Posts Tagged Chris Distefano

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

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, and it’s 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!

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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 PATRICE O’NEAL BENEFIT AND AFTER-PARTY, BILL BURR, GARDEN OF LAUGHS, TRACY MORGAN, JIM GAFFIGAN, SAM MORRIL, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on April 29, 2024

**WITH THE AMAZING BILL BURR AT THE STAND**

THE LOVE FOR PATRICE GOES ON

Nov. 29, 2011 is the day that Patrice O’Neal left us and left a big void in the comedy world. Especially for me. I had a very unique relationship with Patrice and was honored to be named by him as the 3rd co-host on The Black Phillip Show, on Sirius XM radio. It was Patrice, Dante Nero and me!

The first night we did the show together, he called me and left this message at 4:05 in the morning. He couldn’t wait to call me. Patrice didn’t get excited about a lot of things, but if you listen to this phone message which I have kept all these years, you’ll hear that he wanted to do a show just the two of us. He and I. Me and Patrice. Just the two of us.

Unfortunately like many things in show biz it never happened, but just the fact that he offered meant the world to me. Patrice didn’t say things just to be polite. We just had a real understanding, a real love and respect for each other. Von confirmed that with me at his funeral.

For the past 11 years, leaving out two years for the pandemic, comedy exec. Maureen Taran and Bill Burr have produced a benefit for Patrice’s family at City Center. Sells out every year. All the comics perform for free and all the money goes to Patrice’s family. His wonderful Mom, Georgia usually comes every year but she was not able to attend this year. But approximately 2300 other people were.

Rich Vos emceed as usual and did the great job he always does. He’s perfect for this event. I always think I should be performing but when I see the show I know my comedy doesn’t fit in. Cipha Sounds was on the ones and twos, also as usual, and brought Vos out to hip hop music, which made everyone laugh. Vos was dressed like Stallone from Rocky 3 and I believe it was he who said about Patrice, ” If he wasn’t so big he’d be rolling over in his grave.” And that set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Reggie Conquest was up first and came out to NInja Turtles music, as compared to Vos who came out to Meek Mill. Cipha has a good sense of humor! Reggie did great and Vos said about him that he had to go on first because ” his ankle bracelet goes off at 9 P.M.”

Then they announced a surprise guest and when Jim Gaffigan came out the place erupted! People went wild. Jim is beloved. He must have lost 6o pounds, and said about himself that he was “formerly a fat guy and how he’s just arrogant!” Wait till you hear the stories about Jim on the red carpet at Garden of Laughs, the very next day, … a few paragraphs down!

I hadn’t seen Marcello Hernandez from SNL perform before, so I was pleasantly surprised at how strong he was on stage. The guy is a beast. Bill Burr told me that Marcello has better material than he does! He came out wearing what looked like gym clothes which was fitting for the way he worked out on stage. Amazing! I actually laughed out loud, which is very rare for me. He was just so clever and did a thing comparing Meringue, Salsa and Bachata! (Three different Latin dances for you gringos!!!)

Bonnie McFarlane is one of the best writers in the biz and always so funny and clever. She came out to Back That Ass Up, and declared that if Patrice was still alive he’d probably be trans and married to Jim Norton. And speaking of her husband Vos she said, two or three years in to the marriage she realized he’s not playing the dumb guy character! No one could be that good an actor! (LOL)

Another surprise to me was Robert Powell who Vos mistakenly introduced as Robert Palmer. which the other comics kidded him about all night! The guy was hilarious! Absolutely hilarious!

Then they announced another surprise guest and it was Dan Soder who also got HUGE applause. In talking about Patrice, Dan mentioned The Lottery Show at The Comic Strip where Patrice along with guys like Bobby Kelly and Paul Mercurio would judge new comics to see if they could perform at The Strip. I often sat there with owner/founder Richie Tienken watching and laughing at the action, and Patrice was usually particularly brutal, but in a way you’d have to laugh. I just happen to have a video of one of those shows with Patrice, Bobby and Paul. And yes that’s a young Jordan Rock in the corner as the DJ!

Then Michael Che came out and said he hadn’t done stand up in a while which is understandable since his work load at SNL is so huge. He said he turned 40 and is starting to feel old. He also said he had a relative who was a runaway slave and became a clown. I think he said that was his inspiration to go into comedy, but I could be wrong! Not about the slave/clown thing but whether it inspired him or not.

And lastly like in baseball which I know nothing about, Bill Burr came out as the clean-up hitter and wrapped up the show. Bill is not only fun to listen to he’s fun to watch. And he’s a really great guy! We always have so much fun on any red carpet I see him on. I have photos of him hugging me from the time he had red hair till now! (Sometimes we switch sides!)

And the same as every year the after party was held at The Stand . Cris and Paul Italia go all out and serve great food and the place is packed with fun people and good vibes.

I got to hang with Ken Feder otherwise known as Club Soda Kenny who I first met thru Dice because he always does security for Dice, but he also does security for Bill Burr and other big stars. He’s always on the job and didn’t let Bill out of his sight for a minute. Even while we were talking and catching up, he had his eye on Bill. No one fucks with Kenny. Ex-NYPD and a big dude.

**WITH A VERY SERIOUS LOOKING KEN FEDER**

Bill actually wrote and directed a little film that Kenny stars in with Bobby Lee called “Soda” in which he plays a cop, … very realistically I might add! It’s on You Tube. Check it out!!!

GARDEN OF LAUGHS INSANITY

It had been a few years since the Garden of Laughs was held due to the pandemic and people’s fears of large gatherings but thanks to the Mazzilli brothers it was time to have it again! As usual I was covering the red carpet and it was a blast!

