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COMEDY MATTERS ROUND-UP WITH GARY VEE, COMEDY AT THE GRAMMYS, COMEDY IN A.C., TRIBUTE TO ERNIE ANASTOS, BROADWAY COMEDY AND MUCH MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on April 6, 2026

GARY VEE LOVES COMEDY

Growing up there were only three people I ever wanted to meet, Woody Allen, Salvador Dali and The Beach Boys. I got to meet all of them in very meaningful ways. Woody sat with me and read all of my earliest comedy material and encouraged me to make films of my ideas which I eventually did. Each meeting is a story unto itself, but in recent years I added Gary Vaynerchuk, known as Gary Vee to that short list.

**SHARING A LAUGH WITH GARY VEE AT VAYNER MEDIA**

You probably already know who he is, as he has a massive following. Born in Belarus, he’s an entrepreneur owning Vayner Media, a huge digital marketing agency, a field in which he’s considered a pioneer. He’s a best selling author with 6 N.Y. TImes best sellers, he’s an early angel investor in little known tech companies like Twitter, Uber, Snapchat, Facebook, Venmo, Tumblr and Coinbase, and he’s just a very unique human being , with over 45 million social media followers, who I had the feeling I needed to know.

He’s also a comedy lover and admits to being influenced by Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock. He curses a lot when he speaks but it’s endearing and genuine. From the heart!

He and his Dad Sasha own The Wine Library, a wine store in New Jersey where I first tried to meet him two years ago. Gary, using his marketing skills, took that business from $3 million to $65 million. I wound up meeting his Dad that day, but the line to meet Gary was too long and I left determined to meet him another way.

On May 9, 2025 I got a notice that he was appearing at Dave and Adam’s card shop on Broadway with his line of trading cards for another company of his, Vee Friends. I was determined to attend. I watched him greeting strangers as if they were family of his. I was amazed at his open heart and generosity of spirit.

**WITH GARY VEE THE FIRST TIME WE MET ON FRIDAY MAY 9TH, 2025**

When it was my turn to meet him I don’t recall everything I said but the next thing I knew we were hugging and I felt the connection. A kindred spirit. I remember telling him I never met anyone like him. He took my phone and sent himself a message and told me he would call me after the weekend. He said it a couple of times. This was on a Friday. I left on a high.

Monday came and there was no call. I didn’t understand it. I was very surprised and disappointed. Nine months later, on Feb. 18th, 2026 there was another live appearance at Dave and Adam’s this time for his stickers. I decided I would go again, but I wasn’t sure what to say. I was prepared to re-introduce myself.

The place was mobbed and he was greeting people again so warmly on the red carpet and when he saw me he ran over and embraced me and said ” I’m so happy you’re here. I was thinking about you this morning hoping you would come!” I couldn’t believe it. He remembered everything we said 9 months before. He said he was very sorry he didn’t call me. This is a man who probably gets hundreds if not thousands of messages a day.

This time he called over one of his employees, a great guy named Train, and asked him to take my infomation so he could set up a private meeting with me at his office. That meeting happened this past week. I won’t divulge what came out of that meeting because it’s premature, but there’s a very good chance something very cool will be happening soon.

THE VIDEO WE SHOT BEFORE I LEFT GARY’S OFFICE

TRIBUTE TO ERNIE ANASTOS

Ernie Anastos was a legend in the world of news. I considered him a dear friend. Our friendship went back more than 25 years when we met at The Friars, and I first wrote him a speech to deliver at The White House of all places. It went very well and we became real friends.

He wasn’t a comedian but he was the King of Positivity, which was something we bonded over. The topics I talk about and write about are Happiness, mindset, overcoming obstacles and changing negative thinking to positive thinking. Ernie had a show on WABC radio called Positively Ernie which I was on a couple of times, and we really enjoyed each other. His loss was a loss to the world and to all who knew him. He was a very special and genuine guy, with such a youthful spirit, and got real joy from spreading a positive message. R.I.P Ernie!

COMEDIANS AT THE GRAMMYS

Lots of POC’s ( People of Comedy) showed up at the Grammys. First, it was ably hosted by Trevor Noah, who did a lot of fun crowd work with the stars. Other appearances were Kumail Nanjiani who presented an award, Billy Crystal who did a tribute to his dear friend Rob Reiner, Marcello Hernandez who came out with Karol G and did a fun thing in Spanish saying he couldn’t help it, and then a group of funny women with Melissa McCarthy, Rose Byrne, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Ellie Kemper presented the award for Best Original Score and Best Sound, an award that everyone was waiting for with baited breath, whatever that is!!! ( Btw, Marcello’s imitation of Sebastian Maniscalco is so on point, it actually makes me laugh out loud, which is not easy to do! LOL)

**BILLY DOING HSISTRIBUTE TO ROB AND MICHELLE REINER**

FUN GOINGS ON AT BROADWAY COMEDY CLUB

I wound up at three different cool events at Broadway Comedy Club which looks amazing these days. Unfortunately they had to wait till owner Al Martin left the stage to do any remodeling but it looks fantastic.

Atsushi Ogata did a fun show called World Comedy with comics from other countries. If you guessed that he was repping Japan you would be right. I met him recently when he stopped me at a comedy show and told me he saw me performing in Japan. I couldn’t believe it. Someone to actually verify that I performed in Japan! (LOL) That was back in 2019 and it was an amazing experience. They don’t have comedy clubs there like we do, they have tap rooms that offer comedy.

Thash Mose who I had met during the last NYCF, and who has one of the most interesting names I ever saw, was repping Denmark and was blonde enough to be believable! Audrey Mora repped Mexico, and Ellen Feeney repped the USA! And from Norway was one of my personal faves Daniel Simonsen who I try and get on every show I produce.

Then Cristina Cote did her legendary Hersterical show with Corinne Fisher and Harrison Greenbaum, two of my favorite peeps in the whole, entire world who got together and made a get well video for me with about 50 other comics when I was in the hospital with Covid Double Pneumonia. Cristina does as many costume changes during her show as the hosts do at The Oscars. She’s amazing!!!

**WITH MY GIRLS CORINNE FISHER AND CRISTINA COTE**

And up and comer Mika Lorenzo is killing it with producing and performing. I’ve watched him progress from the beginning to being a polished performer. He needed a venue and I suggested Broadway for his type of show and it worked out great! Sold out crowd and included Todd Barry and Daniel Simonsen!!! Trust me, I think you’ll be seeing a lot of Mika in the coming weeks and months. Mika making moves!!! (Alliteration, … get it???)

**WITH MIKA LORENZO AT BROADWAY COMEDY CLUB**

JACKIE MASON DOC

Last month I reported on the Mel Brooks doc. This month Jackie Mason’s daughter is hard at work shooting a doc about her Dad, Jackie Mason, the man who never openly acknowledged that she was his daughter. I was part of Jackie’s entourage for many years and actually wrote a movie script for him, so I was glad to share some stories for the doc.

Sheba and Ian Wehrle who plays Jackie in their Jackie Mason Musical came to the Comedy Matters crib to shoot the interview. We shot for a few hours and it was great. At the end we were joined by comic/producer Laura Slutsky who had a few Jackie stories of her own. They were also interviewing some big name comics out in LA and as I recall Colin Quinn will also be in it. Can’t wait to see the finished product!

**WITH SHEBA MASON IN THE COMEDY MUSEUM- COMEDY PHOTOS GOING BACK DECADES**

ATLANTIC CITY COMEDY CLUB THANKS TO EMILIO SAVONE

I first met NYCC owner Emilio back around 2008 when I started working on the book ” Make ‘Em Laugh” about the history of The Comic Strip which opened on June 1, 1976 and launched the careers of some comics you may have heard of, … Eddie Murphy, Colin Quinn, Jerry Seinfeld and Chris Rock. Chris wrote the intro to the book besides being interviewed for a chapter.

At the time Emilio was selling tickets through his company Empire Tickets, and now all these years later he took that background, and created his own empire, currenly owning five comedy clubs, one of them being in Atlantic City at The Tropicana Hotel. It’s run by comic/producer Rus Gutin, or Papa Rus as he’s affectionately known, who at one time ran the Comedy Juice shows at Gotham Comedy Club. He’s a great guy and brings energy to the stage almost on the level of Sebastian Maniscalco! ( 2nd Sebastian reference!!!)

I hadn’t been to AC in many years, but I was so glad I went. Rus has an amazing team of people working with him to make sure that each show comes off perfectly. Jeff FN Murray (DM me to find out what the FN stands for!!! ), and Lenny Schafer both made sure that every single detail was taken care of.

Jeff not only manages the club but also runs the main restaurant Wild Honey ( a Beach Boy reference!) and he immediately took me under his wing and made sure I was taken care of. The show was great, the room was great and the audience was great and I can’t wait to go back. Besides Rus who hosted I was on with old friend Phill Hunt and Noah Miller.

They already invited me back in the Spring so I could go out on the boardwalk. This time it was too cold. I couldn’t gamble either cause I couldn’t figure out the machines, which also happened when I went to Aruba, and which you’ll read about below!

RAY ELLIN OWNS ARUBA

Around 14 years ago Ray Ellin had an interesting idea. He was vacationing in Aruba and thought it would be a good place for a comedy club. A year later he made it happen and it’s been thriving ever since. Every place you go in Aruba they know Aruba Ray. The club moved locations a couple of times but these days it’s held in a great space as part of the Eagle Aruba Resort, a truly beautiful resort in Eagle Beach.

I got to check one more thing off my bucket list when Ray invited me down to perform for the week. The week was perfect except for my experience at JFK during the time the TSA workers weren’t being paid. I could do a whole column on just that, but suffice it to say that despite thanking every TSA employee I could find, … and there weren’t many, … they patted me down like I was Osama Bin Laden! Even with TSA pre-check!!!

But my room was awesome, and I got to do shows all week with old friends Tom Cotter, his wife Kerri Louise, and Ross Bennett all of whom I’m friends with for many, many years. Tom and Kerri had two of their three sons with them and their son Harry was amazing and turned out to be such a big help with filming and taking photos. What a great guy!!!

Ray is always so busy but he took a few hours out of his busy day to drive around the island with me, showing me the sights and telling me the stories that led up to the club being the great success it is now. Plus 85 degrees every day, but very windy. which was bad for my hair! (LOL) The crowds were great. Packed room every night. Hope I get to go back.

**ALL OVER THE ISLAND YOU SEE SIGNS FOR ARUBA RAY**

CHARITY EVENT AT GOTHAM

Chris Mazzilli owner of Gotham should be very proud of how many charity events they do at the club, because he supports so many good causes, and they all run smoothly thanks to Events Manager Kris Alexander. Every detail is taken care of. So when Brett Hess of Rippling contacted me to do a charity event for Access- Supports for Living, a huge charity that for the last 50 years has been helping people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as well as mental health and addiction issues, … which sounds like a charity for comedians, … I knew exactly where to go!

