Marc Maron, Bobby Lee, Dov Davidoff at The Comedy Store in LA

I was heading out to LA to do my third guest spot on Nick Kroll’s Comedy Central hit Kroll Show, in which I’d be playing myself in a red carpet sketch during a Pub-LIZ-ity sketch with Nick as Liz G.

I love ALL of Nick’s sketches but Pub-LIZ-ity is really one of my faves so I was doubly exicted. But since I’m not a great traveler, I don’t like to fly across the country for one or two days, so I decided to go out out a few days earlier and stay a few days afterwards to visit some friends and check out the LA comedy scene.

My first night in town I went right to The Comedy Store to see my buddy Tommy Morris, who runs the place, and give him a copy of the documentary film I recently co-produced with Exec. Producers Scott Sobel and Gary Licker who also directed the film.

It was called “The Business of Comedy” and featured interviews with comedy icons like Budd Friedman, who opened the world’s first comedy club, The Improv, in NYC in 1963, Rick Newman who opened Catch A Rising Star in 1972, Richie Tienken who opened The Comic Strip in 1976, and comics like George Wallace, Robert Klein, Tom Dreesen, and newcomer Sasheer Zamata, all talking about the business end of the comedy world.

I wanted to bring Tommy his copy personally, and as you can see from the photo, … I did!

There’s always a star-studded show at The Store, and that night I ran into my old friend Marc Maron, with Cort McCown, who I had met on the Kandy Kruise where he was performing for 500 guys and even more important, 16500 girls from Maxim, Playboy, and Penthouse.

I also ran into Bobby Lee, and then I got to see Chris D’elia from Whitney, and Dov Davidoff who I just saw again headlining Gotham in NYC this past weekend. These guys go back and forth like it’s nothing!

Tom Cotter Needs To Win "America’s Got Talent"

I’ve known Tom Cotter for a long time and always admired his talent, not only as a performer but especially as a writer. His lines are just so sharp and clever

Page 6 -Chris Rock Writes Intro for "Make ‘Em Laugh"

After four long years, the book I’ve been writing with Richie Tienken on the 35 year history of his club The Comic Strip is finally coming out. And Chris Rock is not only interviewed in the book, he also was kind enough to write the introduction.

He sent it in from Cannes where he was promoting Madagascar 3.

Gilbert Gottfried Tsunami With AFLAC

Let me start by saying that I know Gilbert Gottfried for more than 25 years.  Gilbert can be outrageous, but I don’t think he would intentionally hurt anyone’s feelings.  He’s not capable of that, and it’s not his energy.

Video of Nick Kroll and John Mulaney as the "Oh, Hello" Boys

Jackie Mason in the NY Post

Jackie Mason is used to getting lots of press, but not like this!

He’s one of the only comedians, if not the only one to have multiple, successful shows on Broadway.

But today’s New York Post had a front page photo of Jackie Mason with a story of how he was attacked by his 48 year old girlfriend in his apartment. She left him with a bloodied arm after fighting him for his cell phone so he wouldn’t call the police. Fortunately he wasn’t hurt worse. When people go crazy there’s no telling what they’ll do.

His girlfriend, Kaoru Suzuki-McMullen, supposedly woke up at 6 A.M. to find herself alone in bed, and found him asleep in the living room. She took that as a sign he had been cheating on her. People should really have more evidence than that before attacking someone. According to the NY Post, she is now facing misdemeanor assault charges.

The NY Post says Jackie’s 83. TMZ and the Wall Street Journal say he’s only 75. I have no idea which is correct. All I know is that he should be proud that he got a 48 year old girlfriend. Most men of substance are not out looking for 75 or 83 year old women. So, … more power to him!

I hope he gets better quick, and puts this behind him, but knowing the media, and their penchant for a good story, I have a feeling it will play out over the next few days!

Writing and Performing Comedy at The Learning Annex ( on U-Stream)

How To Cure Headaches and Facial Pain

Dr. Jeffrey L. Gurian has been an Assistant Clinical Professor at NYU since 1999, in the Oral Medicine/Oro-Facial Pain department and has worked with alleviating headaches and facial pain in patients suffering with stress-related illness and Depression. He has also been serving on the Board of The Association for Spirituality and Psychotherapy, where he has lectured at Energy Psychology conferences on the use of his “STAR” Therapy, a very gentle system of “Talk and Touch” to alleviate things like Migraine-type headaches, should pain, neck pain, upper back pain, Tinnitus (ringing in the ears), jaw and tooth pain, etc.

Video streaming by Ustream

Nick Cannon Hosts New Faces Show at Gotham Comedy Club

Nick Cannon is definitely one of the nicest, most humble guys in the biz!

Comic Strip 35th Anniversary Party

On June 1, 1976, Richie Tienken and Bob Wachs opened the legendary comedy club called The Comic Strip. Of course no one knew it would be legendary at the time. And 16 days later when a young Jerry Seinfeld came in to audition, no one knew he would become legendary either. His original sign-up sheet from that night is still up on the wall. He was graded ” Good”, and it said, “Definitely put on Mon. 6/21.”

Along with Jerry Seinfeld came other names that were to change the face of show biz forever, like Paul Reiser, Larry Miller, George Wallace, Lewis Black, Susie Essman, Colin Quinn, Gilbert Gottfried, Ray Romano, Eddie Murphy and Chris Rock.

The first time Eddie Murphy came in to audition, Bob Wachs threw him out for being a wiseguy. He came back in to audition for Richie Tienken who agreed to see him, after Eddie apologized profusely for his behavior. Richie thought he was so good, he intervened with his partner Bob and the two of them wound up managing Eddie into being the biggest star in the world. From SNL to Beverly Hills Cop 2, they guided Eddie’s career.

Pretty good for Richie who had been a bar owner from The Bronx, and in terms of managing, had managed the largest Bingo hall in the country, but never saw himself managing the biggest star in the world. It all happened when Eddie realizing he needed a manager, asked his Mom what he should do. His Mom said ” Who do you trust most in the world?” And Eddie said “Richie Tienken”, so his Mom encouraged him to ask Richie.

Richie turned him down for about 10 days, because he couldn’t picture himself being responsible for somebody else’s career. He had no experience with that. But after about 10 days he gave in, and jumped in with both feet. Immediately he was playing with the big boys because Eddie’s career took off very fast. And in 1986, Eddie discovered a 19 year old Chris Rock on stage at The Strip when he asked if there were any Black comics he could see, and Chris was the only one around.

He had made a deal with Lucien Hold, the manager of the club for 25 years, that he could get stage time in exchange for setting up the chairs and cleaning up the club at the end of the night. That night he was glad he was there because Eddie was his idol, and he went from performing in front of 6 drunks at 2 in the morning, to performing for a packed house in front of his idol, Eddie Murphy.

That night changed the course of Chris’ career and gave the club two superstars who would appear on it’s stage.

It’s all in the book that Richie and I are writing about the 35 year history of The Strip, and to celebrate we had a big party in the club on June 5th.