Kudos to Comix

New downtown NYC comedy club tries something different by blending stand-up and sketch comedy.

Host Catie Lazarus and stand-up comedian Pete Holmes.

Kudos to new comedy club Comix in the Meatpacking District for adding other forms of comedy to the ubiquitous stand-up shows around the city with a new series of shows called Fresh Meat running October 17, 24 and 31.

Unexpectedly, the best of the stand-ups appearing turned out to be Pete Holmes, who has at least one classic bit about what he dealt with from customers when he was a waiter. Judah Friedlander, the most well-known comedian on the bill, didn’t really have much of a set, relying mostly on his personality while picking on the audience.

Stirring up the stand-up mix, comedic actress Ann Carr did a monologue in character as a tough lesbian Outward Bound counselor with a vividly skewed point of view and distinctively un-hip sweatsuit and headband -- both a size too small.

Carr’s character also appeared in a short comedy film between the stand-up acts called “Men Won’t Watch This,” which also had its moments. The film parodied “The Real World” with the twist of the characters being thrown together into a house for a self-actualizing feminist seminar. The funniest bit of this, maybe even more so than the performers, was a whiteboard in the background reading, “Courage Understanding Nurturing Trust Security.”

But it was the close of the show in which the performers joined together for a panel moderated by host Catie Lazarus to talk about their experiences in comedy that was the true highlight because it’s something you just don’t normally get in stand-up clubs, and with the performers present in this show, especially Holmes, the stories could often be funnier than anything constructed for an act.

“Fresh Meat” apparently plans to mix it up even more in coming weeks, with authors who have a comedic bent, general interest writers, comedy writers from the Daily Show and Colbert Report, and comedic actors and sketch groups. Lazarus ably ties it together with her own inventive stand-up. Indeed this is a fresh mix that will likely get better as it continues.