Jim Gaffigan was in a rare mood. He was joking around the whole time and I think it was connected to his dramatic weight loss. When I told him how good he looked he reminded me that he was married. He also said he was very good looking despite the fact that he has no pigment! At one point he pulled GOL host Steve Schirripa away while I was still talking to him, and made believe he was the reporter from People Magazine, and then he took my mic and was double fisting them until I reminded him he was married! (LOL) Jim is truly amazing, a true superstar, with 5 beautiful kids, the youngest of whom is now 11!

Chris Distefano was also a hoot because Garden of Laughs is a charity that raises money for disadvantaged snd underprivileged children, so when he came to talk to me I had to remind him that he himself has underprivileged children, which made him laugh and agree that he does indeed have underprivileged children! It’s on my Instgram Reels if you want to see it @jeffreygurian.

Also on the red carpet I got to re-connect with Sam Morril who I hadn’t seen in quite a while. Sam and I reminisced a bit about how he started out years ago on my late night show at The Comic Strip where he said he’d sometimes sit for four hours waiting to go on. I told him he had 650,000 followers on IG, but Sam is so humble he said he wasn’t aware of that, but that it sounded like a good thing! (LOL)

And I got to see my old buddy Tracy Morgan. The publicists were being very choosy about who the stars spoke with but when Tracy saw me he told the guy we go way back, and he came over to chat about how lucky we both were to survive what we’ve been through. Tracy is very aware of how lucky he was to survive the terrible accident he was in, and I was lucky to survive a heart attack and a hospitalization with Covid Double Pneumonia. That video will be forthcoming along with Sam Morril’s.

LAUGHING BUDDHA FEST FOR $2,000.

Jeff Lawrence’s Laughing Buddha has everything you could want if you want to be in the comedy world. They offer workshops, classes, even a boot camp and he and Daryn Stephanie Passarello work tirelessly to inspire and help young comics to develop. I’ve had the honor of performing on some of their shows at various clubs around the city. They’re at The Stand, Eastville, Rodney’s and just about anywhere that comedy is offered.

**WITH DARYN PASSARELLO AND JEFF LAWRENCE AT THE TRIAD**

So I was especially honored when they asked me to be a judge at their second annual comedy festival which was held at the beautiful Triad Theater on West 72nd Street. What really impressed me was the $2,000. prize they were giving away for the winner. That is truly a generous prize. The 2nd and 3rd runner-ups also got a few hundred bucksl

The winner was Eric Walsh, a funny comic I had seen before when I was judging a contest at Stand Up New York, who opens by declaring that his family has regular size necks, which only makes sense if you’ve seen him because he happens to be the proud owner of a very long neck! Second place went to Chris Tos and third went to Brendan Smith.

**JEFF LAWRENCE WITH THE CONTESTANTS AND TED BARTON RIGHT OUT FRONT TO HIS LEFT**

And I got to meet the famous Bad Slava guy whose co-judged with me, and whose name is really Slava. He’s a comic named Slava Yaryshkin and I had been hearing his name for years. Any time someone wants to know where the open mics are located all around the city people would say ” Go to BadSlava.com and you’ll see all the mics in existence! But I had no idea it was named after a real guy! So I was really glad to meet him and spend a couple of hours together. And without consulting each other at all, we picked the same names as winners. I was hoping Ted Barton would win as he’s in my new pilot “The Raw Side of Comedy.” It was very close!

Jeff told me the goal for next year’s festival is to give away $5,000. to the winner. For a chance at 5K, I just might enter!!! (LOL)

BIG COMEDIC HUGS FOR ISRAEL

Avi Liberman is an LA comic who came to NY to produce a show called “Comedy Hug – A Benefit for Healing In Israel”. He did it at Gotham which was no surprise because the Mazzilli’s are always open to good causes and do many, many charity shows during the course of the year.

I wished I was on the show but I was glad to just be there covering it. And what a line-up they had. In no particular order it was Avi who hosted, and Gina Brillon, Jim Gaffigan, Mark Normand, Dean Edwards, Eli from Eli Comedy, and Dan Naturman who closed out the show but got there early and watched the whole thing.

**DEAN EDWARDS WHOSE HAIR IS WILDER THAN MINE**

I always like when someone does that. A lot of comics just show up for their spot, or don’t watch the other comics. To me it’s a sign of respect when you show interest in what your fellow comics are doing. Anyway it was a sold out show as you might expect with that line-up and I hope to be on the next one! Especially for such a worthy cause.

I also ran into Dan shortly after, at a great event called “Stand Up For Passion” produced and created by French comedian Arnaud Collery. It’s like an abbreviated Ted Talk event, but each speaker only gets 7 minutes and it’s always a fascinating show! One of his speakers was a French astronaut named Thomas Pesquet. And of course Dan is a co-host on the Comedy Cellar podcast which is always fun and an honor to do.

BEN CARSON IS A HERO IN MY BOOK

This has nothing to do with comedy but I was very excited to meet the great Ben Carson at a P.A.L. luncheon sponsored by John and Margo Catsimatidis at the Harvard Club! Ben is a retired neurosurgeon, who had 15,000 surgeries under his belt, to use a phrase from 1810, and was the very first neurosurgeon to separate Siamese or conjoined twins who were connected at the head. And he did it twice! Not on the same twins, … on other conjoined twins!

What makes it even more amazing is that he came from extreme poverty growing up with a single Mom with only a third grade education. But she stressed that her sons should be educated and Ben’s brother became a rocket scientist. A neurosurgeon and a rocket scientist. Pretty good for that situation, …which just goes to show you what you can accomplish in this country if you work hard. I was truly honored to meet him.

And he happens to have a great sense of humor and was very funny in his speech, so maybe this DOES have something to do with comedy!!! John Cats always gets great guests for his P.A.L. luncheons and on his show on WABC radio which he owns! John told me it’s now in, … I think, … 170 countries and all 50 states! What an accomplishment!

