The funniest people in New York City

If you're anything like me, you thought you were a clever little bastard and started a blog in the halcyon days right before blogs went big (spring of aught-four, to be exact) and dreamed of one day being paid to be funny. You subsequently lost interest right around the time the whole personal blogging backlash occurred, and now you post sporadically at best with the painful realization that your comedic golden days are behind you.

Having experienced the dizzying highs and perilous lows of trying to make people laugh on a daily basis, it's easy to become immune to almost any new attempt at humor and eventually reach the sad conclusion that most comedy sucks. Sure, every now and then something brilliant comes along (see "Development, Arrested"), but as a rule, most TV shows and/or people just aren't funny. Making people laugh is a tough business, especially in New York City, where everyone's heard it all before, and especially if you were born here, like me, and think you're better and funnier than everything that ever happened.

Which is why I'm pleased to report that, even for jaded New York chumps such as myself, there is still laughter to be found, and it's in the form of improv comedy troupe Reuben Williams, performing at 10:30pm on Saturday nights at the Upright Citizens Brigade Theater. I had the pleasure of catching the incredibly talented octet this past weekend, and I was astonished at how excellent they were. As someone who misguidedly fancied himself an actor way back in high school, I am painfully aware of not only how tough improv can be, but how hard it is to actually be funny doing improv.

Simply put, Reuben Williams knocked it out of the damn park. In the first half of the show they asked the audience for a piece of advice that they had received, and ran wild it with it for half an hour. The second half featured the group's "As Seen on TV" segment, in which they analyze the contents of an audience member's wallet and create several TV shows based on a 10-minute quiz with said individual regarding their wallet minutiae. My one gripe would be that the guy they chose ("Dustin") almost seemed like a plant, as the bizarre crap in his wallet and the stories he was telling were practically lubricated for Reuben Williams' comedy pleasure.

Regardless, every single member of the troupe was on point and there were almost no awkward pauses or unfunny moments. The group clearly has a comfort level with each other, and seemed to know exactly what each member was going to say or do and anticipated it perfectly.

I realize I'm describing exactly what it takes to run a successful improv group, but if you have any interest in laughing at all, please do yourself a favor and check out Reuben Williams. Additionally, it's only $8, which really can't be beat. What else can you do for eight bucks on a Saturday? Drink one beer. See three-quarters of a movie. Take a cab six blocks. And if that isn't sweet-ass enough for you, one of the troupe's members is Charlie Todd, the guy who created Improv Everywhere, and who, if I'm not mistaken, played "Rob" at that now-infamous Yankee game in September 2006.

The only surprising aspect of the show is that these eight talented performers aren't already household names. UCB owner Amy Poehler, herself often one of the only humorous aspects of Saturday Night Live, really oughta get Lorne Michaels' ass over to a Reuben Williams show and hire each one of the talented cast members on the spot. They'd almost certainly create a funnier program than the crap SNL's been diarrheaing out for years (though the last few post-strike episodes have actually been reasonably funny. Bill Hader, Jason Sudeikis, Amy Poehler and the always-outstanding Kristin Wiig can all stay. Everyone else: vomit).