The event was a HUGE success and came off without a hitch. Great food and drinks, a beautifully set up room, and I have to say I chose a great line-up with Gina Brillon, Bonnie McFarlane, and Derek Gaines to close, cause it’s really hard to follow Derek Gaines! (LOL) I

I was the host, and the people from Rippling, Lockton and Disrupt HR, which at first when I heard the name Disrupt, I was afraid they were an arm of Antifa, (LOL) but they all turned out to be very nice people, and they all felt this would be the first of many comedy shows to raise money for good causes. Laughter carries a great message, and is a very effective way to bring attention to a problem!

**WITH THE ALWAYS HILARIOUS BONNIE MCFARLANE**

PRAYERS FOR RON BENNINGTON

I hated writing this heading but I couldn’t figure out what else to write. This past week Ron, the long-running host of The Bennington Show, with his daughter Gail, the biggest comedy show on Sirius XM radio, announced that he was diagnosed with colon cancer that spread to other areas.

In a perfect world, people like Ron who bring so much joy to others are not supposed to be seriously ill. The first thing I saw was an Instagram post that showed Ron smiling from a hospital bed with Gail by his side. A day or two later he announced his diagnosis.

When I was in the hospital with my heart attack, back in 2015, I had been with Ron and Deb from The Interrobang, and Chris Stanley the night before partying at Sammy’s Roumanian, where the specialty is bowls of cholesterol, and Ron posted about my illness and asked his listeners for prayers for me. He did the same thing when I was in the hospital with Covid Double Pneumonia back in 2020.

I don’t have his reach, but now it’s my turn to return the kindness. Ron is such a good man and I truly believe in the power of prayer, so please keep him in your thoughts because I believe he can beat this. He’s a tough guy with a good heart, and we need him.

**WITH RON WHEN FEZ MARIE WAS STILL WITH US**

FOLLOW JEFFREY ON INSTAGRAM AT @JEFFREYGURIAN AND ON TIKTOK AT @JEFFREYLGURIAN. CONSIDER JOINING HIS PATREON- LINK ON WEBSITE HTTPS://WWW.COMEDYMATTERSTV.COM OR ALSO ON SUBSTACK. SEE YOU IN THE CLUBS!!!

Tags: "America's Got Talent", "Corinne Fisher", "Jackie Mason", "Ron Bennington", AGT, Billy Crystal, Ernie Anastos, Gary Vaynerchuk, Gary Vee, Harrison Greenbaum, Jeffrey Gurian, Kumail Nanjiani, Marcello Hernandez, POdcast with Friends, Rob Reiner, The Gary Vee Audio Experience, The Grammys, Tom Cotter, Trevor Noah, Vayner Media, Vee Friends

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Charity Events, Comedians In The News, Comedy, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Comedy Matters, Comedy Thoughts, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Jeffrey Gurian News, Podcasts, Red Carpet Events, Social Media, Stand-Up Comedy

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COMEDY MATTERS ROUND-UP WITH NIKKI GLASER AT THE GLOBES, MEL BROOKS DOC, KILL TONY ON NETFLIX, BORSCHT BELT FEST, JACKIE MASON SHOW, COMEDY PARTIES AT NY COMEDY CLUB AND GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB, AND OF COURSE LOTS MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on January 26, 2026

**(L-R) FROM THE ARCHIVES – WITH NIKKI GLASER, RACHEL FEINSTEIN, SOME GUY, AMY SCHUMER, AND MARINA FRANKLIN – THE POWER WOMEN OF COMEDY**

NIKKI GLASER KILLS AT AT THE GLOBES … AGAIN!!!

It came as no surprise that Nikki Glaser absolutely crushed at the 83rd annual Golden Globes where she was the host for the 2nd year in a row. I have a feeling she will be the ongoing host from now on! She’s so funny, so well poised, so elegant in all of her 9 changes of outfits, and really commands the room which is not easy to do when you’re facing the biggest stars in the game. But Nikki did it! She made her entrance in a gorgeous red gown fit for a Princess! ( Click the link)

Her lines were so sharp. In particular when she came out said ” There are so many A-listers here, and by A-listers I mean people who are on “A list” that has been heavily redacted!

Then she announced the award for MOST editing goes to CBS News, America’s newest place to “C-BS News!” Such a clever line I wish I had written it myself!

And lastly when she saw Sean Penn who looked kind of wild, with his hair a total mess she said, ” I love you Sean. You’re such an original. Everyone in this town is so obsessed with looking younger, meanwhile Sean is like, ” What if I slowly morph into a sexy leather handbag! Even HE had to laugh!!!

Lots of comics appeared on the show and won awards like Amy Poehler, who won for Best Podcast, for ” Good Hang With Amy Poehler”, while Joe Rogan whose podcast is #1 on Spotify wasn’t even nominated.

**AMY POEHLER ON THE RED CARPET FOR ET NETWORK**

Kevin Hart was on the red carpet and Judd Apatow presented the award for Best Diirector and joked that he was on a “10-year quiet boycott” after his film Trainwreck lost the Best Comedy award in 2016.

Pamela Anderson and Miley Cyrus presented the award for Best Actress in a Musical or Comedy Motion Picture, and I really didn’trecognize Pam Anderson. She looked so different than when I first met her.

THE JACKIE MASON MUSICAL AT RODNEY’S

The Jackie Mason Musical”, is sometimes also known as Both Sides of a Famous Love Affair: The Jackie Mason Musical. It’s an off-Broadway production starring Sheba Mason, the real-life daughter of comedian Jackie Mason. but playing her mother GInger Reiter, who created the concept ,and wrote the dialogue, music and lyrics for the play. An incredible achievement! Jackie Mason is played by Ian Wehrle who is so much like Jackie Mason , he’s absolutely perfect for the role. I had seen it a couple of times but I went to see it again at Rodney’s because it’s so good!

Unfortunately the play is based on a true story, and you’ll see why I say that in a moment. It’s the story of how Jackie was involved with GInger Reiter in a ten year-long affair and had this wonderful daughter but never acknowledged her as his daughter throughout his entire life, despite the fact of a nasty paternity suit, and that she looks exactly like him. A fact she often jokes about!

Sheba’s a great girl and so funny. It’s definitely Jackie’s loss not to have acknowledged her. She and I once did a comedy show at a funeral, which is a crazy story for another time, and I’ve done her show at 3 Monkeys several times.

**WITH SHEBA MASON AT HER SHOW AT 3 MONKEYS**

Ginger wrote a masterful piece that truly portrays what Jackie was like and I can vouch for that because I was part of his “entourage” for many years. I knew Jackie well for more than 25 years. Jackie was one of the funniest men that ever lived but a very complicated and often stubborn, and very difficult man to get along with, and that’s putting it mildly. What kind of man doesn’t acknowledge his own daughter? Mister, you know what I’m talkin’ about???

I remember how excited my Mom was when I brought her to meet Jackie backstage after one of his 8 one-man shows on Broadway.

**JACKIE MASON WITH MY MOM, MARJORIE GURIAN BACK IN 2005**

I actually wrote a movie for Jackie which he bought, called “The Detective” in which he played a Jewish ( what else?) bumbling private eye named Harry Snavish, on the syle of Inspector Clouseau, who accidentally becomes a hero, by saving the world from a dreaded “pants virus” that would have destroyed every pair of pants in the country leaving us a nation of men in our underwear. Terororists knew they couldn’t beat us militarily so they wanted to humiliate us in the eyes of the world and Snavish manages to save the day.

**THROWING JEWISH GANG SIGNS WITH JACKIE MASON**

The musical has a really fun talented cast including producer Laura Slutsky and even Mark Yosef the owner of Rodney’s Comedy Club who was up on stage acting and singing his little heart out!

**THE WHOLE CAST WITH LAURA SLUTSKY IN THE PINK TOP**

COMEDY COMMUNITY COMES OUT FOR THE PARTIES

Comedy can often feel very lonely because it’s mostly a solo event. You write alone, rehearse alone and you’re usually on stage alone. So it’s a wonderful feeling when the comedy community actually gets together like they do for the holiday parties. Emilio Savone, owner and face of all five New York Comedy Clubs told me that I had the distinct honor of being the ONLY person he texted about the party to make sure I showed up, because as he always kindly says, ” It’s not a party unless you’re there”! (LOL)

It was at the 4th street location and I got there early to get the pizza while it was still fresh. It was already crowded with lots of my favorite people. It was so great to see my pals Joe DeRosa and Brian Quinn from The Impractical Jokers. I almost didn’t recognize Brian because the last time I saw him he didn’t have that huge beard. Joe and I are planning to do another video since the success of Mouth On My Money, and as sick as it sounds, I have been named the official dancer for Joe’s band Salsa Windfall! Besides trying to see him at parties, you can also see Joe featured in the new Kill Tony special on Netflix!

GOTHAM HOLIDAY PARTY

Chris Mazzilli always plans his annual holiday party AFTER New Years which makes it even more special. It’s another amazing event, so well attended with an open bar, and an assortment of hot and cold food, lots of sliders, and platters of sushi. One of the first people I saw was Brian Fischler who has a new seeing-eye dog named Wesley, and when I told him I’m producing a big charity event there on Tuesday 2/24/26 he told me he’s done 18 events at Gotham for his charity “Fight for Sight.”

The party not only drew comedians but also industry as Chris is connected to everyone on both sides of the camera, in particular Conan Smith from the Buchwald Agency, one of the good ones!!! (LOL)

And so glad I got to see Bonnie McFarlane who besides being Rich Vos’s wife is one of the funniest comics in the game and was also one of the writers on The Golden Globes. It was so exciting to see her name in the credits. A well deserved honor! And reuniting with Chris Roach was also cool. I made him sit down for the photo so you’d be able to see both of us, and we were photobombed by Harrison Greenbaum. I never saw Harrison and it was probably one of his amazing magic tricks that he suddenly appeared out of nowhere!

Also got to reunite with Robin Montague who writes for the daytime Emmy award winning Sherri show starring the great Sherri Shepherd, and Subhah Agarwal who many years ago started on my late night show at The Comic Strip and just moved back to NY from Cali. I saw Subhah again a few nights later when I was performing at the new comedy room Room 52 started by Adam Strauss. A really cool space on East 52nd Street.

**WITH ROBIN MONTAGUE WRITER FOR SHERRI**

KOSHER COMEDY ON AND AT BROADWAY

Thanks to Kenny Gluck Jewish comics have something to do on Chistmas Eve and I was so glad to get to do a set at the new and upgraded Broadway Comedy Club on the eve of December 24th. Since it’s founder the great Al Martin left the stage, they really updated the club and made it look much more modern. A really fun show with a great, … I would guess mostly Hebraic crowd!