COMEDY BENEFIT FOR MENTAL ILLNESS

A few years ago I flew to Chicago to perform at a meeting of AATH, which stands for the Association for Applied and Therapeutic Humor, which is a community of people who believe humor can help to regain health. I’m on the Board of a group called Laugh M.D. which brings comedy to people in hospitals and people in recovery founded by Frank Chindamo in L.A. the founder of Fun Little Movies, one of the very first to put entertainment on mobile phones.

AATH members include wellness professionals and people who use humor as a wellness strategy, and researchers who study the science of humor. While there I met Joan Accolla , a powerhouse and the founder of Healing Headbands a charitable foundation that also believes in using humor to heal. She and her partner Barbara Grapstein partnered up with NAMI, the National Alliance on Mental Illness and they’re doing a major fundraiser for mental illness on Thursday May 23rd out on Long Island.

I have the honor of hosting and also on the show are Felicia Madison, booker and talent developer from West Side Comedy Club, and comic and Broadway star Rick Younger as well as local Long Island comic James Lennon. Hope you will come out and join us for a fun evening of food, music and laughter.

This is the site for tickets: https://www.healingheadbands.com/hhp-comedy-show-2024

Hope to see you there and hope to see you again next month when the next Comedy Matters Roundup comes out! In the meantime when you have a moment follow us on Instagram at @jeffreygurian

Tags: "Comedy Matters TV", "Madison Square Garden:", Bobby Kelly, celebrity interviews, Chris Distefano, City Center, Garden of Laughs, Gotham Comedy Club, Jeffrey Gurian, Jim Gaffigan, Mark Normand, Patrice Oneal, red carpet, Sam Morril, Tracy Morgan

Posted in: Jeffrey Gurian News

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COMEDY MATTERS HOLIDAY ROUNDUP WITH TUMUA, COLIN QUINN, ESTHER KU, VERMONT COMEDY FESTIVAL, COMEDY HOLIDAY PARTIES AND LOTS MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on December 26, 2023

TUMUA PACKS GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB

It’s not often that I get to see a performer I don’t know or haven’t seen before, especially one with so much heat behind them. Such is the case with Tumua who was one of the closing acts of this year’s New York Comedy Festival.

Tumua is from Oahu, Hawaii and I was surpised to see what a huge following he had in New York, attested to by the sold out show at Gotham I attended. There’s a lot of Hawaiian people in New York that I was not aware of! And they all came out for him.

His website describes him as an actor, stand-up comedian, former collegiate athlete, and social media personality, with a combined online social media presence of more than 400,000 followers. His social media sketches and stand-up bits on Tik Tok are very well known in the Polynesian community throughout the world!

He sells out stadiums, and in December 2021, Tumua sold out the Blaisdell Concert Hall three times in Honolulu, Hawaii (2,100 seater) within hours! He also recently sold out the Blaisdell Arena (6,500 seater) this past November, 2022. His 2023 tour is called “Not Even Joking.”

A lot of his humor is geared towards his particular audience but it struck me funny when he said he has trouble at Starbucks when he orders something and they ask him his name to put on the cup. He orders a latte and then says “Tumua” and the barista says, “So that’s three latte’s then? You want two more? That line stuck with me.

At the end of his act he asked the audience to join him in a song, and surprisingly enough they did, … and they all knew the words, plus waving i-phone flashlights and everything like it was a concert at MSG! See the video below.

UP LATE ON STATEN ISLAND

I don’t get to Staten Island too often. I performed at The Looney Bin a couple of times, and went out to do Chris Distefano’s podcast Chrissy Chaos, with my bud The Homeless Pimp, but it’s not a common occurrence for me. My pal Frank Morano has an awesome show on WABC Radio called The Other Side of Midnight and he’s a great guy, so when he suggested I do his friend’s show “Up Late With Johnny Potenza” out on Staten Island, I was like ” I’m there.”

It was a fun show and I got to be on Johnny’s Christmas Show with my old friend Tom Waites who performed several songs with his band. A good time was had by all!

JEWISH HUMOR REIGNS AT STAND UP NEW YORK

There was a time when almost all comedians were Jewish and even the ones who weren’t were after being in the biz for enough time. Stand Up New York’s Dani Zoldan had the Chosen Comedy Festival this past summer which I was privileged to attend, along with about 4,000 other members of the tribe, and last month he had a comedy show in support of Israel.

Periel Aschenbrand was the host, a job she does so well, and Michael Rapaport opened the show with a very strong message, followed by performers like Keren Margolis who blamed her parents for not knowing how to spell “Karen”, Jewish rapper Kosha Dillz who’s been going viral on TikTok for his amazing videos. and Aaron Berg who came up wearing an amazing jacket that an Eskimo might wear to keep warm in the tundra!

COLIN QUINN AT THE VERMONT COMEDY FESTIVAL

I had always heard great things about Vermont, but I’m not a skier and for whatever reason never wound up going. Then I got contacted by two young comics named Collen Doyle and Matt Vita who produce the Vermont Comedy Festival. I’m always impressed by people who undertake such ambitious projects. I know how much effort it takes to produce a single comedy show. To produce an entire festival is a huge endeavor and takes a tremendous amount of work. It also deserves a tremendous amount of praise for pulling it off.

I was brought up to perform but also to be the official interviewer for the festival, with almost 60 comics attending from all over the country, having done that after covering JFL for 30 years, the NY Comedy Festival, the Las Vegas Comedy Festival and so many major comedy events. Last year they had Joe List as the headliner. I called Joe and got a good recommendation regarding his experience with the festival.

Then they asked me if I could help get a big star as the headliner. Top of their list was Colin Quinn a friend of mine for more than 30 years. So Colin agreed to be the headliner with an hour plus show at the Woodstock Town Hall Theater, a beautiful theater that holds 400 people. Needless to say it was sold out.

The highlight of the weekend for me was taking a little road trip with Colin to a place we both wanted to visit and then spending a couple of days together sharing meals and reminiscing about fun times over the years. We both had lots of stories to share, like when I attended his very first one man show called “An Irish Wake.” Besides Jackie Mason comics weren’t really doing one man shows in those days. I’ll never forget it!

