At ‘Stand Up With the Sun,’ Comedy Defies Cancellation

Patrons and readers of the Sun gathered Thursday evening at Stand Up New York for a night of comedy that touched on national politics, life in New York City, and the evergreen subjects of life, love, and Dr. Anthony Fauci.Around 40 of the paper’s ardent supporters filed into the redoubt of laughs on West 78th Street for “Stand Up With the Sun.” The host was Elon Altman, who joked at his diminutive stature with graceful self-deprecation. Drinks and jokes circulated freely during the set, which pulled no punches and deigned to delight and dared to offend. Mr. Altman, who was “born and raised in New York City,” joked that Kanye “Ye” West was so proficient at drawing on varied antisemitic tropes because he is an “expert at sampling,” musically and otherwise. He jested that the prominence of the Editor of the Sun, a former editor of the Forward, “vindicated Kanye’s” assessment of Jewish media dominance.Another talent was Carole Montgomery. The creator of three Showtime specials for “Funny Woman of a Certain Age,” she mocked that perennial target, the actress Gwyneth Platrow’s wellness company, Goop. She mused on taking her son to court for his hesitation in respect of having children. She is, she noted, a “Jewish mother,” after all. One comedian, Brittany Carney, has been named to Vulture’s “Comedians You Should and Will Know” list. Her style was distracted and deadpan, but she landed a string of bon mots relating to her time living in Washington, D.C., American history, and “Santa Play.” Your correspondent hesitates to expound on that final theme, which was more naughty than nice. Another performer, the journalist and comedian Robert George, was known to many in the audience. Now a scribe at Bloomberg Opinion, he has done stints at the New York Daily News and New York Post. He poked fun at Mayor Adams’s designation of Times Square as a “gun free zone,” and touted his own immunity from cancellation as a “Black Queer Caribbean Republican.”Comic Ahri Findling bounded onto the stage with puckish energy, bedecked in blue framed glasses and a tugged-down Yankees ballcap. He poked at New Yorkers who have “never been to Staten Island” and riffed that for most Manhattanites, the prospect of moving to Hades is more appealing than New Jersey. The closer was Tyler Fischer, an alumnus of America’s Got Talent. He mercilessly took aim at his own stature, declaiming that “small lives matter” and prancing about the stage with an antic energy that hearkened back to the Three Stooges and Buster Keaton. From the front row — a perilous place to be at a comedy show — it appeared that a good time was had by all. No joke.

At ‘Stand Up With the Sun,’ Comedy Defies Cancellation

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