Comedian Demetri Martin's initital career trajectory wasn't aimed toward show business stardom; the New Jersey native went from busing tables in his parents' diner to Yale and a full scholarship at NYU Law School. But a year before graduation, to his family's dismay, he abandoned the justice system to pursue a career in comedy. A gutsy move, but one that paid off, against considerable odds, when Martin worked his way up to a recurring spot......

COMEDY: Demetri Martin (pictured) and some (we hear, A-list) friends will be delivering some new material tonight at Rififi. Can't make it? He'll be back the 20th, 27th and June 3rd. 10 p.m. // Rififi [332 E 11th St] // $5 EVENT: Sure, YouTube is good for a laugh or two during the workday, but as an artistic muse? Artists Sue de Beer, Matthew Higgs and Matthew Ronay have all (against all odds) found art......

TREE LIGHTING: Earlier this year, New Yorkers Fountains of Wayne transformed Demetri Martin into a lonely suit living in Brooklyn in this video. Tonight the band will be rockin' around the Stuy Town Christmas tree. A reader writes in:I just happened to see this flyer hanging up for the annual christmas tree lighting. And what the hell is this...7:30-8:00pm, FOUNTAINS OF WAYNE. Seems like it's top secret, but there are flyers everywhere.Random! But if you're......

ART: Last night the works of ex-Guided By Voices frontman Robbert Pollard were unveiled at an invite-only opening, and today it's a free-for-all. Come by and check out his debut art exhibit, which "will consist of more than 50 collages that date from 1990 through 2007. Using elements from 1950's -70's era magazines, pamphlets and obscure pictoral paperbacks as his primary tools, he portrays allegorical personas and hallucinogenic-type environments to create small, almost random synapses......

The Wind That Shakes The Barley (directed by Ken Loach) Nominated for BAFTAs, beloved at Cannes and ignored by the Oscars, Ken Loach's movies get great treatment overseas but are barely a blip on the radar of American movie audiences. It's a crying shame too because Loach has the ability to elicit almost documentary-like, naturalistic performances from his actors and his working class, social justice narratives are always provocative. His most recent movie, The Wind......

MUSIC: Scottish indie sensations Camera Obscura bring their pop and their rock to the Seaport tonight. They're joined by The Last Town Chorus. After that, there's only one more show down there this season! Friday // 7pm // South Street Seaport, Pier 17 // Free MOVIE: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is playing tonight, and you've got a golden ticket! Stock up on sweets and enjoy the 1971 classic down by the river. Friday......

Sarah Vowell’s distinctive voice is instantly recognizable to listeners of radio show This American Life and fans of the animated Pixar film The Incredibles (she played Violet). Her writing has appeared in The New York Times (where she filled in for Maureen Dowd), McSweeney’s, Spin, Salon and elsewhere. And she’s authored four books; the most recent one, Assassination Vacation, humorously chronicled her pilgrimage to locales connected to three slain American presidents (Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley).......

Courtney Love Performs at Hiro, Doesn't Cause a Scene After GBH announced that Courtney Love was to play a free show at Hiro Ballroom, the biggest question besides what she'd sound like or how badly would Hiro screw up the crowd control, was what type of raucous scandal would Love cause during the set. Would she be trashed? Would she get into a fight? Would she show at all? Well, to the pleasant surprise of......

READING: It's New York Murder Mystery Night with novelists Jed Rubenfeld, Joel Rose, and historian Ben Feldman. The trio will be discussing New York’s famous 19th-century murders, including the bizarre events behind Butchery on Bond Street. 6pm // 108 Orchard St // Free EVENT: The Hanger Bar is having a summer soirée tonight. Head over there for an evening of couture and complimentary cocktails. A mixologist and a Prada protege have been brought in to......

MOVIE: In To Sir, With Love, an engineer who is unable to find a job as such lands a position teaching at an East End London high school. It's faculty vs students until the new teach (Sidney Poitier) breaks through all the teen angst. Lessons are learned, etc etc. 5pm lawn opens, Dusk movie starts // Bryant Park // Free MUSIC: Union Hall is coming off their week-long one year anniversary celebration. If you didn't......

MUSIC: We've been enjoying us some Ford & Fitzroy, and are eager to hear what they've got in store sonically (as there is only one track available online right now). But the ex-Asobi Seksu bassist and his talented bandmates have got us hooked off just that one tune. Give a listen at their MySpace. And check them out tonight with V2's Roman Candle. Friday // 11pm // Sin-e [150 Attorney St] // $10 THEATER: Radiohole......

MUSIC: Love is All takes over the Knitting Factory tonight with not one, but two shows. The early show is with Cause Co-Motion! and Devastations, the later one with Cause Co-Motion! and Tyvek. Choose wisely. Or you could always watch Jared Leo bring his emo wrath upon bloggers, his band plays Roseland tonight. Friday // The Knitting Factory [74 Leonard St] // $13 MORE MUSIC: The Battering Room is putting on a show at the......

The comedian we always thought of as a "Mac guy", Demetri Martin, is playing Town Hall on October 27th (buy tickets here), and for some reason - he is also doing a series of "webisodes" for Microsoft. Seems like Mac and PC's are pulling from the same talent pool lately. The marketing campaign featuring Demetri is for the upcoming Windows Vista. As part of the deal, Martin appears in the ten webisodes, they also......

- New York magazine reviews what they predicted and what really happened with the Brangelina baby pictures - The NY Times revisits the pianist who was viciously assaulted in Central Park 10 years ago - The East River State Park might be all hype, especially after seeing this YouTube video [via Curbed] - Hey, Glenn Lingle must have the same upstairs neighbors as us! - Ooh, we dig this kind of beach home -......