We got to perform together at the Woolen Mill Comedy Club owned by Collen Doyle on the first official night of the festival, and then I got to open for him at his headline show at the Town Hall Theater. We went over in the afternoon to check out the space, and also to be able to see where it was because there are literally no lights in Vermont! (LOL)

I know they have electricity but the roads have no lights so if you don’t know exactly where you’re going once it gets dark, you can’t see the road signs, and you can wind up literally driving into the woods, which is what happened to me the night I got there. Thank G-d for GPS.

The festival connected me with a great videographer named Chris Gramuglia who was my interview partner for the entire time and also filmed the shows. He made it easy! All I had to bring was my Comedy Matters TV hand held mic and my custom mic flag and that was it. On the day of Colin’s headline show we shot this little video at an afternoon industry event featuring Abbey Robertson who books the headliners at New York Comedy Club. I made sure to shout out NYCC owner Emilio Savone for all that he does in the comedy world, and taught Collen Doyle that there’s more than one way to spell Colin! (LOL) And if you don’t believe me just ask Colin Quinn and Colin Jost!!!

We were put up in a beautiful hotel called 506 On The River, with great food, a super attentive staff, a beautiful restaurant, and great ambiance, and while we had some downtime the day of his headlining show I took the opportunity to do a little interview about what he was currently working on, to prep for his show on Dec. 18th at The Fat Black Pussycat, where he had a residency, and how he develops his material. This is what he said!

“Most of my material is still undeveloped. Like I write it, try and memorize it but then when you go on stage you realize it’s undeveloped and you only develop it by working it out in front of a crowd. So you always have to work to another level. Like in movies they stop developing which is why most movies are bad and stand up is funny, because movies, they develop it, then they shoot it, and put it out in front of an audience, maybe with two test audiences, and then it’s finished. They don’t redo it.”

“Like if you did a movie like where you ran it for 80 days, in front of like 80 audiences, then that would be like standup. That’s how stand-up works. Even if the producer comes in and re-edits the film they are re-editing it with THEIR taste. Our editing is with the help of 100 audiences.”

Then I asked him about his connection to The Comedy Cellar. He said it was “his favorite place on the planet. And it was always that way. The first time I saw it I was like this is what comedy is supposed to look like, and I still feel that way. I LOVE it!!!”

“Like with anything else, sometimes you have to take a break, but In general MacDougal Street is my favorite street ever, and to me The Cellar IS MacDougal Street. It’s my favorite place ever! Noam kept the tradition alive that his Dad Manny started.” He even had admiration for Ava, Manny’s wife who he said is a great artist and lives in the building next to The Cellar. “The Cellar is just a magical place, that’s how I feel about it!”

At the end of the weekend we drove back to NY together, over 5 hours through a terrific rainstorm to get home, and thank G-d we trusted Waze which took us around a terrible accident allowing me to get to a venue for VIP Talent as a keynote speaker! And all the VIP’ers were so excited to meet Colin Quinn!

HOLIDAY PARTIES ABOUND

One of the things that makes holiday time so special are the parties where people who often don’t see each other for a while get to hang out and celebrate the season. Such is the case for the comedy community. Below I will post photos from just some of the parties I attended.

New York Comedy Club’s party was packed as usual and I got to catch up with Adam Gilbert who won their 8th annual Fall Competition. It was also where Joe DeRosa, … who also supplied the sandwiches from his Joey Roses sandwich shop, … asked me to be the official mascot/’dancer for Salsa Windfall, his band with Paul Chell that recently headlined Arlene’s Grocery. At that show they played the music video I starred in called “Mouth On My Money” currently up on You Tube, with special effects thanks to The Homeless Pimp, and it was fun to see how many people reccognized me from that fun video. Part of it is below! I can’t wait to shoot more videos with those guys!

These are some photos from the party at The Stand.

And then there are these :

ESTHER KU IN NEW YORK

Esther Ku and I go back quite a ways. I remember helping her prepare for her appearance on Last Comic Stranding which was back in 2008, when she was just a little baby comic! (LOL) And then years later she was one of my special guests on Sirius XM with Ron and Fez!

**WITH ESTHER KU UP AT SIRIUS XM’S RON AND FEZ SHOW-2014**

Now she headlines all over the country so when I heard she’d be doing a show at Arthouse Hotel which is part of Stand Up NY, I knew I had to be there. Also she told me she wanted me to meet Mango her little rescue dog. She came dressed as Mrs Claus and she’ll be doing The Brokerage in Bellmore this coming Saturday December 30th!

Since it was the night of Christmas it was a small show and we talked about that after her set. Most people are home with their families on holidays while comedians are out trying to make strangers laugh. Such a crazy business!

THE LOVE FOR PATRICE O’NEAL GOES ON

Hard to believe it’s been 12 years since Patrice left us. It was Nov. 29th, 2011 and wherever I go guys still stop me who were fans of Patrice and what we did on The Black Phillip Show. At one of the parties just a couple of weeks ago a young guy came over to me and asked if we could take a photo. I do that anyway with anyone who mentions Black Phillip, and I keep them in a folder. He posted it on IG as people tend to do these days! (LOL)

When I was performing in Japan back in 2019, I left the stage and a guy named Devin came over to me all excited that he had been a fan of the show. At Skankfest one year two guys from Ireland came over to me, and one night near the Comedy Cellar two brothers from Africa came over to tell me they were fans of Patrice and the show. Not “brothers” due to their ethnicity but they were really biological brothers! (LOL)

The love for Patrice is still so strong because of the person he was. To me he was not just a comedian, he was a comedy philosopher, and it was truly one of my greatest honors when he named me a co-host of the show. This is a phone call I treasure which I received at 4:05 A.M. the first night we did the show together. I keep it on my phone, and I added stills going back through my history with Patrice.

