Jennifer T.
Yelp
Look no further than QED if you needed any more evidence of Astoria's gentrification and induction into the "hip" stratosphere occupied by fellow nabes Williamsburg, Bushwick, Soho, etc. Surrounded by old timey housing stock and laundromats, it would stick out like a cousin gone Hollywood were it not for several fancy bistros and cafes nearby keeping it company.
I have mixed feelings about this place even though I have enjoyed its shows and took part in its open mics and such. It feels like a universe that was co-opted from the comedy clubs in Greenwich Village or midtown and dropped wholesale into what used to be a family oriented, unassuming neighborhood.
Now, there's nothing wrong with having an entertainment venue where numerous people can exercise their creativity, but along with the positivity you also get the narcissistic, self-aggrandizing types who think they're the next Kate McKinnon (who started at QED, by the way).
I'm thinking in particular of a young host there (don't remember her name) who is on the same physical scale as Roseanne Barr. She was rude to me a few times while giving bear hugs to her clique of wannabe Sarah Silvermans. I find her patronizing attitude infuriating because it's all too reminiscent of what I've encountered in the UWS, Park Slope and other high rent places ("Keep your distance, peasant!") I used to be able to write off such entitled, shallow people because I knew I could always come home to Astoria, where people were down to earth and unpretentious.
Not anymore. Every time I visit this place, I feel grateful I left Astoria but got to enjoy it in the 90s, when cheap rent allowed me to live alone (take that, shoebox transplant!) and long before it became just another backdrop for the city's moneyed, self-absorbed "creatives."