On every other Tuesday night, homey Grand Central District beer bar Sly and Homemade Broadcast podster/host Will Kuncz invite local stand-ups to this open mic. The audience gets free pizza and laughs, and the night’s most well-received comic gets $50, but the real attraction for the comedy-obsessive is the opportunity to watch performers hone their skills and refine their jokes in a live, do-or-die environment. Not everything kills, but that’s part of the point, and the patrons are generally supportive of the comics’ need to use them as a sounding board for either new material or the sometimes ill-advised fulfillment of a lifelong dream.
This article appears in Sep 24-30, 2015.