BORSCHT BELT FESTIVAL CONTINUES TO GROW

Alejandro Morales is the comic/producer responsible for keeping the Borscht Belt Festival growing bigger and bigger as time goes on. This past July we celebrated it’s 2nd year with a whole bunch of shows and a special event honoring Robert Klein at the Borscht Belt Museum. So I was very glad when I got the call asking me to be the first headliner of the new year series. I did 45 minutes to a packed crowd at Shadowlands Stages.

I may be the only one around who actually worked with the Borscht Belt stars of yesteryear as well as the stars of today. Milton Berle, AKA Mr. Television was my sponsor in The Friars Club, and I got to write for him, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Mason, Pat Cooper, Joan Rivers, Dick Capri, Morty Gunty, Dick Shawn, Freddie Roman, and so many others who graced the stages of the Borscht Belt, whether it was at Grossingers, The Concord, The Nevele, The Fallsview or any of the other multitude of hotels and bungalow colonies that were up in The Catskills.

One of the weirdest and most fun experiences I ever had was this past weekend, being put into the Honors Haven Resort as literally the only guest on the premises. This huge resort which was once the Fallsview Hotel. now only books groups and somehow there were groups the previous weekend and the following weekend but not the weekend I was there.

Big thank you to Naomi Brill for arranging that for me. I brought my assistant Dave ” The Ironer” who started out ironing people’s clothes at parties and hot clubs in NY, even on the dance floor, if they looked wrinkled. So it was just the two of us in this entire huge, gorgeous resort! So in our downtime we made this little video:

MEL BROOKS THE 99 YEAR OLD MAN

Judd Apatow and Mike Bonfiglio both of whom I have the pleasure of calling friends have Exec. Produced and directed a fabulous 2 part HBO documentary on Mel Brooks called “Mel Brooks – The 99 Year Old Man” kind of a take-off on his 2000 Year Old Man that he did with his dear friend, the late Carl Reiner. It’s a masterful piece of work that must have taken years to create! The editor deserves an award of some kind as well!

And Judd must have been so excited sitting with Mel and doing the interviews,. I know how I felt sitting with legends I saw as a kid, like Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Sid Caesar, George Burns, Woody Allen and Jackie Mason. I’m glad he gave himself screentime as opposed to the docs where you just hear the interviewer speaking offfscreen.

**WITH THE GREAT MEL BROOKS WHEN HE WAS ONLY 90**

The film is filled with sound bytes and video from the comedy greats of yesteryear like Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, and Richard Pryor, several scenes with poor Rob Reiner, as well as the stars of today like Jerry Seinfeld, Nick Kroll. Sarah Silverman, Adam Sandler, Ben Stiller, Dave Chappelle, Ronny Chieng and my friend Nick Brooks one of Mel’s sons. It’s a must see if you like comedy and if you’re reading this column I have to assume you do. I stayed up till 3:30 A.M. watching both parts. I tried to leave to go to sleep but I just couldn’t do it!!! (LOL)

In watching the doc I came to realize how much I had been influenced by Mel and Carl in early films I did like interviewing a woman married to a well known busimessman who turned out to be an infant, and an interview with a woman who was robbed by two men disguised as jewelry, the dreaded Masters of Disguise!

MISS BRAZIL DROPS BY THE COMEDY MATTERS CRIB

So nice of comedy fan Gizele ( Miss Brazil) to take time off from her national tour to visit me at the Comedy Matters crib!

OWNING MANHATTAN- THE PARTY

In truth it’s not a comedy, Owning Manhattan is reality TV, the Netflix hit about Serhant Realty and the exciting world of real estate, but a lot of funny stuff goes on and Ryan Serhant is definitely a force. I had met him years ago when he was doing Million Dollar Listing and then he created Serhant Realty and it’s taking over the country! The man sells $60-$100 million of real estate a month. For anyone who doesnt know, … that’s a lot of money!!! Truthfully that’s more than some people make in a year!!!

**WITH REAL ESTATE SUPERSTAR RYAN SERHANT**

So I got invited to the party for the 2nd season downtown in the beautiful Serhant townhouse that serves as his office. I got to be interviewed in a couple of videos and got to meet my favorite Serhant team member on the show, Genesis Suero a true superstar in the making! Even in this climate of high interest rates,who wouldn’t take out a mortgage to buy something from Genesis???

MIKA LORENZO ON THE RISE

Up and coming comic Mika Lorenzo will be hosting at Gotham Comedy Club on Feb. 4th and just had the honor of introducing Jerry Seinfeld to the Gotham crowd on another night he was hosting. He’ll be doing what he describes as a mini-special on Feb. 28th at Fear City on the Lower east Side, and there’s a good chance that I will be on the show!!! This column has to end somewhere and I think this is a good time for that to happen!

THIS COLUMN WILL ALSO APPEAR ON SUBSTACK AND YOU CAN FOLLOW JEFFREY ON INSTAGRAM AT @JEFFREYGURIAN AND ON TIKTOK AT @JEFFREYLGURIAN AND THANKS TO MANY SUGGESTIONS, COMEDY MATTERS IS NOW ON PATREON AFTER ALL THESE YEARS TO HELP DEFRAY THE COSTS INVOLVED. CLICK ON THE LINK TO SEE THE DIFFERENT TIERS. https://www.patreon.com/c/comedymatterstv/shop?vanity=comedymatterstv

Tags: Alejandro Morales, Borsacht Belt Comedy Festival, Borscht Belt Museum, Brian Quinn, Chris Roach, comedy parties, Emilio Savone, Gotham Comedy Club, Harrison Greenbaum, Impractical Jokers, Jackie Mason, Jeffrey Gurian, Joe DeRosa, Judd Apatow, Mel Brooks, New York Comedy Club, Nikki Glaser, Robin Montague, Sheba Mason, Sherri Shepherd, Subhah Agarwal

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Comedy Matters, Comedy Thoughts, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Jeffrey Gurian News, New Films, New TV Show, Social Media, Stand-Up Comedy, Unusual News

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COMEDY MATTERS SUPER ISSUE CELEBRATES 25 YEARS, WITH NIKKI GLASER, KEVIN HART, CHRIS DISTEFANO, D.L. HUGHLEY, SETH HERZOG, KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON, PAUL RUDD, ALEX MOFFAT AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on October 3, 2024

COMEDY MATTERS 25th ANNIVERSARY

It may sound strange, but it wasn’t until I started writing about Seth Herzog’s 20th anniversary of his show Sweet, and acknowledging what an amazing achievment that was that I started wondering how long I’ve been doing Comedy Matters, and realized that I had started it in 1999, which made 2024 it’s 25 year anniversary of covering the comedy scene.

It’s been a few months since my last post and if you read on you’ll see why, so I’m going to briefly fill you in on what’s been going on in NY comedy thru the eyes of Comedy Matters.

TOM BRADY ROAST IS HUGE FOR NIKKI GLASER

Everyone totally crushed on the Tom Brady Roast. Kevin Hart was an amazing host and Roastmaster General Jeffrey Ross added to the hilarity with his never-fail killer jokes. That’s why he’s the Roastmaster General! Tony Hinchcliffe, Andrew Schulz, Tom Segura, Bert Kreischer, every single one of them killed. (Sorry if I left anyone out!!!)

But as a result of Nikki Glaser’s incredible performance roasting Tom at the very non-politically correct Roast on Netflix, she’ll be hosting the 82nd Golden Globes coming up on January 5th on CBS. I remember going to the premiere of the Nikki and Sara Live show on MTV back in 2013, when she had her own show with Sara Schaefer, and it’s so cool to see her reach superstardom. Nikki is a force. Her latest special on HBO, “Some Day You’ll Die” is up for an Emmy. She hosted and Exec. Produced F-Boy Island for three seasons which led to her hosting and Exec. Producing the spin-off “Lovers and Liars.” So major congrats to Nikki!

**(L-R) BERT KREISCHER AND TOM SEGURA TEAM UP ON THE BRADY ROAST**

**WITH SARA SCHAEFER AND NIKKI GLASER AT MTV BACK IN 2013**

GROSSINGERS DOC DUE FROM BUNGALOW ENTERTAINMENT AND ATLANTIC OVERSEAS PICTURES

The popularity of the Netflix hit The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel had led to a resurgence of interest in that era, the 1950’s and particularly about what was known as The Borscht Belt which were the incredible hotels in upstate New York like Grossingers, The Concord, The Nevele, The Raleigh and so many more.

Bobby Friedman the head of Bungalow Entertainment is producing a documentary on Grossingers, along with co-Exec.Producer Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures. It features owner Jenny Grossinger who paved the way for powerful women in the entertainment business. Grossingers was one of the best known hotels, that even had it’s own airstrip to fly in the big stars that performed there. I was interviewed for the doc because I was at Grossingers at two different points in my life, … as a kid singing solo in a famous Hebrew choir that sang at the hotels for the High Holidays, and again as an adult writing comedy for many of the big stars that performed there.

My interview was to be held at a comedy club which turned out to be, where else but Chris Mazzilli’s Gotham Comedy Club where so many amazing things take place. Judd Apatow was just there doing a special show about a week ago. The doc is being directed by award winning director Paula Eiselt who interviewed me, with the assistance of Bennett Elliot and Catherine Rierson from Bungalow Entertainment. Can’t wait for it to come out!

**WITH AWARD WINNING DIRECTOR PAULA EISELT AT GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB**

UCB IS BACK WITH ASSSSCAT BETTER THAN EVER

In a never-ending list of things lost to Covid, UCB was one of them. Fortunately it’s back in a killer new location on 14th Street. Amazingly huge space. I attended the grand opening on Sept. 13th, and was pleasantly surprised to see Sasheer Zamata, Chris Gethard, and Zach Cherry among the improvisers. The host that night was James Austin Johnson from SNL. Improv may not be as reliable in terms of laughter as stand-up, but it may be the hardest thing in the world to do and they totally have my respect!

**(L-R) Sasheer Zamata with a shaved head, James Austin Johnson in front and Zach Cherry in the rear with the glasses. Other names unfortunately are unknown to me! Send them in if you know!!!**

CELEB PHOTOG MARCUS RUSSELL PRICE PRODUCING SHOWS

Marcus Russell Price is at every major comedy event shooting photos at the request of whoever is headlining the event. And it’s because he’s that good! I will always be indebted to him for shooting the two photos that appear below, at the exact second that I walked through the door at Carnegie Hall to congratulate Nick Kroll on his sold-out show, only to find out that due to Covid, they blocked everyone but me from coming backstage to see Nick, … even his family!

