Showtime with the Amateurs
Manhattan Clubland's best kept secret
The New York Amateur Comedy Club, founded by a group of young, ambitious actors in 1884, should be at the top of every club lover’s bucket list.
The Club is one of the last of its kind in America putting on theatrical productions by its all-male membership and invited female guests in the heart of Murray Hill. And the productions are anything but amateur in quality. To spend an evening at the Club means that one must be invited by a member in good standing. My host, who is also a member of the nearby Union League Club, invited me on the occasion of his birthday. A part of me felt guilty because the entire evening felt like a gift to me.
As one would expect, The Amateurs come with a healthy dose of quirk and pageantry. For starters, being properly dressed for a Comedy Club production means to be in black tie. Each production’s playbill includes a list of each club member in alphabetical order and many of the “clubs within the club” are for different roles in each production.
The Club is more than a quirky theater house: it’s a living museum to the performing arts in New York City, with theatre memorabilia starting from the Club’s first production of One Too Many For Him in 1884.
The New York Amateur Comedy Club facade. Courtesy of the New York Amateur Comedy Club Facebook page.
Productions at the New York Amateur Comedy Club are usually a mix of classics and contemporary productions, but none are older than the drinking age in the Central African Republic.
On the evening of my attendance, our trio was seated in the front row enamored by the Club’s production of Death by Design, a play written by Rob Urinati which premiered in 2010. The play, a mash-up of master storytellers Noel Coward and Agatha Christie, featured elaborate costumes, a realistic set, and professional-quality casting.
Set in the English countryside in 1932, the play follows playwright Edward Bennett and his wife, Sorrell Bennett, as they flee London after a disappointing opening night. A band of characters – including a Conservative Party politician, a socialite-dancer, a left-wing idealist who enjoys brandishing a weapon, and a misguided young woman in love – follows them to the countryside. While chaotic in its own right, the play takes a turn when someone is killed and the group must discover who among them is the murderer.
The performance alone was one of the most memorable of the dozens of shows that I’ve seen over my brief time as a Manhattanite.
Intermission at the Club is unlike anywhere else in New York. For starters, it doesn’t cost a dime. It takes place upstairs on the second floor of the Club’s landmarked building, formerly two carriage houses, in a cozy room containing walls stuffed with portraits, playbills and memorabilia of the golden ages of theatre, jazz and comedy.
Imagine the most handsome tuxedo-clad men and their beautiful female companions in velvet dusters and pearls sipping champagne and basking in this hidden gem, a mere stone’s throw away from Times Square.
When mingling with the Amateurs, know that there’s only three options for beverages: black coffee, sparkling wine and still water. “What else could you possibly need?,” I remarked to my host.
Throughout the remainder of the evening, which included a tour of the popular spots for members to congregate in the clubhouse, I couldn’t help but imagine all of the history, creativity, brilliance and whimsy trapped in the walls of the club.
May those whispers inspire generations to come and may my host extend his hospitality again as soon as the next season is announced.
The New York Amateur Comedy Club stage.
Courtesy of the NYACC membership brochure.