Q.E.D. – Skill Share, Comedy, and Community Coming to Astoria

Back during this summer’s World Cup days (those were awesome), I hung out with Kambri Crews over charcoal grilled chicken and homemade lemonade at Zorba’s, discussing her newest project, Q.E.D., which was really in its infancy and full of great ideas. I decided that it was time to check back in with her progress. Located at 27-16 23rd Ave., it’s going to be part performance space, part skill share, and part cafe. She hopes to open October 10.

Kambri is well-known in the NYC comedy world and seems to know pretty much everyone. Here’s a blurb about her from the Q.E.D. website:

For four years she served as the Director of Marketing and PR for the comedy club Comix, during which time she also created and ran the 50-seat comedy venue Ochi’s Lounge. She followed that by becoming the comedy booker for the 92Y Tribeca. Kambri is also an accomplished public speaker and storyteller, giving speeches and performing around the USA promoting her memoir BURN DOWN THE GROUND which was published by Random House in 2012. By creating Q.E.D., Kambri hopes to bring the community together to share in learning and laughter.

Q.E.D. is setting up shop in what was the Greek Friends Soccer Club, which had been there for maybe a couple of years. The space is nice and long, and is divided into a cafe/bar up front and a stage in the back. She’ll install a thick curtain between the performance area and the rest of the room—the curtain will silence about 75% of the sound to those on the outside. Bonus for her—the curtain track was already installed!

There is also a tech booth on the house-right side that is perfect for what they need, too.

Here’s a shot of the stage from their Facebook page:

It will be great for play readings, spoken word performances, open mics, and of course, stand up comedy. She mentioned that Ted Alexandro will host a regular show, and folks such as comedian Myq Kaplan (The Tonight Show, Conan, Last Comic Standing), Bryan Tucker (co-head writer of NBC’s Saturday Night Live— he’ll host a monthly show featuring writers from SNL and other guests), and actor/writer Frank Conniff (Frank on Mystery Science Theater 3000) will also join the fun; I am sure that this is just the start, too.

Up front is the cafe space and a bar they are building. They plan to offer high quality drip coffee, cold drinks, baked goods, snacks, and sandwiches. At some point they also hope to be able to serve beer and wine.

They’ve installed a few TVs for the purposes of having a display to use during teaching, for a comedian who wants to show funny clips during his act, and also for group watching. I hear Game of Thrones screenings are in the plans.

Kambri also showed me the backyard, which is awesome. She has use of the entire back area, and she’ll build a deck on part of it and have a garden in another part of it, which can be used for teaching. Composting will also happen.

As for teaching, she likes to call this part “after-school space for grown-ups.” She is looking to have classes on all sorts of things—intro to ASL as well as an extended workshop, instruction in tarot card reading, how to play mahjong, henna tattoos, and much more. Kambri sent along this list of topics she’d be interested in having taught at Q.E.D.:

• Arts & Crafts of almost every type
• History of Queens (or any of its neighborhoods, especially Astoria & LIC)
• Handwriting fonts/Calligraphy
• T-shirt upcylcling (make my boxy Van Halen concert tee cute, please!)
• Tarot card, palm readings and seances for Halloween
• Balloon Twisting
• Face Painting
• Pumpkin Carving
• Game tutorials (bridge, Mahjong, poker, D&D, Carcassonne, etc.)
• Bookbinding
• Printmaking
• Star Gazing for Dummies
• Storytelling
• Knitting or Crocheting
• Felt Soap
• Paper Mache
• Ukrainian Easter Egg Design
• Tastings
• Magic
• Home Brewing
• Home Wine Making
• Home Canning

If you think you can teach about any of these subjects, feel free to contact Q.E.D. Teachers will be paid a base pay of $25-50, depending on the length of the class, as well as a percentage of ticket sales after the first ten paid admissions. Shows and classes are in their calendar and they already have over a dozen dates already booked.

Feedback has been enthusiastic so far and Kambri says she’s had a lot of people tell her how excited they are for Q.E.D. to open up. We are very much looking forward to this, too. Good luck with the rest of the preparations, and we’ll be there when it’s open!

Q.E.D., 27-16 23rd Ave., Astoria NY 11105, qedastoria.com, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Hours: 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. weekdays, open til midnight Fridays and Saturdays