Reviews and press articles about Unitard
It’s certainly nice to get press reviews for our shows. But getting pictures and listings in great publications’ “what’s hot” sections and calendars is nothing to sneeze at either. Thanks to NY Magazine and The New Yorker for drawing some notice and attention to our current Tard Core show at Jo’es Pub in the listings we have included below.
It’s wonderful to get noticed and reviewed! But when a great publication includes your latest show in a “what’s hot” listing or page image, that’s nothing to sneeze at either. Here are images from the latest issues of THE NEW YORKER and NEW YORK MAGAZINE that give some needed notice and attention to our TARD CORE show at Joe’s Pub.
A polyamorous couple comprises one of the sketches in Unitard’s show Tard Core (There Are No Safe Words) at Joe’s Pub, but that sort of thing is mercilessly skewered, as per usual with this troupe. (“We have rules. You can cum in their mouth, but you can’t hold hands.”) In the riotously funny show—which will have you spitting out your overpriced wine—the comic trio also lampoons people who troll Whole Foods for tofu key lime pies; Facebook addicts who are horrified that someone else posted a photo of their breakfast burrito and got more likes than their own inane posts; and Russian hackers who discover that Hillary’s password is “Monicasucks.”
The show starts with the long running trilogy of terror—David Ilku, Nora Burns, and Mike Albo—as folk singers musically lamenting what’s happened to New York City. (“Where have all the porn shops gone? Turned into Soul Cycles and nail salons.”) But while the edge-depletion of the new NYC is one of their favorite targets, Unitard also makes fun of anyone who whines about it too much. A satirical Mod Squad for the new age, they hold a mirror to our pretensions while carving up soulless real estate agents, fruity designers who’ve crash landed on QVC, and the desperate Ann Coulter, who has a cell phone battery for a heart. Best of all are the Narcissists Olympics sketch and one in which the comics are hemorrhoids popping up in Trump’s butt and dodging all the fatty foods. No one is better at satirizing up-to-the-minute foibles than these three kooks. I would just add an 11 o’clock sketch probing some really dark pathos and despair, just to bring things to a different level, but having nonstop hilarity is nothing to kvetch about.
– Mchael Musto, OUT.com
Unitard, the sketch comedy trio formed by Mike Albo, Nora Burns, and David Ilku have a new show, titled House of Tards, causing plenty of diehard fans to cheer. But I’m new to their shtick, and I wasn’t sure if I should be laughing out loud or quietly appalled.
Take the monologue in which Ilku portrays a member of the Islamic terrorist organization, ISIS. While some in the audience were keeling over in laughter, my inner Southern boy was disturbed by the ISIS bit. To this, Ilku says:
“One of the magical things about comedy is making people uncomfortable. When a room is uncomfortable, eventually the tension has to break, and it breaks in the form of a laugh. So, you just keep pushing until they can’t take it anymore. Then, eventually, someone cracks and laughs because it’s just too absurd.” If that sounds like it’s too much to handle, Nora Burns would like to remind you that “with our show everything is pretty short. If you don’t like it, it’ll be over in three minutes.”
Other hilarious sketches introduce the audience to a particularly awful babysitter, the prize accessory of a G.B.F. (Gay Best Friend), everyday people utterly distraught over the passing of celebrities, Facebook narcissists, and more.
“We usually start with things that annoy us in life: people being selfish, people being evil,” Mike Albo explains as to the inspiration for these sketches and monologues. Or as Burns elaborates: “It’s so fun to be a nasty character or just to comment on things we find funny. We all have this sort of similar pop-culture, gay sensibility. It’s just fun. We’ll all riff off each other and come up with the next thing we have to do.”
Unitard: House of Tards is packed with edgy humor that playfully flirts with the fine line between being hysterical and a twinge offensive. Forget political correctness. Yet, they also don’t intend to demean or poke fun at any marginalized groups of persons either. So the result is comedy that is off-kilter with laughs intended for self-aware audiences that are capable of thinking on their own. “I don’t even know how to be mainstream, honestly,” Albo admits. “I’ll never get on stage and be like, ‘Don’t you hate cats?’ I’m not going to be that person.”
Performing at Stonewall, it’s clear that queer-identifying folks are an audience target, but the trio insists that’s not the only people who will enjoy the show. “We’re all old-school New Yorkers. David and I have been in New York since 1979,” acknowledges Burns. So anyone who has, as Albo puts it, “experienced a degree of political corruption, gentrification, and has seen how people can be greedy,” will enjoy their commentary. So, why Stonewall? “We don’t want to charge a lot of money. We want to keep it so people can afford to go out, have a full belly laugh, and have a drink and not break their budget,” Ilku explains. “Greed is killing New York, and all the great, little performance spaces are just disappearing. So, thank God, that Stonewall is cool and great and has opened their arms to us,” he expounds.
As if being intellectual comedy meant for cultured peoples isn’t enough, Unitard is endorsed by celebrities such as Debbie Harry. She was in the audience, along with funny lady Julie Klausner, for the opening night performance at Stonewall Inn. During their run in L.A., Parker Posey, Jennifer Coolidge, RuPaul, and Lady Bunny enjoyed the clever trio.
Unitard: House of Tards continues through April 23. For tickets visit, UnitardComedy.com.
