NEW YORK CITY - According to John Ordover, organizer of last week’s nude improv comedy in Manhattan, the show was a resounding success, filling-up every one of the tiny theater’s 39 seats with nude patrons. The four comedians, two men and two women, were also all naked on stage, as was Ordover, acting as emcee. The show was inspired by “Who’s Line is it anyway”, Drew Carey’s popular televised improv show, with a bit more relaxed dress code in this case.
Ordover told us that the spectators and the performers connected extremely well in this audience-participation event: “We did one bit called Paparazzi where most of the audience walked through the stage as if they were attending a ‘Red Carpet’ premiere and the performers pretended to take photos of them while making funny comments”. We asked him what was highlight of the evening and he told us it was the answer to the question “What is Hilary Clinton Thinking Right Now?” which was “I wish I had a penis”. Ordover’s events usually receive enormous media attention, but he no longer invites journalists to attend, presumably because his customers don’t desire that sort of publicity. He hints that he may do more nude improv nights in the future in view of this one’s success.
Another comedy show regularly done in the nude is the Naked Comedy Showcase in Boston, which we featured in an article last year (see link below). However, as Ordover points-out, it isn’t a nudist event as only the comedians can be naked.

More John Ordover articles
Naked Comedy Showcase article

The Settler

Social behavior: The settler is very relaxed and generally sociable nudist and seems to know all the other settlers on the beach. If approached, the settler will generally be welcoming.

The Newbie

We caught-up with Andy Ofiesh, founder and emcee of the Naked Comedy Showcase, just as he was driving from Boston to New York to do a show on a snowy February day. “Too cold to be naked today”, he quipped. Talking on a cell phone while driving is unsafe, but we carried on with the interview with the funny man anyway!
Once a month, Boston native Ofiesh hosts the Naked Comedy Showcase, which he started three years ago, at Boston’s Improv. The show also goes on the road to various other locales, including New York and the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland. The show features completely nude professional comedians performing in front of a completely dressed audience, although on occasion they’ve also had a nude audience for a private performance. The show is very popular, as it has a certain “in” cachet.
Ofiesh actually was a nudist before he was a comedian, doing his first ever stand-up at a nudist club. He discovered it was something he was good at and now even does comedy fully clothed as well! As for the many other comedians who take part, the majority are men simply because most comics are male, but a surprisingly large number of women have dared to bare their comedy routine. Ofiesh told us that he doesn’t have to beg other comedians to participate these days, but the most convincing argument he’s used in the past is to tell them that they’ll “relive the terror” they felt when they were neophytes. Hecklers aren’t a problem, he says, as audience members are oddly very protective of nude comedians, even booing boisterous patrons. They’re awed that someone could have the courage to do comedy in the buff, Ofiesh confided.
The style of comedy involved tends to be adult-oriented, but so is most comedy club material, the only difference being that there’s a wealth of self-deprecating jokes one can make while standing naked on a stage, we reckon! Visit their web site for show times.

Photo courtesy of Andrew Ofiesh. Copyright Andrew Ofiesh

Related Links:

• Naked Comedy Showcase official web site

As nudists, we’ve become used to being the butt of the joke! Here’s a silly online game called “Nudist Trampolining”.

 Play game here