**NICK KROLL FILMING ME AS I ENTERED HIS DRESSING ROOM AT CARNEGIE HALL WITH MIKE BERKOWITZ LAUGHING HYSTERICALLY!**

Nick thought it was so funny that he took out his phone and filmed it for Instagram. The only other person with him was uber-agent to the stars Mike Berkowitz of WME fame who was laughing hysterically at the fact that they didn’t let anyone in but me! When it comes to super agents you would be hard pressed to find a comedy superstar not repped by Mike. To name just a few, … Bill Burr, Hasan Minhaj, Nick Kroll, John Mulaney, Amy Schumer and John Oliver! To see Nick’s reaction when I walked into his dressing room click the link below!

So when I heard that Marcus was actually producing comedy shows at Lincoln Center there was no chance I was not going to attend. I was almost expecting him to perform but he just introduced the evening and each of the comedians. Both shows were great and sold out and I hope he decides to do more this coming year.

**(L-R) MARCUS RUSSELL-PRICE, JOEY DARDANO, JORDAN ROCK, ROSEBUD BAKER AND THAT SAME GUY!**

NEW YORK COMEDY CLUB TAKES OVER STAND UP NY LOCATION

Emilio Savone and Scott Lindner are killing the game. I think this makes five New York Comedy Club venues, and Emilio always makes sure that I get to attend every special event he does. They totally renovated the old Stand Up NY space on West 78th Street and had a grand opening. I particularly appreciated the huge green room they created downstairs where offices used to be. It’s always nice to have a cool place to hang before going up.

It was a star-studded line-up including two of my faves, Chris Distefano and Corinne Fisher who I absolutely love! Always so glad to see how well she’s doing. Her comedy partner in crime, Krystyna Hutchinson will appear in this column a bit further down. And I just got word as I’m writing this that Chrissy scored a Hulu special! Well deserved Chris!!!

**WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO WHO JUST GOT A HULU SPECIAL**

COMEDY TIDBITS

I’m involved in something that could be HUGE thanks to the two guys you see standing with me below. No more can be said, but if it happens it will involve many of my big-time comedy friends so when D.L. Hughley was at Levity Live in Nyack, I made sure to stop off and ask him in person if he would be kind enough to participate. He said I didn’t even have to ask and that of course he’d be involved! A true friend!!!

We reminisced about the time he took me out to dinner to make sure I ate!

I was at Sheba Mason’s show one night at Three Monkeys waiting to go on when I heard them announce a comedian to the stage and I thought maybe I heard wrong. I was pretty sure I heard them say Greg Giraldo Jr. What a nice surprise to find out it was Greg’s son. I’m sure he knew already, but I got to tell him what a great, talented guy his Dad was and afterwards sent him some photos of his Dad and I from back in the day!

**WITH GREG GIRALDO JR. A VERY FUNNY YOUNG GUY**

We lost a great actor and dear friend Tony LoBianco and at the funeral service at St. Patrick’s I ran into two other old friends, comedy legend Joe Piscopo and radio legend Frank Morano!

Wound up on one of Victoria Arnstein’s shows with Mae Planert and saw what her husband Mark Normand did to her! (LOL) Such a nice girl! Major congrats to the expecting parents! I keep telling him how great it is to be a Dad!

**WITH THE VERY FUNNY MAE PLANERT WHO IS “WITH CHILD” THANKS TO MARK NORMAND!**

Got on an AA flight to Minneapolis to be a Keynote Speaker to 500 doctors on Happiness and as I boarded the flight, the main flight attendant yelled out, ” Hey Jeffrey!” Turns out it was Soo Ra a very funny comedian who’s in my new TV pilot “The Raw Side of Comedy.” I knew she was funny but never knew she was also a flight attendant for the past 7 years! I made her take photos on the plane!!!

**WITH SOO RA THE COMEDIAN/FLIGHT ATTENDANT**

Zeuses Muses an entertainment company hired me to do a show with funny comic Anna Manis at The Red Room above New York Comedy Club’s 4th Street location. It’s like a speakeasy, and it was part of a national tour. Very fun show!

**ON STAGE AT THE RED ROOM WITH ANNA MANIS**

“A Walk In The Park” the Woody Allen-ish type film I co-starred in with writer/director Noel Leon was chosen as an official selection for the NY Shorts International Film Fest slated to be shown on Oct. 14th, at the Cinema Village Theater, and if I’m lucky I’ll even get to see the final version beforehand! It’s a really sweet film about an unlikely friendship!

xr:d:DAFxoXJb-KY:13,j:2726210195446358814,t:23101918

HOLISTIC COMEDY

Everyone’s heard the saying that laughter is the best medicine. Well because of my double career as a doctor (20 years on the Board of The Assoc. for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, 12 years on staff at NYU in Oral Medicine and Oro-Facial Pain, and 25 years as a Cosmetic Dentist) and an Amazon best-selling author with 8 books, three on Happiness, mindset and changing negative thinking to positive thinking, I’m getting asked to speak at holistic-type events bringing comedy into the mix.

In July I was the Keynote Speaker in Minneapolis at the Minneapolis Convention Center to about 500 doctors and the topic they gave me was ” Surviving A Career in Dentistry Using Positive Thinking and Humor”, and about a week ago I led a weekend workshop at the prestigious Omega Institute for Holistic Studies where Deepak Chopra speaks. Big honor! The topic they gave me was ” Heal Your Heart With Humor.” The middle photo below shows the line going out the door of people wanting to say hi and have me sign a book for them. I guess what I had to say resonated with them! (LOL) ( Humble brag!!!)

To help promote the event I went on WABC radio with my buddy Frank Morano on his hit show “The Other Side of Midnight”, i-Heart Radio with the amazing Xen Sams on her hit show “A Moment of Xen”, and had the honor of being the very first guest on Krystyna Hutchinson’s new podcast “The Voices In Our Heads” in her amazing new studio, and produced by my old pal Mike Coscarelli who’s producing a bunch of podcasts now. Krystyna of course is still doing “Guys We F**ked” with her comedy partner Corinne Fisher!

Even better Krystyna asked me to release her TMJ cause she’s been getting jaw pain from grinding her teeth from stress, and that just happened to be my specialty at NYU.

Got to exchange “best-selling” books with Mick Jagger’s girlfriend Melanie Hamrick and tell her my Mick Jagger story!

SWEET CELEBRATES 20 YEARS

I swear, … this is the last item. I can’t write anymore! Sweet is almost old enough to vote! Seth Herzog has achieved the impossible and kept a comedy show running for two decades. In next month’s column I will do a deep dive into the two shows he did at Chelsea Music Hall with owner Michael Ginsberg, but suffice it to say that both shows were amazing. I’m excited to say I’ll be doing Seth’s Halloween show on Oct. 22nd also at Chelsea Music Hall telling the scary story of my heart attack!

One show was on a Sunday night and the other was on the following Tuesday night. Huge crowds, and interviews were done for an upcoming documentary. Got to re-connect with Michael Ian Black, Todd Barry, who always makes me laugh hard with his sarcastic point of view, Jeaneane Garofalo who opened her set by giving away three pair of pants from a Target bag, and Richard Kind who improvised a song about people in the audience with Seth and Michael Ian Black. Michael and I co-wrote the very first interactive film for Sony back in 1992 called “I’m Your Man.”

In the Tuesday show it was Alex Moffat, Mark Normand, Paul Rudd, Justin Theroux, Richard Kind and more and I got to re-connect with the great Dave Hill who told me he loved my performance in Joe DeRosa’s video “Mouth On My Money”! Dave’s new one man show at the Soho Playhouse is called “Dave Hill-Caveman In A Spaceship”! Gotta see it real soon!!! Those photos in the next column coming very soon!!!

**JANEANE GAROFOLO AND HER BAG OF PANTS**

IF YOU’RE NOT TOO TIRED AFTER READING THIS WHOLE BLOG POST YOU CAN FOLLOW JEFFREY ON INSTAGRAM AT @JEFFREYGURIAN AND ON TICKTOK AT @JEFFREYLGURIAN SEE YOU SOON!!!

Tags: 77WABC, Alex Moffat, Andrew Schulz, Anna Manis, Bert Kreischer, Bill Burr, Bungalow Entertainment, Chris Distefano, Comedy Matters, Corinne Fisher, D.L. Hughley, Emilio Savone, Frank Morano, Jeffrey Gurian, Joe DeRosa, Joe Piscopo, Kevin Hart, Krystyna Hutchinson, Mae Planert, Mark Normand, Melanie Hamrick, Mick Jagger, Mike Berkowitz, New York Comedy Club, Nick Kroll, Nikki Glaser, Noel Leon, Omega Institute for Holistic Studies, Paul Rudd, Paula Eiselt, Robert Friedman, Sasgeer Zamata, Seth Herzog, Soo Ra, Tom Brady, Tom Segura, UCB, WABC, WME, Woody Allen, Zach Cherry, Zeuses Muses

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Matters, Comedy Thoughts, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Film Festivals, General Information, Jeffrey Gurian News, New Films, Podcasts, Radio Show, Red Carpet Events, Stand-Up Comedy, TV Show, Variety Show

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COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH BILLY CRYSTAL, JIM GAFFIGAN, BUPKIS, 92NY, HAMPTONS COMEDY, CITY WINERY, GRISLY PEAR AND LOTS MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on June 4, 2023

**BILLY CRYSTAL POINTING TO HIS TEETH AND YOU KNOW WHY!!!**

JIM GAFFIGAN’S DREAM WAS TO PLAY SMEE

The 92NY has been absolutely killing it with comedy related events. And luckily for me I get to cover them all! So when I heard that Jim Gaffigan would be interviewed by MTV’s Josh Horowitz, about his co-starring role as Smee, in the new Peter Pan and Wendy movie, I knew I had to attend.

Jim and I go back to his very earliest days in comedy in NY, and I’ve seen him go from one incredibly successful project to the next. I was at the premiere of the sit-com he did with Christine Baranski called “Welcome To New York.” He was also one of the very special interviews I did back in 2008 for my book “Make ‘Em Laugh” on the history of The Comic Strip.

So after the event at the 92Y I went backstage to congratulate Jim and catch up! I got to show him the cover story about me in Sutton Place Magazine where the first few words say, ” Growing up my idol was Peter Pan”, and Jim told me that growing up he always wanted to be Smee! (I got it on video!) Most kids can’t wait to grow up but I always wanted to stay a kid. My inner child is my best friend!

