What They’re Saying About: live arts in Brooklyn this week, February 13

February 13, 2024 Evan Rosen

The Brooklyn Academy of Music. Eagle file photo

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what they're saying

A roundup of Brooklyn’s cultural offerings this week, from comedy to theater to music to art, and what critics are saying about them.

The Second City opens in Brooklyn
Comedy
64 N 9th St., Williamsburg
Opening Monday, Feb. 12. Shows daily @ 7pm and 10pm on weekends, link here for more.

This historic improv theater has just opened its first ever NYC location in Williamsburg, and every comedian in the borough wants a piece of the action.

“The founders of Second City, the storied comedy theater, took its name from essays by The New Yorker writer A.J. Liebling, who skewered Chicago as inferior to his hometown. Now, more than 60 years later, Second City has found a home in New York.” – Julia Jacobs, The New York Times

“Legends like Bill Murray, Tina Fey, Keegan-Michael Key, and Stephen Colbert all began with us and we can’t wait to start spreading the news about the next generation of rising stars! Join us for wild laughs, bold sketch comedy, and our world famous improvisation.” – Second City

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“You never know where the night is going to go, because the audience is part of the show.”
Rachel Dratch, student of The Second City, Chicago, speaking on the TODAY show.

Public Obscenities
Theatre
Theatre for a New Audience, 262 Ashland Pl, Fort Greene
Shows through Feb. 25
Discount tickets available for $20 through New Deal “Under 30” program

After being twice-extended and receiving a New York Times Critic’s Pick at Soho Rep, Shayok Misha Chowdhury’s Public Obscenities is now being extended through Feb. 25 at TFANA in Fort Greene.

“A confident playwright … who with Public Obscenities may have found himself on the brink of greatness.” – Juan A. Ramirez, The New York Times

“Chowdhury, a librettist, poet, director, and experimental theatre-maker from the fringe, has turned to fine-grained realism for his first major play, and his ease with destabilization has, paradoxically, given this multilingual production an extraordinary steadiness.” – Helen Shaw, The New Yorker

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Good People Comedy
Comedy
Somethin’ Else, Dekalb Market, 445 Albee Square W, Downtown Brooklyn
Next show: Wednesday, Feb. 21 @ 8pm

A bi-weekly stand up comedy show that features some of the city’s best comedians performing in an intimate, anything-goes jazz bar. Past performances have included comedians from SNL, The Daily Show, Netflix Is A Joke, The Tonight Show, The Onion, ESPN, and more.

“After spending much of my adult life around stand ups, I finally realized there’s a real negativity that hangs around the scene. I decided to make this show to have a space for comedy where we’re not complaining about everything being horrible.” – Sam Poznak, Founder of GPC.

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LunÀtico
Music
486 Halsey St., Bedford-Stuyvesant
Musical performances every night.

“Founded by three musicians, and still run by two – Richard Julian and Arthur Kell – LunÀtico is first and foremost a venue, albeit one that also serves superb cocktails and Middle eastern plates, like kousa mahshi and mahalabia.” – Francesca Carington, Condé Nast Traveler

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Valentine’s Day, Feb. 12 – LunÁtico presents The Smoota Tête-a-Tête

“The Smoota Tête-a-Tête is a groovy and intimate otherworldly exotica jazz group. Moody and melodic, the band sets the perfect atmosphere for an underground cocktail bar on the dark side of Venus.

Featuring trombone, bass clarinet,, flute, vibraphone, bass and percussion, the band is led by trombonist and composer Dave ’Smoota’ Smith, known from his work with TV On The Radio, Run The Jewels, Aaron Neville, Steven Tyler, Valerie June, Burnt Sugar, and Rev. Vince Anderson & The Love Choir.” – LunÁtico

Brooklyn Comedy Collective (BCC)
Comedy
Eris, 167 Graham Ave, East Williamsburg
Shows every night

“An alt comedy theater and school in East Williamsburg, Brooklyn with a mission to produce irreverent, fearless shows from a wide range of voices, pay its artists, and inspire students to approach performance from a place of joy and fierceness.” –BCC

A Crazy Amazing Friendship, which has its next show Feb 18 at 7pm stars SNL cast member Chloe Troast, Jamie Linn Watson, and Jacob Dysart and Brooklyn comedy wild child, William Banks, the founder of “Car World,” a “ a planet in an alternate universe ruled by human-headed Worms.”

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Car World also has a current exhibit at KAJE art gallery, which is available for view Feb. 14-17.

REMEMBERING
Dance
Brooklyn Academy of Music, 30 Lafayette Ave, Fort Greene
Performances Feb. 15-17

“Through dance, theater and video projection, presented by Jamel Gaines Creative Outlet, you’ll experience Black History as told by African voices. It’ll be set to music by John Williams, Philip Hamilton and BeBe Winans.” – Time Out NY

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“Remembering is a history lesson around art, culture, spirituality, social activism, education, and the African American experience through the eyes of world history.” – Director Jamel Gaines.