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Dropping In at the Comedy Cellar With Amy Schumer and Leslie Jones

11:15 P.M. It’s an odd fact that the Comedy Cellar basement is a great room because it’s cramped and uncomfortable. Luxury does not benefit stand-up. Intimacy does. And Ms. Jones, whose ferocious style is the closest thing we have today to the explosiveness of Sam Kinison, uses it to add tension. When she strides onstage, in a sleeveless Nirvana shirt and knee brace, she uses her height, leaning into the crowd, moving her face close and staring fiercely, between screams and maniacal laughs. After saying she is turning 50 this year, Ms. Jones lays into cautious millennials, asking a woman in the front row her age. When she says 23, Ms. Jones curses at her. “What are you doing with your clothes on?” she demands, glaring. “It’s 11 p.m.!”

A confession that fame hasn’t changed her sex life shifts into aggrieved anger that her “Saturday Night Live” co-star Colin Jost is dating Scarlett Johansson. “One day I’m going to rape him,” she says, drawing gasps. Ms. Jones laughs: “This ain’t ‘S.N.L.’” Indeed. None of her filmed work prepares you for the ferocity and reckless abandon of Ms. Jones live onstage.

Pity the next comic, a bearded guy named Phil Hanley. “Hi everyone,” he says. “There’s going to be a slight change of energy.”

MIDNIGHT As the crowd exits and the staff prepares for the final show, Estee Adoram, the Cellar’s longtime booker, sits in the cafe upstairs and explains that for late nights, she favors high-energy comics. “The audience is more tired,” she says.

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Wil Sylvince onstage.

Credit
Vincent Tullo for The New York Times

Wil Sylvince, host of the previous show, adds that once, when Mr. Chappelle stayed until 6:45 a.m., there were only 40 people there by the end: “I saw three people go into the hallway and call, saying they won’t be at work on time the next day.”

12:30 A.M. Cipha Sounds, formerly a popular Hot 97 D.J., walks onstage to tepid applause. “If there were more blacks and Latinos,” he tells the audience, “they’d be going crazy.”

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From left, the comedians Rich Vos, Nimesh Patel and Cipha Sounds at the club.

Credit
Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

12:45 A.M. The later it gets, the more the comics talk to the crowd. Rich Vos, a middle-aged comic in a fedora, zeros in on a guy who with his parents: “Do you ever walk in on Mom and Dad?” He gives the father a harder time than the others. “I love you in the picture with the pitchfork,” he says. At around 1 a.m., he leaves the stage to loud applause. “The dad loved it,” he tells me, “but the mom was stone-faced.”

Saturday

10 P.M. The first time Colin Quinn performed after midnight at the Comedy Cellar, he said he was booed off the stage. “It was rowdier back then,” he said with nostalgia. Bill Burr and Mr. Spade were standing nearby. Mr. Quinn said he still saw the old style in one revered comic who plays the late show more than anyone else: “Dave Attell is the one who does the late show the way you’re supposed to do it,” Mr. Quinn added. “He tries things out, almost stream of consciousness.”

10:45 P.M. Ryan Hamilton, a fast-rising Idaho-born comic whose first Netflix special comes out next month, tells slightly melancholy observational jokes with a defiant lack of edge. In a climate of profane punch lines and political rants, this stands out. “I don’t know if you’ve ever been sad on a roller coaster,” he says, pausing. “It’s doable.” Waiting to go on, Mike Birbiglia nods toward the stage: “He’s good.”

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Mike Birbiglia performing.

Credit
Krista Schlueter for The New York Times

1 A.M. In a night rich with Trump jokes, Azhar Usman does the most overtly political set, with densely argued premises and fewer punch lines. This style tends to work better in alternative rooms than in clubs. He describes the president as the head of the “white civil rights movement” and explains that there are four kinds of white people. The first, he says, are “the white devils.” The crowd gets quiet. He smiles.

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Azhar Usman on a recent night.

Credit
Krista Schlueter for The New York Times

1:10 A.M. Kevin Brennan walks onstage, looks at a guy in the front row: “You the white devil?” When a joke earns a groan, he quips: “I’m going to bring the other guy back.”

1:30 A.M. Dov Davidoff, a hyperactive wise guy with a tight, crowd-pleasing set, pauses to try out something that falls flat. “This is not ‘The Tonight Show,’” he says in a tone that suggests, what do you expect this late?

2 A.M. After a Holocaust joke, the young host Liza Treyger introduces Mr. Attell, 52, in a beard and baseball cap. He asks her to stay. “I like us here together,” he says. “It looks like you took a homeless man out to eat.” Later, he brings a third comic onstage, Joe Machi, whose wide-eyed glare provides a nice juxtaposition with Mr. Attell’s intimidating deadpan.

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From left, Ryan Reiss, Wil Sylvince, Azhar Usman, Dave Attell and Sam Morril at the Olive Tree Cafe, above the Comedy Cellar.

Credit
Krista Schlueter for The New York Times

Their interplay evokes podcast conversation more than a stand-up set. Despite rapid-fire punch lines, Mr. Attell appears as relaxed as a guy settling into his couch after a long day of work. His very funny sex jokes are told with no mischievousness and a disarming calm. He is dominating the discussion when the comic Mo Amer approaches the stage holding a phone in the air. Mr. Attell looks confused. Mr. Amer turns the phone to the audience, revealing Mr. Chappelle on FaceTime from Ohio, where he lives. The crowd screams. This is exactly what early morning audiences hope for, but Mr. Chappelle on a screen is not the same as in person. After some awkward banter, he asks: “Did I stop the party?”

After Mr. Amer leaves the stage, Mr. Attell quips to the crowd: “You never know who might kinda sorta drop by.” Then he adds: “Is that a UPS package from Jerry Seinfeld?”

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