So today as I’m writing this I was so moved to receive text messages from Patrice’s Mom Georgia who was kind enough to remember me on the holidays. I’m sure she wouidn’t mind me sharing what she wrote, because it meant the world to me as did my friendship with Patrice:

What a great Christmas present! And on that note I want to wish you all HAPPY, HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND ALL GOOD THINGS FOR THE COMING YEAR! 2024, LET’S GO!!!

Tags: Aaron Berg, Abbey Robertson, Adam Gilbert, Chris Distefano, Christine Berg, Colin Quinn, Collen Doyle, Comedy, Comedy Cellar, Dani Zoldan, Emilio Savone, Esther Ku, Frank Morano, Geno Bisconte, Ice-T, Joe DeRosa, Johnny POtenza, Keren Margolis, Kosha Dillz, Kyle Grooms, Lorraine Sylvetz, Matt Vita, Melle Mel, Michael Rapaport, Mike Lavin, Mouth On My Money, New York Comedy Club, New York Comedy Festival, Periel Aschenbrand, Salsa Windfall, Stand Up Comedy, Stand Up New York, The Homeless Pimp, The Stand Comedy Club, Tom Waites, Tumua, Vermont, Vermont comedy festival

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COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO, SAL VULCANO, TAYLOR TOMLINSON, SETH HERZOG, ICE-T, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on September 25, 2023

**A VERY EXCITING NIGHT WITH CHRISSY D. AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN**

CHRIS DISTEFANO MAKES COMEDY HISTORY

So I’ve been covering the comedy scene for more than 20 years with Comedy Matters and until now I have NEVER seen anyone sell out Radio City and the very next night sell out The Theatre at Madison Square Garden until Chris Distefano did it this past weekend.

I’m still tripping on the excitement of being there both nights and watching him crush it so easily. He seemed very calm and I’m not sure why but I was as nervous as if I was performing! I think maybe it was the stress of getting there with the U.N. traffic that has been destroying New York for the past week!

James Mattern did a great job hosting both nights. My man Mike Cannon crushed on Friday night’s show, and The Homeless Pimp and NYVideoGuy filmed the whole thing. It was a classy affair with a band as the opening act, and Chris did a really smooth hour.

After the show the after-party was bangin’ with lots of food, and a very hip, stylish crowd. Ryan Ling was there, the creator of MTV’s Girl Code and Guy Code both of which shows Chris was on. We got to talk about a couple of new projects he’s developing.

And Chris’ Mom and Dad were both there, and he kept apologizing to his Mom every time he cursed or said something off color. His material is very family oriented, and I give him so much credit for being able to tell stories about his Mom and Dad, who have been divorced for many years, with them in attendance.

They are both good sports and I was very excited to meet his Mom and congratulate her for birthing such a big comedy star! We had a good laugh about all of his apologies, which she laughingly said were definitely needed!

But no one could have been prouder than Chris’ manager Emilio Savone, co-owner of the many iterations of New York Comedy Club that he runs so successfully. We always like to reminisce about the fact that 15 years ago he was selling tickets to comedy clubs all over the city and how he owns them! And of course big props to Tommy Russo, “Comedy Tommy”, who’s Chrissy’s tour manager and makes sure that every single thing is just right!!!

And uber agent Mike Berkowitz from WME was there because he handles every big comedy tour there is, and he too said to me that in his 22 years he has never seen a comedian sell out Radio City one night and the next night sell out The Theatre at MSG. True comedy history!!!

Chris ended the show by bringing out his “Puerto Rican family”, which was Jaz and their 3 kids and it was such a nice touch. He was carrying the little 2 year old.

The next night the show opened with a drummer who drummed along to lots of hit rock songs, and the girl I was with, Princess Cindy, knew all of them! She got along great with Princess Pixie who was there as well both bringing amazing energy to the event!

On the second night Sal Vulcano made a surprise appearance to THUNDEROUS applause. The applause was so loud and went on for so long that he finally asked the audience to stop so he could start performing. I was hoping to see him at the after party but he didn’t hang out!

He also did not disappoint and did a particularly hilarious bit on what it takes in his life for a woman to get dumped by him! Made perfect sense!!!

And then there was the after-after party at Richie Akiva’s private club The Ned down on Broadway! Very hip affair, with an amazing band and an hour in, tour manager Tommy Russo came and told me that The Homeless Pimp wanted me to come out and dance, which I did. Not with him though with Princess Cindy! (LOL) But it felt weird with me dancing and him not filming me, which is what he did when we filmed the Joe DeRosa music video Mouth On My Money! You MUST see this!!!

Chrissy finished his show by saying that his next goal was playing the 20,000 seat Garden and I assured him that I would be there for that too! And then we did this:

TAYLOR TOMLINSON SELLS OUT RADIO CITY TOO!!!

A few weeks before Chris’s show I got a call from Judi Marmel, an exec at Levity Live in L.A. telling me that Taylor Tomlinson would be performing at Radio City and of course it was also a sold out affair. I hadn’t seen Taylor since the year before up at JFL when we shot a video on the red carpet of the JFL Awards because she won for Breakout Comedy Star of the Year. Only one year later she’s selling out Radio City, … 6,000 seats!!! For not one but TWO shows which meant 12,000 tickets!!!

She was filming a new Netflix special, and recently signed a deal for not one but two more Netflix specials, which will be her 3rd and 4th specials for the network! The girl is prolific!!!

Her hour-long standup debut, “Quarter-Life Crisis,” premiered on the platform in 2020, followed by “Look at You” in 2022. I was just so impressed with her writing. She’s so clever and delivered a flawlessly smooth performance.

The fun part for me is always going back afterwards to congratulate the performer. I NEVER get tired of doing that, because it takes so much hard work for them to get to the point where they sell out a prestigious venue like Radio City and love to give them the support! Especially when she did such a spectacular job!

