Comedy Cellar for Free! and other New York City, NY Off The Beaten Path Tips

The Comedy Cellar is one of my favorite hangouts/things-to-do in Manhattan. And best of all, it can be free! (if you work your cards right!) If you're a party of 4 or less and plan to go during the week (not a Fri, Sat, or holidays/special shows), then you can get free cover passes with internet reservations. just go to http://www.comedycellar.com/specialoffer/specialoffer.shtm. The entrance/admission is FREE, just print out your receipt. You DO have to buy 2 items per person (grab a coke or a beer) and 20% gratuity to the check.

Read the information before getting the reservation. But it's really simple. You go to the website the day you want to go see a show, print out the receipt with your name and other information, show it at the door right before the show, get seated, buy two drinks per person over the course of the show, pay your bill plus the 20% gratuity and you've just seen a virtually free show! :-)

As for the show itself, it's amazing. I love the comedians there, sometimes really well-known names come on stage. It's a small, dimly lit basement, with a small stage and a keyboard, you're sitting closely to other people in a very Village-esque atmosphere. Locals AND tourists both frequent the Comedy Cellar. Located right on MacDougal, between W 3rd Street and Minetta Lane in Greenwich Village, it's a great place to go before or after hitting the bars or after dinner. It's a hilarious, low-key way to spend an evening in Manhattan!

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Phone: 212-254-3480
Website: comedycellar.com

307 W. 26th Street, between 8th and 9th Avenue

Upright Citizens Citizens Brigade, New York's local comedic improvisation troupe!

They are amazing, honestly. They are ingenious. And best of all, they're cheap! :-) $5 per person, per show, the shows are typically 2 hours, bring your own beer or buy it there, and prepare yourself for fits of laughter as these guys do the darndest things! Ever see Who's Line? Well, this is it. Only more risque, more New York, more modern, more adult, more fun! I would say age 16/18 and up! The topics are a bit off-color but it's all in good fun. If you're a Christian fundamentalist, don't go.

This place is great. You can get reservations online and pick up your tickets at the door. This place, like the Comedy Cellar, is an underground event, down in a basement, but a bigger stage here, better lighting and sounds (more techy geeks work there than at the Comedy Cellar!) and a more interactive crowd!

The clientele differ each day, sometimes its mostly tourists, sometimes its mostly locals, high school teenagers, college kids, adults, even grandparents! I must admit I took my 9 year old sister here once, but she claims she's very mature for her age! haha

I definitely recommend this place is you have teen/college kids, or go yourself, with a spouse or with friends. It's definitely worth the late night laughs! :-) If you can, try to see ASSSSCat. They're great!

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Phone: 212-366-9176
Website: http://www.ucbtheatre.com/ny/

At midnight, every Friday and Saturday night and on holidays (i.e. Halloween and April Fools), Chelsea Clearview Cinemas has Rocky Horror Picture Show Night! It's more than a movie, it's a cult event! It's New York and what's more, it's Chelsea! People get dressed up, bring props, scripts and dance and sing their hearts out to the Time Warp! It's a fantastic time. Price of admissions it the same as any movie (in NY at least), $10.75. You have the option of purchasing the prop/goodie bags or pins and t-shirts that they occassionaly sell at these events. Or you could just bring your own. I highly recommend this event. It's tons of good natured fun and it's something relatively unique to NY. I mean, EVERY Friday and Saturday night? Seriously. This city never sleeps!

260 West 23rd Street, between 7th and 8th Avenue

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Phone: 212-505-2463

I absolutely adore Chelsea Market. It has a fantastically urban, hardcore, edge to it, with stone floors, stone benches, exposed wallwork and a fabulously eclectic collection of stores, shops and groceries. The Food Network also films there. And the cooking shows? Their extra cooking supplies are shipped to a shop in Chelsea Market so you can get excellent deals on great cooking supplies and tools. There's also a fantastic gelato shoppe, my favorite Thai place in all of New York (try to see euw noodles with thai iced tea), Amy's Bread bakery (grab a rosemary foccacia slice) and New York's best brownies! (green witch brownies all the way!) And since the Chelsea Market is in Chelsea, they get a great selection of seafood, so pick up some lobster bisque on your way out! :-) I can't recommend Chelsea Market enough!

75 9th Avenue, between 15th and 16th Street
Take the A, C, E, L to 14th Street
Take the Downtown M11 to 15th and Ninth Avenue
Take the Uptown M11 to 15th and Tenth Avenue
Take the Crosstown M14 to 15th and Ninth Avenue

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Website: http://chelseamarket.com

Classic Date night:

Watch a movie with your fellow New Yorkers in Bryant Park, on 42nd Street, between 5th and 6th Avenues, under the shade of the stately New York Public Library! On a warm summer's night, Bryant Park offers free movies, with people coming in aroudn 5pm, on a large screen, projecting to the large Bryant Park lawn. Bring blankets, chairs, picnic baskets, and a loved one and snuggle in the warm New York Air watching "To Have and Have Not" (or whatever show they're showing....I saw Love Affair there and it was amazing...brings a new meaning to dancing in the moonlight...)

No tickets are needed, just bring something to sit on the lawn with. Just walk into the park, pick a spot, and wait for the movie! The movie starts at dusk, which in a NY summer is 8-9pmish. No plastic tarps, we New Yorkers care about what little greenery we do have! :-)

Enjoy and bring plenty of lemonade! NY is wickedly hot and humid in the summer!

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Phone: 212-768-4242
Website: http://www.bryantpark.org/calendar/film-festival.php

In Grand Central, there is a ramp that goes down to the Concourse. It connects the hallway to the subway to the other side of the station and it meets in the middle before connecting to another ramp that leads to the main Concourse underneath the station. (The Concourse is filled with restaurants and is a public area to sit in and meet your friends/family/fellow travelers). Before you start the second ramp to the Concourse, stop in the middle of the ramp where all four sides connect. You are in the Whispering Gallery..Have one friend diagonal from you standing in the corner and whisper something and lo and behold, you will hear them loud and clear! This is a favorite with my younger brother and sister who did this to amuse themselves when we wait for the train.

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St. Joseph's Church is located on 371 6th Avenue and Washington Place.

For ardent Roman Catholics who wish to continue their religious practices while on vacation, I would recommend St. Joseph's Church, for one. It's a lovely church, built in a strong Greek Revival style with many Gregorian features. It's said that the Church looks pagan, and Roman/Greek with the pillars and columns. The Church supposedly looks pagan to protect the inquisition of Catholics hiding within its walls. I don't know if its true or not, but the Church is lovely, airy, open, spacious, bright and pretty. But what's special about this location is the university choir that sings at the 6pm masses on Sundays.

This is a special, biased plug for the St. Joseph's choir, made up of professional and amateur vocalists, many of them from the New York University's vocal studies group. They are amazing, the music is fun and catchy and I know several people who go just to hear them sing. So if you want to attend a mass that's an event in itself, check out the St. Joseph's choir, 6pm on Sundays!

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Phone: 212-741-1274
Website: http://stjoseph-village.com/