Jim told me this great story of how he got the part. Years earlier he was in an indie film and one of the producers was James Johnson. Somehow they got to talking about Peter Pan and Jim told James he would make a great Smee! Years later James Johnson was one of the producers on this new Peter Pan film and he remembered what Jim said! #Magic

Jim is playing Smee to Jude Law’s Captain Hook. Smee is Captain Hook’s right hand man, and I told Jim it would be more appropriate if he was his left hand man, since it was his left hand that Hook lost to the crocodile!

Jim was about to set off on a European tour where he was hitting several countries and major cities like Helsinki, Amsterdam, Berlin and Paris, all within about a week and a half, and mostly in countries where he blends right in!!! (LOL)

COMEDY SPOTLIGHT WITH CHRIS MILLHOUSE

I dropped by City Winery which is also killing it with their comedy line-up to see Chris Millhouse’s Comedy Spotlight show with Regina DeCicco hosting and a heavy duty line-up with Mark Normand, Joe List, and Charles McBee in a guaranteed hit show.

Joe List is in the process of editing his new special which will be coming out on You Tube. It’s called Enough for Everyone and he shot it at The Village Underground this past February. Matt Wayne opened for him and you can expect to see it this summer, probably sometime in August!

Regina DeCicco is so used to warming up the audience for The View which is such a huge thing that when I asked her what she had going on she had to think about it for a minute! She’s been doing it since the Fall of 2018, which is nothing like the fall of the Roman Empire, but it just shows you that people get used to everything! No matter how big it is!!!

Charles McBee was waiting for the WGA strike to settle so he can get back to being the head writer and on-air personality for Comedy Central’s Hell of a Week with Charlamagne tha God!

Mark Normand is being repped by UTA, and he and Joe List have been doing their podcast Tuesday with Stories for 10 years now, … and I still haven’t been on! Mostly because they don’t have guests, … but that’s no excuse!!! Mark’s new special Soup to Nuts will be dropping on Netflix on July 25th! Be there!!!

COMEDY AT THE EXPO WAS A BIG HIT

So I’m at this new food market in Chelsea with the weird name of Olly Olly, and this young guy comes over, who turns out to be the manager, and says ” Are you Jeffrey Gurian?” I admit to it and HE admits to being a big fan of what we did on the Black Phillip Show when I was Patrice O’Neal’s co-host.

As the result of that meeting, I got to bring an awesome comedy show to their event space which they refer to as The Expo. It was Aaron Berg, Raanan Hershberg, Drew Dunn, who I met last year up at JFL in Montreal and told him that some day we would be doing something cool together, Andre Kim, and Jeff Arcuri who only has 270,000 followers on Instagram! Poor guy!

(**L-R) ANDRE KIM, JEFF ARCURI, YOURS TRULY, RAANAN HERSHBERG, AND DREW DUNN- PHOTO COURTESY OF JEFF SMITH**

We had over 100 people in the audience and it was a big success! So much so that we might even do it again.

And to promote the show I went up to Sirius XM studios to be on with Ron and Gail Bennington and joined Bobby Kelly who was also a guest that day, and then I got to do WABC radio with Frank Morano who has the highest rated overnight show on A.M. radio called The Other Side of Midnight with Frank Morano. Frank is one of the best and most knowledgable hosts on the air and it’s always so fun to be on with him. Plus they have an amazing candy room and he lets me take as much as I want!

**BOBBY KELLY, GAIL BENNINGTON AND RON BENNINGTON**

What made it even more special was the surprise guest spot from my pal Derek Gaines one of the funniest, and most unpredictable on stage guys in the game! I love seeing Derek in Pete Davidson’s new show Bupkis on Peacock with Joe Pesci playing Pete’s grandfather, and Edie Falco playing his Mom! And Dave Sirus is writing on the show!

ANTHONY DEVITO’S DAD WAS DEFINITELY NOT DANNY DEVITO

About ten years ago Jordan Rock and I were chosen by Richie Tienken, owner and founder of The Comic Strip, to be the first and only hosts for “late night” where new comics get a chance to perform after the last show. In the early days of the club that could have been 2 or 3 A.M. When we did it it started at 11.

Not just any new comics but new comics who had to pass an audition process and showed major promise.

Anthony Devito was one of those young comics along with comics like Sam Morril, Joe Machi, and Subhah Agarwal, all of whom have gone on to do great things. So I was so glad to be able to see Anthony Devito perform his one man show “Danny Devito Isn’t My Dad” at the Soho Playhouse after debuting it at the 2022 Edinburgh Fringe Festival in Scotland.

The show must be a real catharsis for Anthony because he lost his Dad as an infant of only 7 weeks old and was raised by his Mom who worked very hard to give him the best childhood she could, while keeping the secret of who his Dad really was.

When he reached 18 his Mom finally told him the truth about his Dad. He found out that his Dad had been a hit man for a major crime family and had killed many people in the course of his career. He was even portrayed as one of the main characters in the movie Goodfellas.

Understandably this would be a lot to handle for anyone but because Anthony was blessed with a good sense of humor he was able to turn this into a poignant and funny one man show. I give him a lot of credit for doing so, because it’s a very courageous thing to do to make yourself so vulnerable on stage. Especially when you’re Italian! (LOL) After the show we got to reminisce about the old days at The Strip!

**WITH ANTHONY DEVITO AT THE SOHO PLAYHOUSE**

STICKS AND STONES WILL MAKE YOU LAUGH

Kudos to producer/filmmaker and now comedy club owner Abby Russell who’s opening a new comedy club in Southhampton later this month on June 30th. It’s called Sticks and Stones and it’s located in the Southampton Cultural Center. Abby will be doing this with comedy club producer Lynn Kaplan, a veteran comedy and TV executive, who worked with both Louis C.K. and Conan O’Brien.

Opening weekend will feature national headliner Carmen Lynch and my buddy Jordan Rock who can also be seen in Pete Davidson’s new show “Bupkis.” And as I’m writing this I just got the news that I will also be on both shows with headliner Jordan Rock on Saturday July 1st.

Abby and I go back more than 20 years to when she produced the original Hamptons Comedy Festival back in 2000 and brought me in as a co-producer. It was the fund-raising arm for Comedy Fights Cancer and it was a big success.

I remember being interviewed by none other than Countess LuAnn De Lesseps of RHONY fame who in those days, pre-RHONY, was doing interviews for a local TV network. I think it was for Plum TV!

In more recent years Abby and I worked together again when she produced the documentary film on the legendary comedy club The Comic Strip. At the time I was working on the book, and I was also a producer on the film. It was called “Eat, Drink and Laugh” and we debuted it at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal. I went up with owner/founder Richie Tienken and at the premiere were some of the comics who came out of The Strip and went on to become big stars like George Wallace, Judy Gold, Paul Provenza and Robert Wuhl!

**(L-R) BRENT STERLING-NEMETZ, ABBY RUSSELL, JUDY GOLD, PAUL PROVENZA, RICHIE TIENKEN, YOURS TRULY, AND IN THE BACK GEORGE WALLACE AND ROBERT WUHL.**

There hasn’t been a comedy club in The Hamptons since the 80’s when famed comedy manager Rick Messina was then running the East End Comedy Club. And Judd Apatow’s Mom Tami actually worked as a hostess at the club. Judd was only 14 and got to hang out there and meet a lot of the comedians he loved.

Abby moved back from LA to raise her daughter Aria on the East coast, and to be near her family, and now lives in the Hamptons full time.

It was actually Aria who chose the name Sticks and Stones and it was seconded by Eddie Brill who will be performing at the club one weekend as well. The club will present national headliners year round but will also be producing comedy, special events, and wellness programming as well. I’ve been offered to participate and perform and truthfully I can not wait to do so!!!

CHANEL OMARI BRINGS LAUGHS FOR CITY HARVEST

Kenny Warren and Gabe Dorado, the powers behind The Grisly Pear both downtown and the new space in midtown had worked really hard to make The Grisly Pear the success that it is, which is why I was pretty surprised to learn that they’re no longer involved. I had performed in the downtown club many times which they made very comic-friendly by covering the walls with posters of each comic that performed there.

I hadn’t had the opportunity to perform in this new club on West 54th Street until comic/producer/host of the popular “Chanel In The City” podcast on iHeart Radio, (which is about the only podcast I have not been on yet! LOL) and former reality TV star Chanel Omari invited me to perform in a fundraiser for City Harvest, a charity that provides food for the poor and homeless.

Chanel opened the show, and arranged for a great line-up including my pal Josh Adam Meyers, the creator of Goddam Comedy Jam, Natalie Cuomo who I was so glad to finally get to meet in person, Che Durena, who I had been hearing so much about, Shaun Murphy and Jeff Quintana.

Josh Adam Meyers had some exciting news to share. He’ll be touring with musical superstar Jelly Roll, hosting his shows in 44 arenas across the country from July 28th to Oct. 15th. It came about when Jelly Roll saw him performing at Skank Fest in Las Vegas and said he never saw anyone combining music and comedy the way Josh does. They were on stage performing together, and I’m pretty sure he told me that Shane Gillis and Big Jay Oakerson were performing as well. A classic example of being in the right place at the right time.

**INTERVIEWING JOSH ADAM MEYERS AT THE LAS VEGAS COMEDY FESTIVAL**

I was glad to finally meet Natalie Cuomo, not only because she’s funny, but because she’s engaged to my buddy Dan Lamorte and between them they have enough tattoos to open an art museum and give tours of their bodies! (LOL) They often work the road together! And they both got signed to APA this very week.

It was a packed room, everybody killed and I wound up going up right after Chanel ably warmed up the crowd. She’s there on the regular and I’m looking forward to coming back!

BILLY CRYSTAL IS MR. EVERY NIGHT

My history with Billy Crystal goes back to the 80’s when the legendary comedy manager Jack Rollins, who managed Woody Allen and produced all his films, and was managing Robin Williams and Billy at the time brought me down to his office to meet Billy who he thought should play me in a sit-com about a dentist who wanted to be in show biz.

Billy was too busy at the time so I suggested a new comic I had seen named Paul Reiser who I thought would be perfect. I called Paul and asked his permission and he said “Sure” but almost immediately he got a huge role in what I recall to be the film “Diner.”

Billy was the first comic to hit the stage on June 1, 1976 when The Comic Strip opened and he’s in my book “Make ‘Em Laugh”. The photo above where he’s pointing to his teeth is because he remembered how we met!

When The Friars dedicated the ground floor bar to Billy as The Billy Crystal Bar I was there and took this photo of Billy, with Catch a Rising Star owner Rick Newman and Richard Belzer both of whom left us in recent months, only one day apart!!!

(**L-R) RICK NEWMAN, BILLY CRYSTAL, AND RICHARD BELZER AT THE FRIARS CLUB**

I never got to see Mr. Saturday Night, Billy’s Broadway masterpiece so when the 92NY notified me of an event where it was being shown in it’s entirety as a musical, where Billy was being interviewed by Bette Midler, even though I HATE musicals I knew I had to attend.

