Gemma @ 'The Later Show with Katie Kester' - Hasan Minhaj showed up!
Note to self: Never jokingly tell your mom, “Watch us get lost!” before you head to a show with her; It will only lead to disaster. Okay, maybe not disaster, but after I uttered those damning words, we would proceed to board a train and ride five stops in the wrong direction before realizing we needed to be on the opposite platform, ask a total of four separate people for directions to the theatre, and then sprint about three avenue blocks to make UCB East‘s The Later Show with Katie Kester a few minutes past 8:00 pm.
We ran inside panting and scrambled to find seats in the dark, almost completely full theatre. A woman whom I assumed was Katie Kester, was on stage singing into a microphone; It was clear that she had started her show promptly at 8:00 pm, and the crowd was loving it, clapping along and cheering loudly. Katie was singing a parody of Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady“ where she substituted the words, Slim Shady, with her name. And although my mom and I were were a mixture of exhaustion and anxiety about being late, we still found it hilarious.
By the time the first comedian stepped on stage, my mom and I had just about caught our breath. He was tall, broad, and a native New Yorker with a stereotypical Brooklyn accent to match. I found myself warming up to him instantly, and relating to his tales of being born and raised in the best city on earth. He surprised us all when he mentioned that he had a master’s degree in Physical Therapy and still chose to do comedy for a living. I mean, that takes guts. And I couldn’t blame him as he paced nervously while he continued his bit. He was opening the whole show, and warming up an audience of strangers! Plus, comedy is not for the faint of heart. There is so much room for error. If you aren’t getting good responses from the crowd, I don’t know how you can ever recover. So as this guy slowly got a feel for the audience’s sense of humor through trial and error, I felt a lot of respect for him.
When he ended his bit, instead of walking off the stage like I’ve seen at most comedy shows, he sat down at a table with Katie and talked. It was just like a talk show, except so much more laid back. And Katie was not your typical host. She made the comedian feel totally at ease and you could tell she was having so much fun being up there. Because there weren’t any rules. It was very go-with-the-flow.
Over the course of the show, a few more comedians and even some audience members got up on stage, made us laugh, and joined the panel. There was one guy who tried out some character impressions on us, including one of Severus Snape, to my delight. And one woman from the audience fired off downright hysterical answers to some basic questions from her fellow audience members. She was such a total pro, that I couldn’t believe she wasn’t hired by UCB East. A lot of the people at the show were regulars at UCB East, you could just tell. And it was such a friendly environment, almost like everybody was family.
But The Later Show with Katie Kester saved the best for last. Hasan Minhaj walked on stage and I immediately recognized him as one of the new correspondents from The Daily Show.
And he kind of made the show for me. He was so charming while still being funny. He spoke about how he had an Indian wedding both for his wife and also for his white friends who are obsessed with Indian culture, and how his Indian relatives ask him for American candy whenever he visits. These were just average stories about his life, but the way he told them had us in stitches.
When the house lights went back on, my mom and I didn’t want the show to end. In New York City, you can’t see a movie or even buy a roundtrip metro card for five dollars anymore. But for that amount of money, I attended one of the most genuine talk shows I’ve ever experienced. The Later Show with Katie Kester might be more low budget than The View or The Late Show, but the talent is first-rate, the people involved are excited about being there, and the show changes entirely every time, from the guests to the content. And as my mom and I successfully made our way back to the train without getting lost, I knew that this was the first of many times I would make my way over to UCB East for some quality comedy.
The Later Show with Katie Kester
01/18/2017 04:28 pm ET
Previously published on the HuffPost contributors’ network on 01/18/2017 4:28 pm ET
