Fifteen dollars can get a person very far in New York City. It can pay for fifteen slices of edible cheese pizza, and it is perhaps the average cost of a general admission ticket to a museum (unless you get the 2 for $5 museum tix from High 5 :)).  Yet, can fifteen dollars guarantee quality entertainment on a night out on the town? Yes, it definitely can. NYC’s National Comedy Theatre boasts a boatload of talent for only fifteen dollars. Located on 36th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue, this little theatre becomes the life of the party on Friday and Saturday nights. Having never gone to a live comedy show before, I was taken aback by the massive energy that the performers emitted.  It was powerful and it was fresh.

As I munched on my popcorn, I remained alert and nervous. I had chosen to sit to the left of the stage in the second row. I felt too close to the stage, too easy a target for the comedians to taunt. Earlier, I had overheard a man in back of me ranting on about how his row will fall victim to the performers’ antics. I wanted to move towards the back, but I stayed where I was and prayed. What came after was simply wonderful. The group of four came jogging up to the stage from the back of the theater, almost as if they had just finished running a marathon.  Gary Kramer, the Artistic Director for NCT, introduced the group and at rapid speed gave instructions to the audience. The group was loud and ready to pounce. It seemed almost infectious because once they began with their first game the audience was much more alive and spirited.

Uncertainty and vulnerability can almost always become a factor in the downfall of improvisation. However, the four (Gary Kramer, Tracy Mull, James Cronin, and Devin Heater) were no doubt an experienced bunch of entertainers. The show was comprised of running jokes, ridiculous but authentic accents, spot-on portrayals of audience members, and feats that exercised the mind. It was all completely original and witty. Some people find comedy to be mindless fun. Well, I did not find any of that one and a half hours spent at NCT to be mindless fun. The experience was simply mind boggling because during the space of ninety minutes four people strengthened their senses and practiced whatever came to them spontaneously. Their intuition took over their performances and their technical understanding of their imaginary environment was spectacular. It was practice for the four, but it was a solid performance for the audience.

The night was comprised of a series of inter-related games that demonstrated and exhibited the performers’ skills. It was sheer luck that the audience was completely forth-coming with ideas for the performers to work with. Generally, both the performers and the audience worked extremely well with each other and that definitely added to the performance. Last but not least, NCT accomplished all of this while maintaining family-friendly entertainment,  demonstrating that laughter can also originate from a clean comedy show.