**WITH TAYLOR TOMLINSON AFTER HER SOLD OUT SHOW AT RADIO CITY**

She’s on her “Have It All” tour and her opening act who was very funny was Dustin Nickerson. I hadn’t seen him before but I have a feeling I’ll be seeing more of him in the future. The after-party was packed and I was not aware that there were so many meeting rooms in Radio City. You go in elevators and up to other floors through winding hallways. Most people will probably never see them! Also interesting to me!

HARRISON GREENBAUM HEADLINES HIS OWN SHOW IN VEGAS

Magicians have always been a staple of Las Vegas shows but legit magician/stand up comedians are few and far between, and Harrison Greenbaum stands out amongst those few. He will be making a big announcement very soon, probably headlining his own show, ( just a guess on my part!), after doing 650 shows with Cirque de Soleil’s Mad Apple, and being the first comedy magician ever headline a Cirque de Soleil show.

I saw him recently in New York when he had a party and book signing for his new book “You Are All Terrible.” The party was at the famous Tannen’s Magic Shop, the oldest and most venerated magic shop in NYC, and the only place you can get the book.

And Harrison regaled the attendees with stories like how Criss Angel snuck in to see his show, how his 1 or 2 day gig in Vegas turned into a 1 1/2 year contract and how his jokes and tricks almost got him fired, sued or killed!!!

But one thing I will never forget about Harrison is how when I was in the hospital with Covid Double Pneumonia back in March of 2020, he and Corinne Fisher organized a get well video for me of many of the comedians in New York! Such a kind thing to do, which really helped me to gain the strength to recover. I always say it’s a shame you have to be so sick to know that people care about you! (LOL)

This is the video.

ICE-T AND COCO HIT THE HAMPTONS

My long-time friendship with Ice-T and Coco goes back to my longtime friendship with Richard Belzer, which Ice reminded me about when I went out to Southampton to attend The Barbie and Ken Pink Rose Soiree, a charity event to raise money for sick and underprivileged children. The event was held at the fabulous Bentley Hotel, and was produced by nightlife guru Richie Hosein.

The event was absolutely packed. Valet parking worked overtime to accommodate all the cars, and Ice’s wife Coco Austin wore an amazing pink outfit that was definitely a highlight of the event! Both she and Ice were very gracious, as they always are, in interacting with the crowd and posing for photos with everyone who asked!

COCO AUSTIN AT THE BENTLEY HOTEL

THE GODDESS OF COMEDY VISITS NY

There was a time when women in comedy had to play it down and make themselves look plain. Not anymore! Lauren Francesca is a You Tube star with more than a million followers on Facebook and hundreds of thousands on IG.

I get to see her when she’s in NY, visiting from her home in LA, and planning a new project because she was in my very first You Tube video back around 2011 and I created HER very first You Tube video in which she played a woman named Besame Mucho, the “Best Kisser In The World.”

So she came by the Comedy Matters crib so we could shoot a couple of IG and Facebook Live videos. And it goes without saying that I took her to a show at Gotham Comedy Club, where I always have my own table, and where I recently shot the pilot for The Raw Side of Comedy! Shout out to Chris Mazzilli!!! (LOL) Stay tuned for more on Lauren!!!

POSITIVELY ERNIE AND POSITIVELY JEFFREY

Ernie Anastos is a broadcasting legend with over 40 years of radio and TV on his resume, even though he looks too young for that to be true. I was going to say “under his belt” but he’s still so slim it wouldn’t fit under his belt!!! (LOL)

Everyone knows that comedy carries a message even more than being serious, so I’ve had the privilege of being on air with Ernie on his 77 WABC radio show called Positively Ernie, talking about Mental Health and then again on the importance of Family. and connection to combat the epidemic of loneliness that is a true killer.

We impart information at the same time making it humorous and people love it, as evidenced by the number of callers who can’t wait to participate.

It’s always been a dream of mine to have a show that only present positive content, and Ernie is doing it! He just got his own TV show called Positively America which will air on Sunday mornings on WPIX, Channel 11. Congratulations Ernie I know it will be a big hit!!!

SETH HERZOG CELEBRATES 19 YEARS OF SWEET

This seems to be a column for record breakers! Most comedy shows are glad if they can last a couple of years. In 2004 Seth Herzog, the warm-up comedian for Jimmy Fallon started a show called Sweet and it’s in it’s 19th year.

He celebrated it’s anniversary in it’s new location, Chelsea Music Hall on West 15th Street, with a variety of talent, including a mentalist, social media stars, and with the great Adam Pally as his co-host. I first met Adam through Nick Kroll when we shot Kroll Show together and had an amazing time with so many of Nick’s friends who were on the segment with us.

Adam opened the show and made sure to say he wasn’t a stand up comedian but was consistently funny the whole time he was on stage. Needless to say it was a great show. I did it once and Seth and I decided that I need to do it again! More on that to come!!!

SOHO FILM FEST FEATURES ROBIN GIVENS FILM

The Soho International Film Festival is a very prestigious festival and I get to cover it every year thanks to Exec. Director and Head of Programming Sibyl Santiago, and Carlos Santiago, Jury Director of Film Selections, and their PR guru Rick Eberle! There’s so much competition especially to be the opening night film, and this year it was a film directed by actor/director Robin Givens, who I’ve wanted to meet for a very long time!

I actually met her once a long time ago at a place called Columbuis Cafe which was like the Spago of New York for celebs, but that’s a story for another day!

The film is called “The Nana Project” starring Academy Award winner Mercedes Ruehl with two very dissimilar grandsons played admirably by Nolan Gould and Will Peltz. She is their only family and they are her only family and it’s a great story.

Robin was very gracious and spent a lot of time on the red carpet allowing her fans to take photos with her. She was so excited she described herself in my video as being “speechless”! As a matter of fact she was so excited she ended my interview with a kiss and then offered me to return it which I did very gladly!