I hate musicals because it always seemed weird to me that right in the middle of some piece of business happening in the story suddenly everybody starts singing and they all know the words. It take me out of it.

But in this case Billy was so good as was his cast of characters that I totally enjoyed it. And in the production he referenced so many people I knew, as well as during the interview with Bette Midler.

He talked about Robin Williams being like his brother, especially after they did HBO’s Comic Relief together in 1986, ( I was there!), and he said they both had problems sleeping and would often call each other at 2 A.M. for long talks. He also said that when he did “Scat” which is a jazz thing you do with your voice, it was an homage to Sid Caesar who had a great talent for making believe he spoke many languages.

He said that over the 8 years of doing Comic Relief they raised over 72 million dollars for the homeless. We could sure use another Comic Relief right now!

Billy is also a master impressionist and did impressions of Mohammed Ali, Howard Cosell. Robert Deniro and Joe Pesci!

And he said that in the classic scene in “When Harry Met Sally” , when Rob Reiner’s mother Estelle uttered the classic line ” I’ll have what she’s having” the room exploded with laughter and he and Rob wound up holding hands! Funny what people remember!

I know for me I will never forget this!

**TAKEN IN BILLY’S OFFICE IN BEVERLY HILLS**

And now it’s time for me to go because if this column gets any longer it will no longer be just a column but a book! (LOL) Hope to see you in the clubs! Please feel free to leave comments and to contact me at jeffrey@jeffreygurian.com

Tags: "Comedy Matters TV", Billy Crystal, Comedy Matters, Jeffrey Gurian

Posted in: Breaking News, Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Jeffrey Gurian News

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Hail (Sid) Caesar! There’ll Never Be Another!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on February 16, 2014

When I heard the sad news that Sid Caesar passed away this week at 91 years old, I was very moved. He’s one of the last of his generation of comedians from what has been referred to as The Golden Age of Television. I think I first got to meet him when I wrote for his Friars Roast in 1983. Every big star was there, and I was writing for the Roasts at the time and at that Roast I wrote for five different performers including Dick Shawn, Jan Murray, and Joey Travolta, John Travolta’s older brother, and the son-in-law of Dick Shawn, one of my very favorite comedians, and a friend.

(L-R) Bobby Shields, Norm Crosby, Gene Baylos, Sid Caesar, and Jeffrey Gurian at the Friars Roast for Sid Caesar, 1983.

Joey Travolta, Jeffrey Gurian, and Jack Carter at the Friars Roast for Sid Caesar!

Sid was the star of NBC’s “Your Show of Shows” from 1950-1954, and “Caesar’s Hour” from 1954-57, and created sketches with his co-star comedienne Imogene Coca that are funny to this very day. Sid was a genius in what you might call “dialect comedy.” He could make believe he was speaking almost any language, from German, French, Italian, Russian, or Japanese, and with the help of writers like Mel Brooks, Neil Simon, Carl Reiner, and Woody Allen created many memorable characters.

He was also known for being incredibly strong physically, and supposedly once pulled a sink out of a wall in anger, and held Mel Brooks out of a window by his feet! After we met, we stayed in touch for a while and I remmber going to see him in a theatre in NYC, and when I went backstage after the show to say “Hi” it looked like an underground bunker or construction site.

Jeffrey Gurian visiting Sid Caesar backstage in what looks like a construction site!

A different grouping at the Sid Caesar Roast, (L-R) Henny Youngman, Sid Caesar, Gene Baylos, Jan Murray, Norm Crosby, and Jeffrey Gurian!

So many of the greats of that generation lived to ripe old ages. Milton Berle lived to be 93 or 94. He was my original sponsor in The Friars Club and brought me into the LA club first where he was the President. I was out there in 1985, which was where we took the photo below.

Jeffrey Gurian with Milton Berle at the LA Friars Club in 1985. Milton was the Pres. of The Friars Club and was Jeffrey’s sponsor!

And in all the years I knew Milton I was always in awe of him. I’d be on the phone with him and all I’d be thinking was, ” Holy s**t, I’m on the phone with Milton Berle!”. Mr. Television. The reason he was called “Mr. Television” was because people in this country bought TV’s just to watch him on Texaco Star Theatre.

He was the host on the show that ran from 1948 until 1956, eventually called “The MIlton Berle Show”, and people would crowd around in the streets watching his show through the windows of the television stores. TV had only been around since 1941, and thanks to Milton TV ownership went from about 500,000 TV’s to over 30 million.

Milton was like a mentor to me, and we’d have lunch at The Friars Club in NY, just the two of us, and he’d tell me wonderful show biz stories and about things like “spitballing” where two comics run ideas back and forth to create new material. He took me to his home in Beverly Hills, and showed me his archives of kinescopes and jokes, and even showed me the thing he was most famous for in terms of his physical endowment! (LOL) Not that I asked to see it, but I think he was so proud of it, that he showed it to people he trusted!

Jeffrey Gurian and Milton Berle at an event where Milton was performing! Circa mid-80’s.

I recall one instance where I felt he really came to my rescue. It was 1985, and I was in a very down place emotionally. It was a freezing cold winter day, and I got to the door of my 2nd floor studio apartment, just in time to hear the phone ringing. I remember fumbling with my keys, hoping to get the call before they hung up. I raced to the phone and picked it up just in time and who was it, … Milton Berle. He had called to see how I was doing. To this day I still can’t believe that. If I had been one minute later, I might have missed it because who knows if Milton Berle would have left a message on my answering machine.

He wound up inviting me to a Friars Tribute in his honor. I think he was named “Man of the Year”, and that’s where he introduced me to Sammy Davis Jr., who actually kidded me about the amount of jewelry I was wearing. He who wore more gold than an Aztec god! (LOL)

Jeffrey Gurian with Sammy Davis Jr. at a Friars Club tribute to Milton Berle. 1985

Some years later, I also attended a special event in Milton’s honor in Montreal hosted by the legendary Budd Friedman, owner and founder of The Improv, the very first comedy club in the world. Budd sat at the head of the table, Milton sat next to him, and I sat next to Budd directly across from Milton. When Budd inserted his monacle into his eye, I took a plastic spoon out of my pocket, ( I’ve been carrying at least one spoon since the early 80’s and no one knows why! LOL) and inserted that into my eye to “look at the menu.”

Jeffrey Gurian with Budd Friedman at the 89th Birthday Roast of Henny Youngman, for TV!

It was a character I created back in the 70’s which I called “Spoon-eye”, and which was copied many years later by Conan O’Brien, and written about in Cindy Adam’s column in the NY Post. I provided photos of myself “with spoon” from back in the 70’s, and Cindy wrote, ” I don’t know why anyone would want to take credit for something like this, but Jeffrey Gurian definitely did it first!

Anyway, Budd looked at me like “What the F**K are you doing?” And I simply said, ” It’s very big out on the coast”, not thinking that HE lived out on “the coast.” He looked at me and said, ” I live out there and I have NEVER seen anyone do that.” In the meantine, Milton was looking at me in disbelief, and I decided to take out the spoon and just change the subject. I don’t think it ever came up again!

On May 14, 1998, when Frank Sinatra passed away, I happened to be out in LA. I remember very clearly calling Milton from a pay phone. I guess my StarTAC clamshell cell phone was on “Roam”! He took the call and told me that he wasn’t taking calls from anyone else because the press was calling him non-stop for quotes on Frank Sinatra’s passing, but he said when he heard it was me he took the call. Another amazing moment for me.

Jeffrey Gurian with Milton Berle at the LA Friars Club in 1985.

He brought me to his home in Beverly Hills, and showed me his kinescopes and the 6 million jokes he had compiled over the years that he kept in a separate little house. He also showed me the body part he was known for, … without me asking, … which is a whole other story for another time! (LOL)

I remember the first time he let me write for him. It was for an event honoring Buddy Hackett. I was supposed to go to Atlantic City to meet with Milton where he was performing, and I was bringing my wife at the time, as Milton’s guests, and a couple of days before we were scheduled to come, he called me at home and asked me to give him an example of the jokes I was writing about Buddy. If they were funny I could come, if not, I guess he would withdraw the offer. Now I was in the position of having to impress Milton Berle with my jokes, the man who heard every joke ever told.

Jeffrey Gurian with Buddy Hackett at a Friars Roast, mid-80’s.

I recall saying to him, ” Clean or dirty?” He said, ” One of each.” My clean joke was, ” Buddy’s not a good looking man. It took him a long time to get used to the fact that girls are supposed to close their eyes when they KISS you, not when they’re introduced!” My “dirty” one was, ” A lot of people like to think of Buddy Hackett as a little man with a rubber face. I prefer to think of him as a little rubber, with a man’s face!” Milton laughed, and told me to pack my bags cause he was expecting us in AC! AMAZING!!!

Through Milton I also got to meet George Burns who was performing at one of the grand hotels in The Catskills. In those days all the big TV stars still performed at the hotels, like The Concord, Grossingers, Kutschers, and The Nevele. George lived to be 100 years old.

Jeffrey Gurian with George (God) Burns backstage at a hotel in The Catskills! Mid-80’s.

I got to know Red Buttons very well, who lived to be 87, as well as Norm Crosby, “The Master of Malaprop” who fortunately is still with us, and is in his mid-80’s, as is Jerry Lewis who’s 87 and who I had the honor of writing for and working alone with, when he was Roasted by The Friars, back in 1986.

Jeffrey Gurian with Red Buttons at a comedy event, mid-80’s.

Jeffrey Gurian with Norm Crosby at The Friars Roast of Don King, 2005.

And then there was Henny Youngman who lived to be 91 and who I knew well from The Friars Club and from Milton. He and Milton once headlined together at Westbury Music Fair and when Milton saw me, he gave ma a shout-out from the stage. It was one of the proudest moments of my life. He would always kid Youngman with lines like, ” Nice suit Youngman, who shines it for you?” And lines like that would crack me up, cause I love that kind of humor!

Jeffrey Gurian with Henny Youngman at a comedy event, Oct. 1990.

I got to work with Henny for his 89th birthday roast which was televised and which I wrote with Bill Persky, the genius who wrote and created “That Girl” for Marlo Thomas, Danny Thomas’s daughter, and was also known for “Kate and Allie” and for his writing on the Dick Van Dyke Show.

