Holiday Guys Jeffry Denman and Marc Kudisch Talk Shop

There is no dearth of holiday shows this time of year, of course, and cabaret rooms around the city are announcing seasonal specials. But Broadway fans will want to make a rare pilgrimage to Gotham Comedy Club on Mondays this month, as Marc Kudisch and Jeffry Denman present their own take on Christmas and the season overall.

Kudisch developed the idea for the show last winter while driving to his house and listening to Christmas CDs in the car. He immediately thought of his frequent Broadway by the Year co-star (and director) Jeffry Denman as a collaborator, with whom he already knew he could work well. "We spent the better part of the summer brainstorming ideas on the phone while doing other shows, and finally got together in October and really started hashing it out," Denman recalls. "The musical part of it was mostly Marc and I sitting in one of our apartments and playing the guitar and uke and trying to find our way of doing these songs. Then when we added Dan Lipton into the mix, we took it to the next level. Dan is fantastic and is truly the third holiday guy."

The show was originally planned for Town Hall, where Kudisch and Denman regularly perform in Broadway by the Year concerts, with a Broadway by the Year-type cast."But economics right now, as everyone is aware, are pretty tight, shall we say. We decided to kick it off this year with just the two of us to get the idea rolling. Gotham came about because we had pitched the idea to Chris Mazzilli over at the metropolitan room, not knowing that he also owned the Gotham Comedy Club. Chris is interested in opening the Gotham up to a wider array of talent and we thought the space was fantastic for what we're trying to accomplish. So it was a win-win."

Making the concert even more unique is the multi-religious backgrounds of the creative team/performers. "Marc was brought up Jewish and I was brought up Catholic," Denman says. "That seemed like a pretty cool idea to center the night on. So most of the songs and moments play into that, some more specifically than others. But essentially we wanted to try to blend the two holidays, Hanukkah and Christmas, for an hour and fifteen minutes. That's who we are and we wanted to celebrate that."

When asked for specifics, Denman acknowledges Mel Torme's "The Christmas Song" as a personal favorite. "I get to do it pared down with my uke," he says. "No frills. It's very exciting to be able to do that song. It's so simple and good-hearted. And it's just a real good song. All my memories of Christmas can be found it that song. Can't everyone say that?"

That song, with its simplicity and good-heartedness, exemplifies everything good about the season. "Truly my favorite part of the holidays is that everyone softens a little," Denman says. "Yes, they get stressed out, but that's what we hope they come to our show with--because we can help them un-stress. It's that softening that I think brings us all a little closer to the idea that we have so much more in common than we like to think."

Ultimately, he continues, "what I hope people get from the show is that a childlike state of happiness/silliness is what this season is all about. That's our show. Marc will say it's about giving and sharing and that's true too. But for me, it's about loving that child inside and letting him or her out. That's the toughest thing for New Yorkers to do, i think. New Yorkers give all the time - and that's fantastic. But New Yorkers sometimes leave their inner child at home for too long. Hopefully we can coax them out to the Gotham Comedy Club for a little while."