Latest news with #NiceTry
Edinburgh Reporter
08-08-2025
- Entertainment
- Edinburgh Reporter
Fringe 2025 – Lily Blumkin: Nice Try! ⭐⭐⭐⭐
Could we be seeing the birth of a new comic star? That's the conceit behind Lily Blumkin's Edinburgh debut character comedy show in which, as the narrator, she has a heightened sense of her comedic potential but comes to terms with her insecurities as she sets out on the path to being discovered. Blumkin, 28, starts the show in her New Jersey childhood bedroom, which she recalls smelled 'like beef stew' as she never washed the sheets. An unpeopled photo of it, with its ample well-made double bed, is relayed on an overhead screen, suggesting a lack of action. In an engagingly zany hour, Blumkin – a writer and sketch performer on 'The Daily Show' on the US cable channel Comedy Central – plays nine original characters with zest and sharp comic timing. First up is Jeffrey, her first boyfriend and best friend of the partying barmitzvah boy Josh, on whom he secretly had a crush, and for whom she dons a camp curly-haired wig. Her first love, though, was Stephanie and she next appears as her dad, Steve, with an eye-liner moustache and red shirt, throwing around a supportive rainbow-coloured tablecloth which he got from dutifully getting himself acquainted with the they/them nomenclature as he seeks, with mixed success, to prove he's not anti-gay. Other characters include Trish, her mum's best friend, getting sozzled and flinging wine over herself at a book club as she attempts to escape from her two aggressive boys; and a wildly inventive 'sentient clump of hair', wearing a cowboy-style brown string jacket, which had got stuck to a grimy, ceramic tile in the shower. There's also a with-it tallit-wearing rabbi working the crowd at Lily's batmitzvah, a photo of which is relayed on the backstage screen. 'If you like what you heard you can check out my podcast, 'Rabbi riffs' … on myPhone,' he says. It's all deliciously silly and fondly sent up in a confident and quirky show, which was directed in its New York premiere by Ariel Gitlin and in Edinburgh by Lanee' Sanders. Lily Blumkin: Nice Try! Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Blether (Until Aug 25, not Aug 14) Gilded Balloon Patter Hoose, Blether (Until Aug 25, not Aug 14) Like this: Like Related
Scotsman
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Scotsman
Daily Show star Lily Blumkin Makes Edinburgh Fringe debut with heartfelt and hilarious character comedy
An Emmy-winning writer and performer from The Daily Show is set to make her hotly anticipated Edinburgh Fringe debut this August with a touching and sharply funny solo show exploring childhood dreams, social media fame and the bittersweet truths of growing up. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... An Emmy-winning writer and performer from The Daily Show is set to make her hotly anticipated Edinburgh Fringe debut this August with a touching and sharply funny solo show exploring childhood dreams, social media fame and the bittersweet truths of growing up. Lily Blumkin, who has helped The Daily Show scoop two consecutive Emmy Awards and penned the 2023 White House Correspondents' Dinner speech for comedian Roy Wood Jr, brings her character comedy hour Nice Try to the Gilded Balloon's Patter House venue for the full festival run from 30 July to 25 August (not 14th). Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Having sold out its debut in New York, Nice Try sees Blumkin take audiences on a whirlwind trip through nine original characters, each inspired by the clutter of her childhood bedroom as her fictionalised self prepares to move out for good. Along the way, she introduces a chaotic cast of figures from her past, from a bar mitzvah crush and a too-eager dad to a beauty counter bully and a scandalous HR rep. Lily Blumkin At the heart of the show is a poignant and playful confrontation between the present-day Lily and her idealistic 12-year-old self, offering a fresh twist on coming-of-age storytelling. With TikTok fame forever just out of reach and self-doubt setting in, Nice Try asks what happens when you give it your all and still fall short—and whether success is ever quite what it seems. 'I think a lot of people feel like they're about to break through, but never quite do,' says Blumkin. 'This show plays with that tension, the stories we tell ourselves, and how we rewrite the past to suit the present.' Known for her quick wit and dynamic character work, Blumkin is a mainstay of New York's comedy scene, with appearances at the New York Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest and NYC Sketchfest. Her writing has been recognised by the Webby Awards, Nantucket Film Festival and Points in Case, among others. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Fringe audiences can expect a mix of fast-paced comedy, heartfelt nostalgia and laugh-out-loud absurdity in what promises to be one of the standout debut shows of the year. Nice Try runs at 5.40pm daily (except 14 August) at Gilded Balloon – Patter House – Blether.
