New York Comedy Festival

The New York Comedy Festival started this week with a bevvy of hot tickets around the city. From Ricky Gervais to Tracy Morgan, Bill Maher to Mike Birgilia, this town is humming with more comedy than the meat packing district has she-males.

Since I don't have all the money in the world to attend each and every event (Gervais at Carnegie Hall this evening is a bit over my budget), I will be partaking in a few fun gigs. I missed out the two Upright Citizen Brigade shows arranged for the festival (they're sold out), but I'll be sitting in on some interesting panels at The Paley Center this weekend with creators and writers of comedies such as The Colbert Report, The Daily Show, Rescue Me, Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock. Then it's Saturday night at Town Hall laughing it out with Patton Oswalt (or Patt-ta-tooie, as Doug Benson calls him).

I'll have a full report when all is said and done. Meanwhile, it's not too late to jump on the comedy festival bus... Here's the events schedule.