Have you been checking out Demetri Martin's Trendspotting reports on the Daily Show? Our personal fave is his look at the Myspace phenomona [see above]. Other topics have included: life coaching, wine and XBox360. Demetri has some shows at UCB starting tonight, and for the next few Wednesdays. The advance tickets are sold out, but there will be tickets at the door - so get there early! If you miss out, check out his......

We heard the fire trucks honk, squawk and blare, but we didn't realize what was going on until Alan of Thousand Robots sent us a dramatic photograph of a fire from what looks like Sixth Avenue and Spring/Charlton/King/Prince vicinity. And now we hear helicopters! Does anyone know what's going on? [UPDATE]: Jake went up to the scene and reports that the fire was at 24 and 26 King Street; the fire is mostly put......

Andres du Bouchet is a busy man. A few weeks ago we recommended his Naked Trampoline Hamlet monologues, which our friends at the Apiary could not curb their enthusiasm for in their coverage. This week he begins a two month run of Hilarilogues at the PIT[154 W.29th Street] with each show promising a mix of new and different material. Thursdays in November and December at 11pm. $5. By popular demand, Demetri Martin: These Are Jokes......

New York comedians have shown benevolence all year, participating in relief efforts for just about everything. Add one more show with a purpose to the list as the Gotham Comedy Club [208 W. 23rd St.] hosts the Stand Up for Peace 2nd Annual Comedy Benefit this week in support of Seeds of Peace. Since it’s founding in 1993, Seeds of Peace has devoted itself to empowering young leaders from regions of conflict with the leadership......

Demetri Martin,
Comedian...

Topping Gothamist's short list of things we can't get enough of are a nice cold Hoegarten, sample sales and the priceless humor of Flight of the Conchords. Though billed as a folk-parody duo, their songs have little to do with the typical issues addressed in folk music...unless you count their story of Albi, a racist dragon who cries jellybean tears and teaches us all a real life lesson. The rest of their songs tackle more......

Over the weekend the main topic of discussion was how to help out the people who were affected by Hurricane Katrina. Some New Yorkers are organizing events in order to raise money. We expect, and hope, there will be a lot more coming up in the next few months. For now take a look below at some of the upcoming benefits. Next week some of our favorite comedians take the stage in order to raise......

The Fringe Festival is coming soon, this means that approximately 200 companies will be bringing over 1300 performances to 20 venues in 16 days. Tonight Rule of 3 Productions is hosting a benefit for This Isn't Working, which was accepted into Fringe and now wants to celebrate that fact and raise some money to finance the production. This Isn't Working is "a collection of four short comedies about serious job dissatisfaction". Written by Francesco Marciuliano......

Is that the sun that woke us up this morning? It won't last for long so enjoy it while you can. It's the unofficial start to summer this long weekend, and unless you're one of those people who uses the word "summer" as a verb, then you're sticking around the city. Hopefully you get to leave the office a little early though... FILM: The LES Film Festival 2005 is free and it's this weekend! Starting......

Gothamist is switching things around for the next Movable Hype...it's going to be a comedy show! Here are the details: May 17th @ Tonic // 8:30pm // $7 Hosted By: Paul Scheer (Best Week Ever) and Rob Huebel (aka: Inconsiderate Cell Phone Guy) Comedians: Aziz Ansari, Chelsea Peretti, Nick Kroll, Jessi Klein House Band: tba Last night Gothamist headed over to Pianos for the last night of the three night taping of Invite Them Up.......

Comedy shows in New York this weekend are going to be just like Debra Messing’s hair– all over the place but still really good. Here’s the rundown of what not to miss: Saturday April 30 This Saturday night will be a one night only affair with Holiness, Sri Swami The Guru Pitka, who may or may not be Mike Myers. “A Dharma-Talk and Sutra: The Four Laws of Happiness" features Guru Pitka, an altar ego......

You can pretty much go to UCB Theater on any given night and enjoy some good comedy at a low price. This is why Gothamist maintains that UCB is the best date place ever, it loosens you up with laughs and cocktails and then you can go on your merry way giddy with alcohol and laughter in your system. But we digress. Tonight Celebutantes brings to life the tabloids and gossip websites right before your......

Our oversight, we forgot to tell you about the Demetri Martin show at UCB Theater tonight. Actually, it wasn't an oversight, we confess, we were hoping it would just be us and him. Alas that dream seems impossible as the show is now sold out, and we didn't have the foresight to buy every ticket. He has two more shows coming up however, March 14th and 21st, before he takes off to charm the ladies......

We'll have a full list of April and May shows coming up soon, there are A LOT to cover. We find it somehow comforting that we're already buying tickets for shows in the springtime ... we're ready to thaw! Moving on, so as not to repeat ourselves here is last month's sell outs list which has tickets that are still on sale for upcoming shows. And as for the below list we have starred the......

Gothamist is happy that people are still raising money for the Tsunami victims, so we wanted to draw some attention to upcoming events. Tonight Halycon Records [located at 63 Pearl Street in DUMBO] is having the opening party for an arts show that will run through March 20th. 50+ artists will be selling their work for $100 and under. If you can't head over tonight for the open bar, deejays and collaborative painting project, then......

Brooklyn's Southpaw hosted a great evening of comedy on behalf of Concerts For Change Weds. night. Gothamist is crazy about Stella, the comedy trio comprised of Michael Ian Black (yeah, from Ed and I Love The Eighties),and the creators of Wet Hot American Summer, Michael Showalter and David Wain. It used to be that you could see these guys play tiny rooms like The Fez on an ongoing basis. Now their busy schedules don't have......