I consider myself Blessed that I got to meet so many of the legends I watched growing up, and I think it’s safe to say that no matter how talented the stars of today are, there’ll never be any others like Sid Caesar, Milton Berle, and the others I mentioned. And the fact that they all had such longevity adds strength to the concept that laughing keeps you young! In any case, I certainly hope so! As a matter of fact, I’m counting on it! (LOL)

Tags: "Henny Youngman", "Milton Berle", Budd Friedman, Dick Shawn, Friars Roast, George Burns, Imogene Coca, Mel Brooks, NBC, Norm Crosby, Show of Shows, Sid Caesar, The Friars Club, Woody Allen

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Matters, Entertainment News, Featured, General Information, Important News, Jeffrey Gurian News, Point of View, Stand-Up Comedy

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Jeffrey Gurian’s Excellent Adventure with Keith and The Girl

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on May 14, 2013

If someone told you you had to go on the radio for an hour and 40 minutes straight you might wonder to yourself if you had enough to say. On today’s Keith and The Girl appearance after almost two hours we were just warming up! I swear we could have gone another two hours easy! The flow was amazing and they are extremely gracious hosts!

The very descriptive and accurate logo for “Keith and The Girl”, (whose name is Chemda, btw!) This happens to be exactly what they look like! (JK!)

My curiousity was piqued last month when I attended a couple of nights of their 8th anniversary celebration which they held out in Brooklyn at a performance space called White Wave. They literally had fans fly in from all over the world. Right around me were people from Australia, Toronto, Europe, Colorado, California, and all of them had gone to great trouble and expense to come in and celebrate with KATG!

Keith and Chemda in a very accurate portrayal of what they REALLY look like, during their 8th anniversary celebration!

People like Ted Alexandro say I know everyone in comedy.

So I was embarrassed to admit that KATG had escaped my comedy radar. And for eight years??? How could that even happen? That’s when I made it my business to find out more about KATG, and I’m so glad I did.

They have a super studio in Queens, whose exact location will not be divulged. Suffice it to say that it’s hidden inside of a mountain and when you approach and yell out a secret word, which they give you before you arrive, the mountain actually splits open, and you walk in, like Moses parting The Red Sea! It’s incredible.

A candid shot of Keith and Chemda in the studio, getting ready to do the KATG podcast and videocast as well!

I started out strong when they asked me my favorite movie and I said “The Sixth Sense.” It seems that was Keith’s favorite movie as well and no one else had ever said that. Then they were both ready to fall out of their chairs when I told them my favorite color was orange, which also happened to be Keith’s favorite color. And anyone who knows me knows that’s true. It’s the color of The Second Chakra and a very powerful color.

We went on to talk about everything. We talked about my new book, “Make ‘Em Laugh”, about the 35 year history of The Comic Strip, comedy legends like Andy Kaufman, Jack Rollins, and Milton Berle, young stars not with us anymore like Patrice O’Neal, Mitch Hedberg, Mike DeStefano, Greg Giraldo, movies, music, Healing which was an amazing discussion where we found out that Chemda has Healing energy, and she thinks she’d like to use it!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with his great friend, the late Patrice O’Neal!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with the late Mitch Hedberg at one of his last performances in NYC!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with the late Mike DeStefano after he was on Last Comic Standing!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with the late Greg Giraldo at a party at Comix in NYC!

We talked about the comedy clubs and gave shout-outs to The Comic Strip, Gotham Comedy Club, and The Comedy Cellar. We talked about high school, and about how and why kids are so mean to each other, dating, sexuality, and almost every subject on the planet, and we had lots of laughs and a really good time.

We even talked about You Pop the new social media craze that’s sweeping the country where creative people can get paid for making cool little videos on their cell phones and uploading them to the YouPop.com site to be offered to the world at large!

You Pop, the most exciting social media craze to come along since Facebook!

To show you just what a good time we had, I didn’t check my e-mail even once during the two hours! It flew by so fast, I couldn’t believe it when Chemda told me how much time had gone by. Then I got the tour of the premises and got to see Lauren again, Chemda’s significant other, plus I got to see the office where they keep their merch and it’s loaded with goodies, except it’s lighter now cause they gave me a whole bunch of presents.

Chemda and Lauren at the 8th anniversary of KATG!

They gave me audio books that you wear on your wrist like a bracelet. I never even saw something like that. I’m not Bill Gates but I’m familiar with lots of technology, and this was really cool. It’s like a thumb drive and you get the book as an MP3.

I got their books, “The Great American Novel” by Keith, and “What Do We Do Now” a modern advice book for modern couples written by both of them. And I had to once again give them props for having been a couple, broken up, and still working together with such a cool dynamic. They are truly good friends. It’s a testament to what people can accomplish if they really want to.

Chemda hiding behind one of the KATG T-shirts while Keith proudly displays his “State of the Union” DVD.

But that’s not all, I also got Keith’s “State of the Union” DVD, and the Keith and The Girl Roast, with cartoon drawings on the back of some of the comics who participated and who you can actually recognize! One I’m sure is Mike Lawrence because the character has a huge beard!

They called my segment ” Healing Hands”, and you can actually listen to the whole thing right here:

http://www.keithandthegirl.com/Show-Detail/2653/Healing-Hands.aspx#

I really hope they invite me back!

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Keith Malley and Chemda Khalili of KATG!

Tags: "Chemda Khalili", "Comedy Matters TV", "Comedy Podcast", "KATG", "Keith and The Girl", "Keith Malley", "Make 'Em Laugh", Chris Rock, Comedy Matters, Jeffrey Gurian, The Comic Strip

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Matters, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Podcasts, Red Carpet Events, Variety Show

The Comedy Cellar’s Live From The Table

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on April 17, 2013

I had a really great experience as a guest on the Comedy Cellar podcast called “Live From The Table.” Noam Dworman the owner of The Cellar is such a kind and hospitable guy, and I’ll tell you why I say so!

The inviting look of the outside of The Comedy Cellar! Makes you wanna go in and have some laughs!

First let me tell you about The Cellar. It’s a magical place where every single big star likes to hang out and perform. On any given night you’ll see Louis CK, Chris Rock, Jerry Seinfeld, Dave Attell, Jim Gaffigan, Ray Romano, Colin Quinn, and anyone who happens to be in town from LA hanging out there or getting up to do a set. It’s not that the 150 seat room is so overpoweringly beautiful, because it literally is in a cellar, but I think it’s kind of an energy thing.

Rooms take on the energy of the people who own them and hang out in them, and I think it’s the positive energy that pervades the place that draws the big names. That and the Olive Tree Cafe that’s part of it with the VIP table in the back!

The VIP table in the back of the Olive Tree Cafe where all the stars hang out while waiting to go on! Here it’s set up for the weekly podcast on Tuesday nights!

The club at 117 MacDougal Street, was originally owned by Noam’s Dad, the beloved Manny Dworman, who opened it in 1980 as Cafe Feenjon, a coffeehouse that was a serious hang for musicians. I remember seeing that name as a kid hanging out in The Village. It always stood out to me because “Feenjon” was such an unusual name.

Manny was not only a nightclub owner, but also a talented musician who appeared as himself in the Seinfeld documentary film “Comedian” in 2002. The Cellar was renowned for its postperformance roundtable discussions with comedians in the audience about political issues, and it was these very exchanges that were the inspiration for ”Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn” on Comedy Central.

When Manny left us in 2004, Noam took over the helm of the club! And he hosts the Comedy Cellar podcast called “Live From The Table” which is done from the VIP table in the back of the club where the comics who are performing in that night’s show can be found along with the comics that just come to schmooze or hang out with their friends.

Noam had me on as a guest and made me comfortable right away. I got there early as I always do so I can just chill and be ready to go on the air. I had a bite to eat and even got to meet his beautiful little daughter Mila!

Noam Dworman, owner of The Comedy Cellar, holding his 15 month old daughter Mila, with comedy writer/comic Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV!

One of the things we were going to talk about was my book called “Make ‘Em Laugh” which is about the 35 year history of The Comic Strip, the comedy club on 81st and 2nd. Chris Rock wrote an amazing introduction to the book and I interviewed comics that started out there like Seinfeld, Chris, Larry Miller, George Wallace, Billy Crystal, and several that frequent The Cellar like Ray Romano, Jim Gaffigan, Jim Breuer, Judah Friedlander, and Colin Quinn who was a bartender at The Strip until he quit to start performing stand-up.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with old friend Colin Quinn holding Jeffrey’s book ” Make ‘Em Laugh” which he is in!

I was on the podcast with Jim Norton who I had just interviewed a few days before for my Comedy Matters TV channel, when he hosted the last show of the first season of AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live at the Gotham Comedy Club.

ComedyCellar_Promo_GurianPodcast_#54_4_9_13

Promo for the Comedy Cellar podcast announcing Jeffrey Gurian as a guest, and coincidentally it’s #54 which is Jeffrey Gurian’s lucky number! He even lives on 54th Street and graduated #54 in his class!

This was Jim’s fun interview:

Then it was also Lynne Koplitz who I love, and she had also just been on that same show with Norton, and then it was Dan Naturman who I know for many years and have always enjoyed his comedy.

Noam Dworman, Lynne Koplitz, and Dan Naturman on “Live From The Table” at The Comedy Cellar!

Noam was such a gentleman to have me on to talk about another comedy club, but I liken that to a beautiful woman who’s secure enough in herself to acknowledge the beauty of another woman without feeling threatened. Noam has nothing to be threatened about. He is the owner of a truly legendary venue that the biggest stars in the business call “home” today.

Not only did he help promote my book but he himself was kind enough to buy a copy and said on the air that he really enjoyed it. That’s not a just a gentleman, it’s the definition of a “Mensch” a word you may not find in your dictionary, … unless your dictionary was printed in Tel Aviv! (LOL)

Noam began by trying to give me a compliment by telling people that they should read about me, because I had an interesting background and an interesting look, and that I looked like a star, but Dan Naturman couldn’t bear to let him finish. He couldn’t wait to interrupt with an attempt to sabotage the compliment by yelling out “No, he looks more like a 70’s style producer” or something to that effect, but I stopped him in mid sentence.

I said, ” Why do you say “No’? Why can’t you let Noam finish saying something nice about me? Why do you have to jump in and try and say something negative?” Noam immediately agreed and stated that Dan was known for being negative, and Dan backpedaled by saying that what he meant to say was that I looked like a successful producer or someone who worked behind the scenes.

That led us into a discussion of “cock-blocking”, which that was a form of, where people try and block someone else from succeeding in some way. For whatever reason they can’t bear for someone else to receive something good. It kind of became the theme of the show, as you’ll see on the promo!

Now Dan is always a nice, mild-mannered kind of guy, and I don’t even think he realized he was doing that. It’s probably just second nature for him as it is for many comics.