It was also a special treat that she knew jewelry designer to the stars Jessica Robinson who was there with me, and was kind enough to commandeer my camera, and take all the photos and videos I needed! Thanks so much Jess!!! The other videos and photos were snapped by celeb photog Jeff Smith who can usually be found on every “hot” red carpet!!!

The full video is below but in case it doesn’t open you can use this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma5ldMVlvQw

Unfortunately every column must eventually come to an end, and I guess this is it! Please feel free to share this with your peeps and tell them it’s cool to Subscribe! You can also subscribe to the Comedy Matters You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/comedymatterstv for more videos with your favorite comedians and follow Jeffrey on Instagram at @jeffreygurian. Bye , .. for now!!!

Tags: Chris Distefano, Madison Square Gardeb, Radio City Music Hall, Sal Vulcano

Posted in: Comedy, Comedy Events, Comedy Matters, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Jeffrey Gurian News, Stand-Up Comedy

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COMEDY MATTERS TV ROUND-UP WITH JOE DEROSA, SAL VULCANO, NO PRESH, RAW SIDE OF COMEDY, CHOSEN FEST, BORSCHT BELT FEST, RUSSELL PETERS AND MORE!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on August 22, 2023

JOE DEROSA RELEASES NEW MUSIC VIDEO STARRING JEFFREY GURIAN

**WITH JOE DEROSA ON SET FILMING “MOUTH ON MY MONEY” BY SALSA WINDFALL**

Joe DeRosa is a man of many talents. He’s a comedian, actor, musician, podcaster, writer and food guru, but when he contacted me to ask if I’d be in his new music video, I wasn’t sure what to do. I thought I might be with an ensemble cast. Turned out it was basically just me! (LOL)

Joe has a band called Salsa Windfall and their new song is called “Mouth On My Money.” It’s on the No Presh network which is the home of the podcast he does with Sal Vulcano called “Taste Buds”, and the podcast with Sal and Chris DiStefano called “Hey, Babe” produced by Mike Lavin who prefers to go by the name “The Homeless Pimp.”

When I first met him I was reluctant to call him that, the same as I felt awkward calling “Ratso” Sloman “, … the former editor of National Lampoon, … “Ratso” until “Ratso” told me he was given the name by none other than Bob Dylan and wears it proudly. From that time on I never felt bad about calling him “Ratso”!

I thought about all the crazy things that Sal and The Jokers do on Impractical Jokers and used that as inspiration to agree to dance in Joe’s music video, and I’m so glad I did. It’s important to challenge yourself in life which is what I try to do on a daily basis. I was afraid of making myself look foolish!

But it was so much fun and I’m so glad I did it. We shot it in the downtown offices of The Impractical Jokers, and it was shot by Pimp and NYVideoGuy! I got to tell Sal that he was my inspiration later in the month when I saw him performing at City Winery. He said he LOVED the video!

We also talked about the new special he’s planning! This is how THAT went down!

WITH SAL VULCANO BACKSTAGE AT CITY WINERY

The special effects Pimp created for Mouth On My Money were amazing and you can see it all right here!

BORSCHT BELT FEST – LOTS OF JOKES, NO BORSCHT

Any of you old enough to remember the term “Borscht Belt” will definitely appreciate the festival that was held in Ellenville, NY to honor the hotels in the Catskill Mountains where Jewish people used to flock from the 1940’s and 50’s through the 1980’s.

One of the biggest and most popular was Grossingers, a hotel with a dining room that sat 1300 people, served 3 meals a day with all you could eat inclusive, a HUGE nightclub called The Terrace Room where big comedy stars of the day performed, like Milton Berle, Jerry Lewis, Robert Klein, David Brenner, Jackie Mason, Buddy Hackett, and tons more, and it even had its own airstrip to fly in the big stars and ultra-rich people who stayed there.

Jennie Grossinger ran the hotel for many years until she passed away in 1972, and her daughter Elaine Etess took over. I was there at two different times in my life, … as a very young boy who sang solo in a Hebrew choir and was there for the High Holidays, and as an adult as a comedy writer where I got to meet many of the stars I wound up writing for.

I was honored to be asked to participate in a panel about Grossingers with the two producers working on a documentary film about the hotel, tentatively titled “Welcome To Grossingers.” Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures and the legendary producer of many films, Bob Friedman of Bungalow Entertainment are behind the project.

**HARRIS SALOMON IN THE GREEN CAP AND BOB FRIEDMAN IN THE BLUE SHIRT**

The night before the fest started there was a welcoming party in Ellenville at a place called Marbellas. I was thrilled to see that we had a packed room at our event and that so many people are still interested in that era. I think it has a lot to do with the success of Amazon Prime’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” set in the 1950’s.

Jennie Grossinger’s daughter Elaine Etess, who is now 91, and her brother Mitchell both called in on Zoom to join the panel and reminisce about the great days of Grossingers.

While I was there I also caught a couple of comedy shows, one in particular hosted by the ultra-talented Lucie Pohl who often does one-woman shows. This show featured comedians who were immigrants as many of the hotel guest in the Catskills resorts were immigrants. And I got to see one of my faves, Daniel Simonsen from Norway who is hilarious and who has appeared in a couple of shows I produced.

**LUCIE POHL ALMOST BLOCKED BY SOMEONE’S GRAY HAIR**

MORE JEWISH STUFF AT THE CHOSEN COMEDY FESTIVAL

Over 4,000 members of people who identify as belonging to the Hebraic persuasion showed up at the Coney Island Amphitheatre in Brooklyn for Dani Zoldan’s Chosen Festival, hosted by Elon Gold and Modi. There haven’t been comedy duos for many years, like Laurel and Hardy, Abbott and Costello, Allen and Rossi, but these two guys come awfully close! And that’s a good thing!!!