Boston Globe
27-03-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Michael Kosta swears he's not living life by tennis rules anymore
Advertisement His book includes stories about the time he cried while losing and had to be consoled mid-match by his brother, the time he cheated (he still feels bad), and the time he and his doubles partner humiliated opponents by using their left hands to finish off a win, a caper for which his parents made him call the kids to apologize. (There are also plenty of self-deprecating scenes off the court, like a humiliating night with a Dutch prostitute while on the tennis tour.) Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up 'I look at life through an athlete's lens, which is the only lens I thought the whole world has,' Kosta says. 'I approached my His colleagues see a different Kosta these days. 'He was reassuring and patient with all my questions before my first piece on the air,' says 'Daily Show' correspondent Advertisement And Indeed, on a recent Tuesday, Kosta barely squeezed the show in: he taped a 'Daily Show' segment that involved him sucking on (fake) toes, went to one club for an early set ahead of the Nice Try show; and then walked to another after Nice Try for yet another set. In person, Kosta easily sheds the cocky guy persona he has adopted, mostly tongue-in-cheek, for his comedy; after Nice Try, he invited my son and his girlfriend to stroll with us to his next show, asking about their lives and answering their questions about his performance. For my interview at a cafe near his home in Brooklyn, he brought his dog Walter and happily chatted about subjects beyond the interview's scope. He's also thoughtful about the memoir, understanding his publisher's concerns that fans may prefer a different proportion of tennis to comedy, although Kosta says former U.S. Open champion Andy Roddick said he related to all the traumas of junior tennis. 'I've read Anthony Bourdain's memoir and I still don't know what knives I have in my kitchen or how to cook,' Kosta says, 'so if I tell my story honestly and attach my true emotions, people can relate. Everyone can connect to failing as an 11-year-old, crying and then being embarrassed because your brother had to come out and hug you in the middle of a competition.' Advertisement There are also intimate family moments, like watching his father break the news to his mother that her dad had died suddenly while visiting them. 'It was actually beautiful to see your parents like that, and it's a model for me on how to handle difficult situations,' he says, although he admits that capturing the moment was one of his most painful writing challenges. The book also lays out the many ways tennis prepared him for a life in comedy. In tennis, you can lose a point, a game, or a set, and get an instant shot at redemption; even if you lose a match, there's another tournament the next week. 'It's not like the Olympics where if I make one mistake I don't get the gold medal,' he says. 'Even Roger Federer won only 54 percent of his points.' As an athlete, Kosta let his losses linger too much — he's still occasionally haunted by a blown lead in South Korea — but that idea of a perpetual shot at a 'clean slate' helps now in comedy. 'However this show went, I'm on to the next one,' he says. 'That's also a good way to live your life.' And traveling internationally for tennis matches for the first time opened his eyes to the world beyond his privileged Ann Arbor childhood in a way that shapes his approach to political coverage on 'The Daily Show.' In his book, he writes about how those experiences helped him understand other cultures and what it's like for immigrants as outsiders here. Of course, his role on 'The Daily Show' has changed his stand-up. Advertisement 'Now I talk about politics and just say what I think needs to be said,' he says, adding, however, that the show's fans sometimes complain that his standup isn't more political. But he prefers balancing the political with the personal and with the silly. 'I always want my comedy to be playful,' he says. Kosta says he always loved physical comedy. In fact, the very first joke he ever did on stage was a goofy bit about being an expert in karate, but 'crotch karate.' But in his early years he says he lacked the tools and confidence to pull off those bits. 'I also used to worry about what other comics might say,' he says. 'Now I'm more expressive physically and my attitude is, 'I don't care, I got the laugh.'' His material these days also contains jokes about being a dad, which initially terrified him because he'd seen other comedians venture into that territory and play it safe. 'I thought, 'Get this away from me,'' he says, 'but your life is what you pay attention to, so if I write a good joke, then people who don't have kids will also be laughing.' Writing the book and looking back on his evolution from jock to comic has further helped him back away from the athlete's more structured mindset. 'I don't treat shows like a match anymore. I'm trying to get to that comfort level of just chilling and being funny,' he says. 'I'm looser now, but you don't want to get too lost, or it becomes self-indulgent.' Advertisement Kosta says that while he loves the collaborative team effort of putting on the 'Daily Show,' he'll always come back to stand-up. 'What's amazing is that they hand you the microphone and say 'Go,'' he says, 'and then you say whatever is in your brain.' MICHAEL KOSTA $35+, 7:30 p.m., Friday, April 4, City Winery, 80 Beverly St., Boston,
