Pins & Needles Comedy Brought Tattooed Stand-Up, Flash Tattoos, and Short Films to Secret Pour
On May 28, 2026, Pins & Needles Comedy returned to Secret Pour in New York City for a night that felt less like a standard comedy show and more like a full underground art event.
Produced by Taylor Drew and Justin Hartmann, the show brought together tattooed stand-up comedians, robe reveals, flash tattoos, short films, vendors, tarot readings, and an after-show market. It was a comedy show, a tattoo pop-up, a screening, and a late-night artist hang all folded into one room.
A New York City Stand-Up Show Built Around Tattoos, Nerve, and Being Seen
Pins & Needles Comedy is built on a simple but specific idea: tattooed comedians come onstage in robes, reveal their tattoos, and perform stand-up in limited, agreed-upon clothing. There is no nudity. The reveal is not there for cheap shock. It is there because body art tells a story before the comic even says a word.
Stand-up is already vulnerable. You are alone onstage with a microphone, trying to make a room full of strangers follow your brain. Pins & Needles adds another layer. It asks comics to bring their bodies into the performance too — not as a punchline, but as part of the truth of the room.
Every tattoo says something. Maybe it is a memory. Maybe it is a bad decision. Maybe it is grief, ego, love, survival, impulse, or a joke that aged better than expected. Whatever it is, it is visible. At Pins & Needles, that visibility becomes part of the show.
The May 28 Lineup at Secret Pour
Justin Hartmann hosted the night and kept the show moving with the right balance of control and looseness. The room had the kind of energy that works best when the host knows when to steer and when to let things breathe.
The stand-up lineup featured Rania Hanna, Seth Rubin, Corey Cooley, Rob White, and Taylor Drew. Each comic brought a different rhythm to the night, which helped the show feel textured instead of repetitive.
Rania Hanna opened the comedy portion with sharp presence and stage confidence, helping pull the audience into the format early. Seth Rubin followed with a looser, live-wire energy that fit the underground feel of the room. Corey Cooley brought another shift in tone and kept the middle of the show moving before the night turned toward its featured artist moment.
Rob White as Featured Artist
Rob White was both a comic on the lineup and the featured artist for the May 28 show, which made his role feel central to the whole night.
His flash tattoo work gave the room a visual backbone. Pins & Needles is strongest when the comedy and tattoo sides do not feel like separate attractions, and Rob helped connect them. The show paused before his set to spotlight the flash tattoos, vendors, and the rest of the night ahead, making it clear that the event was not ending when the stand-up ended.
Then Rob performed.
That is what made the night feel cohesive. The featured artist was not just someone with work on display while comedy happened nearby. He was part of the show itself — under the same lights, in the same format, taking the same risk as everyone else onstage.
Taylor Drew closed the stand-up portion of the night, bringing the comedy block to a finish before Secret Pour shifted into the next part of the event.
A Secret Short Film Screening After Stand-Up
After the comedy, the room moved into a secret screening of two short films.
That transition mattered. A lot of New York City comedy shows end when the final comic gets offstage. Pins & Needles did not treat the end of stand-up as the end of the night. Instead, the energy changed shape.
The first short film ran only a few minutes, like a quick hit. The second film gave the room more time to settle into a different pace. After watching comics reveal their tattoos and perform inside such a visual format, the audience was already primed to pay attention differently. The screening did not feel random. It felt like another layer of the same world.
Flash Tattoos, Vendors, Tarot Readings, and the After-Show Market
After the films, Secret Pour opened into the after-show market.
There were vendors, flash tattoos, drinks, merch, photos, tarot readings, and people staying because the night still had somewhere to go. That part is easy to underrate, but it is one of the reasons Pins & Needles feels like more than a comedy lineup.
A regular stand-up show gives the audience a seat, a set list, and a closing check. Pins & Needles gives them a room to move through.
The May 28 show had stand-up, tattoo flash, short films, artists, comics, and an audience willing to stay inside the world of the event after the jokes were over. It felt intimate, tattoo-heavy, visually alive, and specific to New York City in the best way.
Why Pins & Needles Comedy Is Different
Pins & Needles Comedy is not a regular New York City stand-up show with a theme slapped on top. It is a tattoo comedy show built around vulnerability, body art, performance, and the strange relief of being seen on purpose.
The robes, the reveals, the flash tattoos, the films, the market, and the after-show crowd all serve the same idea: comedy does not have to happen in a blank room. It can have texture. It can have skin. It can have ink. It can have a little danger in it.
May 28 at Secret Pour felt like a show that knew exactly what it was: funny, exposed, underground, artist-driven, and full of people willing to be looked at.
More flash, more films, more comics, and more stripped-down stand-up coming soon.
