Nice Try: A Solo Character Show

Nice Try is a solo character show from writer and comedian Lily Blumkin. Lily knows she will be famous. Don’t ask her how, she just does. Sure, most of her attempts at comedy fame have failed thus far, but Lily has faith (read: delusion) in herself, and that’s working out fine for now. When she heads home to pack up her childhood bedroom, objects remind her of characters from her past, like the cosmetics employee who hated her skin; the rabbi who roasted her at her bat mitzvah; and the dad who tried way TOO hard to accept her new girlfriend. Each character is utterly humiliating, but Lily only recalls how funny they were, and how valuable her items will be once she makes it big. But when her younger self barges in, she destroys Lily’s sense of self by reminding her how weird she was, and apparently, still is. Ultimately, Lily must come to terms with how she remembers the past and how she uses it to inform her present. Nice Try is an honest look at the stories we tell to define ourselves and the power of time in discovering who we really are.

Lily Blumkin is an award-winning writer and performer currently working at The Daily Show. There, she is featured on-camera as a Sketch Player, and has helped the show win two consecutive Emmy Awards for Outstanding Variety Talk Series. In April 2023, she wrote for Roy Wood Jr.’s White House Correspondents’ Dinner keynote speech.
Lily is an improviser, sketch comedian, and character performer who’s performed with house teams at The PIT, The Armory, and BoogieManja. She was a featured act in the New York Comedy Festival, SF Sketchfest, and NYC Sketchfest. Her writing has been selected by the literary humor magazine Points in Case, as well as the Webby Awards, the Nantucket Film Festival, and the Screencraft Comedy Competition. She is repped by 3arts, and you can see more of her work at lilyblumkin.com.

Ariel Gitlin is a performer, director, and comedy writer based in Brooklyn. Ariel is a member of the UCB Weekend Team, ‘The Foundation,’ with whom she’s performed at TOSketchfest, SF Sketchfest, NYC Sketchfest, NY Comedy Festival, and more. She was a writer for the Boogiemanja team ‘Both Hands,’ and she just finished a run directing the Maude Team ‘Dumptruck.’ Ariel has been featured in ‘Crashing’ on HBO, ‘The Iliza Shlesinger Sketch Show’ on Netflix, and The Truth Podcast. She is repped by Finer Entertainment Company. www.arielgitlin.com.