Corey Yoskowitz Is A Comedian That’s In It To Win It
By Matt Levy
Early February of every year, New York City comics nervously refresh their inbox over and over wondering if they’ll receive an email letting them know whether or not they were selected for Carolines Comedy Madness competition. In 2020, Syosset native Corey Yoskowitz was one of those comedians. He checked and checked and checked until one day, Yoskowitz refreshed and saw he had received the confirmation email. Corey was one of the 64 competitors chosen this year. It was cause for celebration- Yoskowitz had been working for years toward this major goal.
Wait. Let’s start at the beginning of the story.
Yoskowitz, was born to his “Loving, gossiping, and overly protective mom and sports loving, straight edge back in my day dad” both straight out of Brooklyn and both who love their son more than anything. Corey’s favorite teams are the NY Rangers and Giants which were both chosen at birth for him by his father — no questions asked. Throughout childhood, he was a fun-loving athlete and “locker room guy” who loved playing soccer, hockey and lacrosse. After graduating high school, Corey headed to college at The University of Buffalo, where he studied Business Administration and Finance while taking acting and voice acting classes on the side. Friends described “Yosko” as “Outgoing, goofy, and a party boy (or really quiet, depending on who asked).”
It was pretty obvious at this point that Yosko loved making people laugh, whether it was while he was out with friends, writing one-liners on Twitter, shooting silly Snapchat vids or even sharing his friends’ videos that made him laugh. Corey, a huge comedy fan, spent a lot of his time studying Bill Burr, Demetri Martin and Jim Gaffigan. It was only a matter of time before comedy would become more than just a passing interest. So, with some positive reinforcement from his pals (Corey is known for his catchphrase, “I’ll do it tomorrow”), Yosko decided to finally do something about it. In 2016, Corey went to his first open mic while at school in Buffalo which he kept a secret. He only told his friend who drove him there. News broke out and a few other friends showed. Yosko was nervous. However, he thought he did well (at the time). Now looking back, he cringes. Anyhow, he’s glad he thought he did well though, since it kept him going and it kept him going up onstage night after night (except for you know…when a pandemic forced him to hang it up for a bit).
The 25-year-old Yoskowitz, currently living with three friends from his Syosset hometown worked extremely hard carving out material that showcases his point of view as an immature, complaint-filled, self-deprecating Millennial who enjoys partying. He added, “My onstage persona is a guy that’s sarcastic, unwilling to grow up and always looking for silly and dumb loopholes within societal norms to get ahead. You know. Like not getting charged for double meat at take out spots and trying to talk to girls.”
So, after four years of grinding away at open mics and shows, Yoskowitz finally got the inbox notification that validated all of his hard work. The email that showed him the right people were starting to take notice of his talents. He was set to perform in Comedy Madness this year. In the first round, comics perform just their strongest minute of jokes and Corey came out swinging. The crowd was on his side right away and although his competition was steep, he squeaked out an impressive win and advanced to the second round of 32 comics.
Yosko was riding on high after he heroically advanced to the second round. He brought out the big guns and performed his heart out on night two. However, Corey was competing against one of New York City’s best comedians and was unfortunately knocked out. The vote was close, it even came down to a re-vote(!), but Corey was upset by his opponent and the end of his Cinderella run was over. He took the loss in stride and is already planning the next steps of his comedy career.
These days, Yoskowitz is hammering away at standup looking toward the future trying to create new material while quarantined. In addition to that, he’s recording his podcast “All Days Off” with comedian friend Alex Aronson from SNY’s TV dating Show “Prospects.” The Podcast will include banter from the two about how they try and fail to better themselves as well as their takes on weekly trending topics. Even with all that on his plate, Corey continues to somehow find the time to craft innovative Tweets, Instagram posts, and 30 for 30 parodies. Through it all, Yoskowitz is doing everything he can to continue making joke creation a priority.
In five years, Yoskowitz sees himself doing stand up and writing and acting for film and TV. No matter what happens, he’ll be receiving many more acceptance emails into comedy festivals, competitions and more as his star continues to rise. You can guarantee that his inbox remains full.
You can find Yoskowitz all over the web on Twitter and Instagram.
If you want to get some Corey inspired content in while inside, check out a few of his favorite shows like Spongebob, Rick and Morty, I Think You Should Leave, South Park, Game of Thrones, Peaky Blinders and The Sopranos.