House of Tards is the second biggest riot the Stonewall Inn has ever seen.
The revue, by three-person comedy team Unitard, is a series of sketches that do what Second City and SNL have always done, but haven’t done well in decades. That’s why the show feels classic and brand-new at the same time.
Made up of Mike Albo (who generously flashed scrotum and bare ass the night I saw it for no reason except thank you), Nora Burns and David Ilku, the performers do pieces solo and together. They don’t go there, they start there.
Then…they go there.
The show’s best bits are painfully funny routines about NYC’s dying downtown scene (Debbie Harry, who opens at the Carlyle shortly, was in the front row) and the phenomenon of grief tourists on Facebook who suddenly become a famous person’s biggest fan once they’re dead. That’s Unitard’s forte, identifying social trends and deciding, with humor, what they mean.
Unitard has fangs, but everybody has fangs these days. The difference is that Unitard has the brains to know how and when and if to use the fangs, and also the heart to try stuff that is definitely going to rub some people the wrong way.
Precious little of House of Tards fails to amuse (a terrorist stand-up act was both brilliant and gross, but was ultimately too distractingly interesting).
There is no MVP here; all of the performers shine equally, making them one of the best threesomes you’ll ever watch outside of your computer.
House of Tards plays through April 9 at the Stonewall Inn.
– See more at: http://www.boyculture.com/boy_culture/2015/03/tard-nation-a-review-of-house-of-tards.html#sthash.MSizsvvD.dpuf
Terrorism. Karl Lagerfeld. Addiction. Dead celebrities. They’re all just so hilarious, aren’t they? They are If you’re Mike Albo, Nora Burns, or David Ilku. This triumphant trio, known as “Unitard” took to the stage last night at the historic Stonewall Inn, where they will undeniably induce shock, outbursts of laughter, and the occasional groan for the next three weeks.
This NYC based sketch comedy troupe returned to their hometown after successful sold out shows around the country. It is certainly not for the faint of heart or easily offended. Yet, like great satire, Unitard manages to take reprehensible, discomforting topics and turn them into fodder for self reflection and, in some cases, deprecation.
The Saturday Night Live on steroids cast strike a deliciously nasty but accurate target of our digital media fixations, the gentrification of our once “artist friendly” city, and the good ‘ole GOP. Through monologues and group skits, this trio swiftly pulls off most of the material. A stand-up comedy routine by a Muslim terrorist does cross the line a bit too far, leaving the audience to question, “Is this too soon?” Yet, following in the footsteps of comedians like Joan Rivers, the group is aware that virtually nothing is sacred. Like the venue itself, the three revel in defying social mores and provide an entertaining night of comedy for those who are willing to lighten up and not take life -nor death- so seriously.
House of Tards runs on Thursday nights through April 9th at the Stonewall Inn, 53 Christopher Street (slightly east of 7th ave.) For tickets and information, visit: http://unitardcomedynyc.brownpapertickets.com/
I’ve known these guys for years. Nora Burns, Mike Albo and David Ilku are Unitard, the long-running sketch comedy troupe. I thought I might describe or review the show, “House of Tards” but, I have to admit, it all comes so fast and funny, that I don’t have the skills to adequately prepare you for what they deliver. Suffice it to say that’s it’s gay, gay, gay, UBER-topical (lots of social media jabs) and very New York-centric (plenty of digs at what the city is becoming, funny because it’s just true, which makes it sad.) It starts with the lament;
“Man we’re beat, we’re drowning in our funk, too young to hang with Warhol, too old to krunk”.
Nora is also a rich bitch who moves from Greenwich Connecticut to the new, much-hated luxury building located where St. Vincent’s Hospital used to be;
“Here I am reimagining West Village living at The Greenwich Lane, which delivers an unheard of level of character, it’s our own West Village Versailles!”
Mike is tongue-tied as to how to address transgender actress Laverne Cox in a meet and greet, Nora is a girl with a black bar over her eyes in her gay pals Grindr profile photo, and David is Karl Lagerfeld hawking for Purina with an insane song. And they all three are GUTTED at the death of various celebrities and think “it’s important” to post pictures of yourself with said celebrities when they die. It’s smart and hilarious. Oh, and sit in the front row and you may get to dance with Junkie Jones, like I did. (bottom right) Catch them tonight upstairs at The Stonewall Inn, October 28, and next Tuesday, November 4, 8PM. Be a tard, trust me just GO, it’s only 20 bucks.
Unitard–that sterling comic trio consisting of Nora Burns, David Ilku, and Mike Albo–were a scream in their show at Stonewall tonight, as they lovingly lambasted the foibles and pretensions of patronizing, needy New Yorkers–you know, “cis-gendered” people who take ubers to their Scruff hookups and gluten-free muffins. Ilku scored as a burka-wearing comic (“What did the terrorist say during Fashion Week? ‘Does this bomb make me look fat?’ “) Albo rocked as a robotic gay best friend to two overly enthusiastic straights, who love the way he does their hair and escorts them to sample sales. And Burns was a scream coming out with her arm around an imaginary person and a black bar over her eyes, saying, “Hi, I’m the girl next to you in your Grindr profile pic.” Be sure to catch the ‘tards next week and don’t be surprised if you find yourself up on that stage. Maybe even literally.
UNITARD 