric Grooms & Robert Punchur, this show has seen drop-ins including national headliners Louie CK & TJ Miller. The story of the show begins in late 2017 when Punchur, then a 25-year-old self-described “jaded standup burnout” was working a weekly shift as a bartender at Broadway Comedy Club on 53rd Street and 8th Avenue in Manhattan’s Hell’s Kitchen. Grooms’ energy at that time was the inverse- he was a family man in his 40s with fresh excitement to dive into the too-oft cynical medium. The individuals crossed paths at an open mic the younger comic habitually hosted. Aric’s hypersocial habit of fast-talking strangers into friends broke open stories of Robert’s recently discarded past as a bicoastal model, actor, and standup show producer- a combination of skills which allowed him to serve as the comedic face of KnowMe (a flash-in-the-pan video-editing software & social media platform that Punchur planned & hosted an 8-city national tour for a few months prior). After a nasty end to his first romantic domestic partnership with an Australian actress & bikini model (a descriptor Punchur still slyly brags about) during that time, the once self-made entertainer decided to remove himself completely from the forefront of his industry. Aric’s background in ministry and youth pastorship helped him quickly recognize that Robert’s resulting depression was not from tiring of jokes, but rather the personal troubles and dirty politicking of favoritism that runs many venues who host them.

He proposed beginning an independent project where performers were respected, appreciated, paid, and most importantly- audiences were entertained. Thus- Very Good Comedy Show was born.

The earliest happenings took place at West End Lounge, a mostly musical bar venue located in Manhattan’s Upper West Side. To differentiate themselves from other shows, Robert & Aric brought on Jeff Manno and his House Band to open the night and play up each act with pop rock covers. This musical inclusion is a throwback to stand-ups traditional vaudeville origins when the art form emerged in the Catskills. It’s a signature staple of Very Good that has followed them over the past two years into cities across the country including Pittsburgh, Chicago, the co-producers’ small hometowns of Butler PA & Chillicothe OH, and a monthly occurrence at vacation destination The Lodge in Woodstock NY. read more