Guys grow up being used to cutting each other down. It’s not necessary. Every meeting doesn’t have to be a rite of passage. Guys can support each other. For a lot of comics every casual meeting turns into a Roast. It’s why a lot of guys are not comfortable hanging out with other guys. Patrice O’Neal was supposedly famous for putting other comics in their place, or making remarks about them, but he never did it to me. It’s basically high school behavior!

Patrice and I had a closer relationship, and we really “got” each other. I would go so far as to say we had mad respect for each other.

(L-R) My special girl Jacqui B., Patrice O’Neal, Jeffrey Gurian, and Dante Nero at The Black Phillip Show!

Many people still don’t know that I was his co-host on The Black Phillip Show on Sirius, along with his original co-host Dante Nero. And if he hadn’t left us when he did, so prematurely, we would have probably had our own show together. Listen to a phone call he left me one night after we did our first show together. It’s something I treasure:

Patrice-Our Own Show

Anyway, I stayed on the podcast for the whole hour and when it was over, Noam invited me back, not only to the podcast but to hang in the club more often which I totally intend to do. It’s a rare magical place and he’s a rare magical guy! I can’t wait to go back! Here’s the link to the podcast:

http://www.riotcast.com/thecomedycellar/

Tags: "Cafe Feenjon", "Comedy Cellar", "Jim Norton", "Lynne Koplitz", "Manny Dworman", "Noam Dworman", "Tough Crowd With Colin Quinn", "Tough Crowd", Chris Rock, Colin Quinn, Dan Naturman, Dante Nero, Jerry Seinfeld, Patrice Oneal

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Comedy Matters, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, General Information, Nightlife Events, Podcasts, Point of View

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Charles Durning 2/28/23-12/24/12

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on December 27, 2012

His face was known all over the world. Even if you didn’t know the name Charles Durning, you recognized his face. He was in more than 100 films, including “Tootsie” with Dustin Hoffman, “The Sting” with Robert Redford, “The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas”, “Dog Day Afternoon” with Al Pacino, and so many more! He was a police chief in “Dick Tracy”, and sold frog legs in “The Muppet Movie”!

He starred on Broadway, and won a Tony for his portrayal of Big Daddy in a 1989 revival of “Cat On A Hot Tin Roof”, and got two Best Supporting Actor Oscar nominations and nine Emmy nominations. He was a beloved character, who in 2008 was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame!

I met him years ago at a wrap party out in LA, for a film he did with my friend Scott Baio called “Very Mean Men”, with Matthew Modine, Ben Gazzara, Martin Landau, and Burt Young to name a few of the more recognizable names. It was directed by Tony Vitale, who had just directed a film that I wrote with Scott Baio called “Face to Face”.

Scott Baio and Jeffrey Gurian in LA at the wrap party for “Very Mean Men” at Planet Hollywood! Scott was blonde for his role in “Very Mean Men”!

It was a comic drama directed by Ellie Kanner about three young men (Scott Baio as Richie, Thomas Calabro as Philly and Carlo Imperato as Al) who kidnap their emotionally distant fathers, (Dean Stockwell, Alex Rocco, and Joe Viterelli), for a weekend of forced “male bonding.” The movie won the Audience Prize for Best Comedy at the Marco Island Film Festival, the Silver Screen Accolade in the Reno Film Festival and the 10 Degrees Hotter Best Feature Award during the Valley Film Festival. It was also chosen as the opening night film for the Taos New Mexico Talking Picture Festival.

I missed a couple of those because my Dad was terminally ill at the time, and I wanted to be here for him. I made it to Taos though as well as a great festival in Sedona, Arizona. There’s nothing more exciting than having your film shown in a film festival, especially when you’re there with the stars.

I had met so many stars before, but I was really impressed to meet Charles Durning. There was something about him that always drew me to him. I had admired his talent for years and I think he even played W.C. Fields in a movie, and W.C. Fields was my favorite comedian of all time.

Scot Baio, Jeffrey Gurian, and the great Charles Durning at the wrap party for “Very Mean Men” at Planet Hollywood in LA!

Charles Durning is a talent that will be missed! R.I.P. Charles!

For more on this story and Charles Durning check out Andy Soltis’s story in the NY Post!

Tags: "Arnold Schwartzenegger", "Ben Gazzara", "Burt Young", "Italian Ties", "Madchen Annick", "Martin Landau", "Planet Hollywood", "Sly Stallone", "Sylvester Stallone", Charles Durning, Dean Stockwell, Face to Face, Joe Viterelli, Matthew Modine, Scott Baio, Very Mean Men

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Caron Foundation Honors Clive Davis, with Judy Collins, Geraldo Rivera, Chris Lawford, and Lots More!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on May 27, 2012

The Caron Foundation is a nationally recognized nonprofit provider of alcohol and drug addiction treatment. Thanks to their grateful donors, their treatment centers last year provided almost 14 million dollars in scholarships to addicted individuals and their families.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with music legend and Caron Foundation honoree Clive Davis at Cipriani’s 42nd Street!

Cipriani’s 42nd Street was the site of the Caron Foundation event honoring music legends Clive Davis and Judy Collins, and it was a spectacular, star-studded event handled by Rob Goldstone and David Wilson’s Oui2 Public Relations.

Clive Davis is the Chief Creative Officer of Sony Music Entertainment and a true legend in the music industry. The last time I saw Clive I was having dinner with Michael Bolton and we went over to his table to “kibbitz”! In the video below, you’ll see I had the opportunity to reminisce with him about the time I invited him to attend a Friars Roast, (I wish I recalled which one it was!), which led to Clive being honored as The Friars Man of the Year.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with good buddy Michael Bolton backstage in Vegas!

During his long and illustrious career, Clive Davis has discovered and nurtured the careers of many superstars including Janis Joplin, Bruce Springsteen, Barry Manilow, Jennifer Hudson, Alicia Keys, and the late Whitney Houston.

Judy Collins’ career has spanned more than fifty years, and she has been inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. She’s also openly sober for many years and something so cool happened which you’ll see in the accompanying video. As I was interviewing Geraldo Rivera on the red carpet, we were suddenly, and unexpectedly joined by Judy Collins who was so open, and so kind that the other journalists thought I had planned it. But you could never plan something like that.

Geraldo_Jeffrey_JudyCollins_Great_Caron_Ciprianis_5_16_12

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV interviewing both Geraldo Rivera and Judy Collins at the same time!

So there I was doing a three-way interview with Geraldo on one side of me, and Judy Collins on the other. I felt like I was watching a tennis match! I didn’t know which way to turn first! (LOL) Geraldo had bought a table for his friends from Fox News including national correspondent Laura Ingel, and Laurie Dhue who was the MC for the evening and was also openly celebrating five years of sobriety.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV interviewing Laurie Dhue, MC for the Caron Foundation event honoring Clive Davis and Judy Collins!

I also got to see my old pal Chris Kennedy Lawford, who is a big supporter of the work that Caron does. He looks so much like his Dad, Peter Lawford that whenever I see him it reminds me of The Rat Pack, with Frank Sinatra, cause his Dad was one of the group.

ChrisLawford_Jeffrey_GreatHair_Caron_5_16_12

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV interviewing his pal Chris Kennedy Lawford at the Caron event at Cipriani’

Chris was a nephew of JFK, and is also very open about his own struggles with addiction. It hits every age group and social strata, and it’s always very courageous when well known people use their “celebrity” to bring attention to the need for help.

I never knew that Chris was instrumental in bringing the movie “Drunks” to the big screen, in which another old friend Richard Lewis was the star.

RichardLewis_Jeffrey_CornerCU_Friars_3_25_11

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Richard Lewis at The Friars Club in NYC!

Laurie Dhue told me that Geraldo had been a big supporter of hers and she felt that he was very helpful in her staying sober. Geraldo of course was too humble to accept that assessment, but she assured me he helped her tremendously.

It was truly a night of reminiscing for me, because when I spoke to Geraldo I was able to reminisce with him about the great story his mother-in-law told me about how he was able to prolong his father-in-law’s life.

Jeffrey Gurian of Comedy Matters TV with Geraldo Rivera at Cipriani’s 42nd Street for teh Caron Foundation event honoring Clive Davis and Judy Collins!

It was a powerful story of synchronicity, where his wife Erica’s Dad was diagnosed with prostate cancer. Geraldo attended an affair where he just happened to be seated next to a doctor he had never met before who just happened to be an expert in prostate cancer and guided him to the surgeon who prolonged his father-in-law’s life. Unfortunately he later on succumbed to the disease, but his wife told me the story because she was struck by the synchronicity of the event.

Geraldo was surprised that I remembered it so clearly, but it’s the kind of story I hold on to, because it’s so meaningful. Theoretically it can’t even happen! (LOL)

I also got to reminisce with Geraldo about an evening we spent many, many years ago with Salvador Dali at the St. Regis Hotel in the King Cole Lounge. Check it all out right here!

Tags: "Caron Foundation", "Chris Kennedy Lawford", "Chris Lawford", "Clive Davis" "Whitney Houston", "Comedy Matters TV", "Fox News", "Frank Sinatra", "Geraldo Rivera", "Judy Collins", "Laurie Dhue", "St. Regis Hotel", "The Caron Foundation", "The Rat Pack", Addiction, Alcoholism, Cipriani's, Comedy Matters, Jeffrey Gurian, JFK, Michael Bolton, Salvador Dali

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Prayers and Condolences for Ardie Fuqua

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on May 14, 2012

Hands down there’s no nicer guy than Ardie Fuqua and no one who loved his kids more than Ardie Fuqua. What a shock to hear that he lost his 19 year old son Jamal in a car accident a day ago. How does anyone make sense of something like that?

Jeffrey Gurian with Ardie Fuqua in happier times. Our thoughts and prayers are with Ardie!

The last time I saw Ardie and Jamal was last March 31st, at Chris Rock’s The Motherf**ker With The Hat! I was there with Richie Tienken and Ardie and Jamal sat right in front of us. He was so proud he could bring his son with him to see Chris and afterwards we all went up to Chris’ dressing room to congratulate him. Ardie was beaming as he introduced Richie and I to his son. He couldn’t have been prouder and rightfully so. He was a beautiful kid. Very respectful, and just like his Dad.

Most people who experience a tragedy of this magnitude are allowed to grieve, but comedians are in that rarefied place where no matter what happens in their lives they still have to go out and make other people laugh. It’s what they do. It’s all they know how to do. It’s in their DNA.

I pray that God gives Ardie the strength! My deepest and sincerest condolences to you Ardie in your terrible loss!

Tags: "Ardie Fuqua", "Car accident", "Comedy Matters TV", "The Comedy Cellar" "Jeffrey Gurian", Chris Rock, Comedy Matters, Jamal, The Motherf**ker With The Hat

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Celebrity Death, Celebrity Passing, Comedians In The News, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Matters, General Information, Important News