Chris Kazimi as he welcomes the audience
Good drinks, great company, and most importantly: free laughs. Every Thursday night starting at 9pm, Bushwick’s Bodeguita has it all, as the neighborhood bar has become the official venue for Chris Kazimi’s Easy Listening Comedy show. What started out as an open mic grew quickly into a scheduled weekly show with five new stand-up comics performing each week to a packed house, which only continues to fill up. But, while the room does stay loud with laughter for an hour straight, it isn’t just the hilarious comics that bring people back each week. In just a short period of time, Kazimi has managed to establish a sense of community among the audience members, making regulars and newcomers alike feel at home.
In a true, ‘Come for the comedy, stay for the love’ fashion, Kazimi does an awesome job invoking a family style vibe for the evening, soliciting a call and response from the audience at the start of each show while he delivers a slew of fresh jokes to get things going. What follows after is a rotation of relatable comics who have appeared on “Late Night”, Netflix, Comedy Central, HBO & more. Kazimi, who runs the show entirely on his own, even providing the sound and lighting effects, has been consistent in booking solid line ups week after week. After realizing that he wasn’t getting the stage time he wanted, he knew he had to hustle hard and create his own opportunity. He felt that he needed something to offer the comedy community before he could fully immerse himself in it, saying that the scene kind of works like an economy in that way.
All logistics aside, it truly is the friendly dynamic of the night that Kazimi values most about the show. He says that when people put on comedy show’s there tends to be “A lot focus on these roles of what a comedy show is” and he’s just “trying to listen to what the people want.” He says he aims to make sure that everyone that walks through the door feels welcomed and involved, and rather than putting on a comedy show, wants to “throw a party”, where the comics too feel like they’ve entered into a welcoming space where people want to connect with friends new and old while getting in some deep belly laughs.
Easy Listening Comedy shows can be found at Bodeguita, 6 Suydam Street, Thursday’s at 9pm. Zero dollars to enter – it’s literally priceless. Don’t miss out!