NY Adventures

GOING DOWN FOR FUN

“So five funny guys and one who’s smoked so much dope he can’t remember his set, his name or his occupation and they walk into a tin of sardines, right...”

Another night at the Comedy Cellar on MacDougal Street. Estate agents would describe the venue as “cosy”. It’s a long thin tomb with a worryingly low ceiling (not entirely unlike a cellar, then) where punters are vacuum packed into their seats.

But cosy means intimate, friendly. The acts are sharp (aside from that one particular guy whose sky-high set lasted longer than time itself), the crowds are a rascally mix of locals and tourists and there’s a fat American menu on offer.

If you can plan ahead, email the venue before you go. Filling out the form on the Comedy Cellar’s website will see your name on the reservations list, though you’ll still have to pay the cover charge (usually $10 - $15).

Even if you last laughed when Lenny Henry was still funny, take a walk down to MacDougal Street anyway. Bars and restaurants and people twirl around one another under a rainbow of fairy lights spun through the trees, energetic whimsy breathes through the night. It’s another reason why everyone loves this part of town.

The Comedy Cellar
117 MacDougal Street, Manhattan
www.comedycellar.com/

NATURAL SELECTION

Every guidebook on NYC talks about the American Museum of Natural History. So let this serve as a gentle, but mildly threatening reminder, similar to those sent by banks or debt collection agencies:

Dear [insert your name here]

We have tried, unsuccessfully, to suggest you visit one of the finest museums in the world today.

We now have no other alternative to point out the American Museum of Natural History on the Upper West Side is, in a word, breathtaking. 46 permanent exhibitions, over 32 million specimens, over 25 buildings. Travel the stars in the iconic Hayden planetarium, lose yourself in a rain forest, drool over the rarest gems on earth and witness the colossal bulk of a full size blue whale suspended in mid-air.