A New Yorkers Night at Rodney's featuring a New York City Icon. (Also, OnlyFans)

This past weekend, @NewYorkers hosted a night of comedy on my old stomping ground, with an assist from OnlyFans (Who are now doing comedy specials.) I got to meet New York's newest hero...

February 20, 2024
Rodney’s Comedy Club,
New York, NY

“This city needs a hero. I’m just doing what the people need.”

I was propped at the bar of Rodney’s, talking to a caped man with a thick mid-western accent in a bright orange balaclava. Mere days prior, he had been surrounded by a heaving sea of New Yorkers in Union Square as they chanted “Balls! Balls! Balls!” with more fervor than the Columbia student rally uptown.

Why in God’s name were they doing that? you might ask?

Well, as CNN summed it up neatly:

You see, me and my new friend Cheeseball Man —the hero this city deserves— were invited to this event by our pals at @NewYorkers, who had co-organized the night with @OnlyFans, who are now producing comedy specials. Because of course they are.

As the crowd of New York’s biggest Instagram influencers and Tiktok celebrities poured into the newly refurbished comedy club…

…taking photos in front of the step-and-repeat banner for their fans, they grabbed their OnlyFans totes overflowing with branded merch and eventually took their seats in the showroom.

The night ahead was filled with live music, stand-up comedy, and free pizza. The three major necessities for survival on Manha-zzlow’s Hierarchy of Needs.

newyorkers

A post shared by @newyorkers

Old Club, New Life

I won’t lie; sitting in the club I used to call home for so many years felt very weird. There were new framed photos of some classic comedians up on the main wall, the bar and entrance had completely been refurbed, and the downstairs was completely absent of Rodney’s movie posters. In their place, blue paint. Just blue paint.

Y’know what it needs? Some framed cartoons. Art. Something funny. *nudge nudge*

I don’t work blue.

And with that, the show began. I couldn’t see the host, Remy Kassimir because someone in front had a mushroom cloud of a hairstyle. It could cause another eclipse.

I slunk into the back row like Joaquín Phoenix’s character in The Joker¹, looking up at the stage I’d been on at least a hundred times. I was squinting over at the Bill Hicks magazine cover as the DJ played a live mix of loud music, heavily peppered with triple-air horn, as the DJ gods require.

A male model settled in at the table next to me and made himself comfortable. I think he may have nodded off at one point.

I’ve written about my experience at this club when it used to be “Dangerfield’s” — New York’s oldest and storied comedy club until it closed with the rest of New York in March of 2020. If you want to dive into that yarn, you can read it below:

It was a great line-up of comics who all did well, even when the free pizza made its way around the room mid-show. Here are some of the sketches I managed to scratch out in the back row.

I used to do open mics that Petey D would host in the East Village about 10 years ago. He is the friendliest dude in comedy.

Lonelyboi doing his thing.