Surf Reality

{{Short description|Former performance venue in Manhattan}}

{{Infobox Theatre

|name = Surf Reality

|image =

|image_size =

|caption =

|address = 172 Allen Street, Lower East Side

|city = New York City

|country = USA

|designation =

|coordinates = {{coord|40.7214|-73.9890|type:landmark|display=inline}}

|architect =

|owner = Robert Prichard

|capacity = 65

|type = Performance Art Theater

|opened = 1993

|yearsactive =

|rebuilt =

|closed = 2003

|othernames = Surf Reality's House of Urban Savages

|production =

|currentuse = yoga studio

|website = www.surfreality.com

}}

Surf Reality's House of Urban Savages, also known as Surf Reality, was a 65-seat performance venue on Manhattan's Lower East Side from 1993 to 2003. A laboratory for experimental performance of all kinds, Surf Reality was known for comedy, performance art, classic burlesque, modern music, vaudeville and experimental theater.

The theater also served as the home for Faceboyz Open Mic. Other acts that passed through Surf include The Upright Citizens Brigade, Todd Barry, Dave Chappelle, Maggie Estep, and Jonathan Ames. Surf Reality was noted as a venue for "alternative comedy, along with performance art and theater pieces" where "visitors have to be buzzed in through its scrap-metal door and climb up to a loftlike second-floor space" by The New York Times.

{{Citation

| last=Pareles

| first=Jon

| author-link=Jon Pareles

| title=The New Bohemia: It's East of SoHo And Still Unspoiled

| newspaper=The New York Times

| publisher=The New York Times Company

| date= September 9, 1997

| url = https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9C07E3DE1F3BF935A1575AC0A961958260&sec=&spon=&pagewanted=3 | accessdate = 2008-08-11 }}