Press

NYCgo.com (the official guide to New York City), August 20th, 2009

"If you're not sure where to look for good stand-up comedy nowadays, the folks at Sage Theater are here to help. On Thursday, enjoy their fail-proof solution for the lack of funny in your life.

"Stand-Up Comedy: Live at the Sage Theater features some of the funniest comedy in New York City (and that's saying something)."

Boston Globe, October 5th, 2007

Festival is Happy Helping Rising Stars
By Nick Zaino III

For the past eight years, Boston Comedy Festival co-founder Jim McCue has thrown everything he can think of into the festival....

While the shows like "Lewis Black & Friends" and the Emerson event, which will feature Denis Leary, Anthony Clark, and Bill Burr, bring in the crowds, McCue wants people to know, "You're also going to see people who, in the future, are going to be big stars."
Harrison Greenbaum and David Ingber founded the Harvard Stand-up Comic Society, which will showcase its talent Tuesday at Dick's Beantown Comedy Vault, with the hope of training those future stars. Harvard is known for humor writing through the Harvard Lampoon and for its theater group, Hasty Pudding, but not for stand-up, even though it boasts alums from Al Franken to "The Office" star B.J. Novak.

"We really want to show that there's some really funny stand-up comedy and this art form is not something that Harvard has sort of forgotten," says Greenbaum. "It's very vibrant, and we have a lot of people who are really good at it."

The club, officially recognized by the university in January, has a core of about seven members, which can swell to 20 at any given time. They meet regularly to brainstorm and critique one another's material and have produced several shows on campus, which, according to Greenbaum, have all sold out. They've already branched out to New York City with a weekly Thursday show at the Sage Theatre, where the group's more polished performers get a chance to play for a paying crowd.

"A lot of clubs at Harvard people join because there are connections and an alumni network," says Greenbaum. "David and I realized early on that since we're the founders, we sort of have to be that alumni network. People who do really well at our club at Harvard have the opportunity to be in an incredible, professional stand-up comedy show in Times Square."

Boston comic and Harvard graduate Baratunde Thurston had just moved to New York when the show started, but he admits he was a bit suspicious about the quality of the performing at first. "I knew it was some kind of Harvard comedy thing," he says, "but that doesn't mean it was a funny thing."

There was no group like SUCS at Harvard when he graduated in 1999, and Thurston isn't even sure the Harvard kids hanging out at the second-floor bar of the Hong Kong knew the Comedy Studio was just upstairs.
His fears were quashed when he saw the first show and it was funny. Now he's the regular host, and he'll host Tuesday's show. "It's definitely helping me out, and it seems like it's helping these guys, too," he says.

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