Except while Marty Allen was the comic and Steve Rossi acted as the straight man, both of these guys, Elon and Modi are the comics, and with Modi being very open about being gay, he’d never agree to be called a “straight man!” (LOL)

Thanks to Dani and Jon Borromeo, the general manager of Stand Up New York, I had an All Access pass, so I went to the VIP room and got to hang with old pals Rich Vos, Elon Altman, Jeff Ross, and Ari Shaffir! Also on the show were Jessica Kirson, who makes the most unusual faces when she performs, Eli Leonard, Eunji Kim who somehow identifies as Jewish, and with a special guest spot from Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, and his owner Robert Smigel.

I was pleasantly surprised to see how many members of the Orthodox community are into comedy, and two of them came over to tell me they liked my Joe DeRosa video “Mouth On My Money.” Both of them happened to be musicians who were playing at the festival before the comedy began, Roli Friedman with the group Emotional Intelligence, and Yaakov Hyman-Zusha with his band Zusha, sporting a ZZ Top worthy beard, and a beautiful smile!!!

**WITH MY MISHBUCHA ( PARDON THE SPELLING!) YAAKOV HYMAN-ZUSHA**

The biggest surprise was surprise guest Dave Attell who closed the show, and about whom Elon Gold said, ” If the Unibomber hung out at Katz’s deli” which was the best description of the evening. Dave always comes on stage with a bag or backpack, and of course he was hilarious.

**(L-R) Jeff Ross, Ari Shaffir, Modi, Rich Vos, Dave Attell, Elon Gold – They almost had a Minyan!**

Another thing about the festival. They could have saved money on Security. Not one fight or argument broke out. It was a very polite crowd. People apologized to each other if they got in someone’s way. I didn’t have to worry telling the guy next to me to stop rocking back in his seat every time he laughed, ( which was a lot) and shaking my seat, in fear that he’d pull out a weapon, and no Jewish street gangs showed up to spoil the fun for everyone. It was a “haimishe” crowd! (LOL)And a very big success!!! I would have LOVED to perform for that crowd. Maybe next time!!!

RUSSELL PETERS FINDS HIMSELF AT CITY WINERY

I keep writing about the amazing shows that City Winery is offering, but I didn’t expect them to get Russell Peters who fills arenas! I was with Russell when he filled MSG with 20,000 screaming fans! Or should I say 20,000 laughing fans!

I let him know I was coming because very often they have security outside the green room and even if you know the comic who’s performing they still give you a hard time getting back to say hello. I didn’t take any chances. I contacted Russell AND his brother Clayton just to make sure.

He had 4 sold out shows in two nights, Thursday and Friday. I hit the early show on Thursday and the late show on Friday. Both nights he had the very funny Gregg Rogell open for him. Gregg often travels with him on his international tours. On Friday night’s late show he gave a guest spot to Nimesh Patel, who was kind enough to shout me out from the stage!

Russell is one of the only comics who literally plays the whole world. When he says he’s on a world tour he really means it. This current tour is called the “Act Your Age” tour. He still does all the accents and no one is offended which is why I always refer to him as “The Messiah of Comedy,” because he brings Healing to the masses by making them all laugh at themselves before they laugh at each other!

We shot a little video together backstage. Check it out!!!

RAW SIDE OF COMEDY SHOOTS TV PILOT AT GOTHAM

Almost a year ago I was hired as an Exec. Producer/Host of a proposed TV pilot called The Raw Side of Comedy. The concept is that of a competition/reality show showing how hard it is to make it in comedy, and what the lives of aspiring comedians are really like.

Since most of the comics have day jobs, besides showing them on stage, we do interviews with their work colleagues and family members to see how them doing comedy impacts the lives of those around them.

I brought the project to Chris Mazzilli the owner of Gotham Comedy Club, and he agreed to join the team. Chris has a new show on the air right now on MAX with Robert Downey Jr. called Downey’s Dream Cars.

After many months of auditioning comedians we took the top 30 to Gotham for the competition part of the show. Any one who knows me knows I make the rounds of the clubs always looking for new talent to use in upcoming projects. I personally chose around half of the comics and many of them made the final 10.

**JEFFREY ANNOUNCING THE FINAL 10 COMICS**

The final 10 were Drew Dunn, Ted Barton, Austin Goodman, Kilara Sen, Soo Ra, Hannah Lieberman, Ryan Joseph, Talent Harris Jr., Noah Miller, and David Hazout. The judges were me, Charles McBee who also did the audience warm-up, and Tony Burton from the great Don Buchwald Agency!

The other producers are based in Philly and are Darvin Milligan, Marlisa Patterson and Sherry Patterson.

We hired the same production crew that shot several seasons of Gotham Comedy Live and thanks to Chris’s watchful eye and the talent of production head Jason Gillet the shoot came off without a hitch. The next day we took them in a customized van, … which was more like a limo than a van, … to an airbnb in Brooklyn and told them that’s where they’d be staying every night during the run of the show.

And that’s where the competition part of the show morphed into the reality part of the show because of what they had to do to secure a room. Can’t divulge any more right now, but you’ll learn more in the upcoming weeks.

These columns seem to get longer and longer every month but it’s just because so many exciting things are going on in the comedy world. See you all soon and feel free to share this column with anyone you think will like it.

Also you can follow Jeffrey on Instagram at @jeffreygurian and you can subscribe to his Comedy Matters TV You Tube channel at www.youtube.com/comedymatterstv where you’ll find 600 videos with everyone you love in comedy! See you there!!!

Tags: Chris Distefano, Gotham Comedy Club, Impractical Jokers, Joe DeRosa, New York Comedy Club, Russell Peters, Sal Vulcano

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COMEDY MATTERS IS BACK!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on February 15, 2023

With Marc Maron, Nick Kroll, Jeff Ross, Chris Distefano, Jiaoying Summers, Pauly Shore, NY Comedy Fest, and so much more!!!

Due to public demand Comedy Matters is back on the scene!!!

It’s been very gratifying to see how many people and clubs have asked me to cover what they’re doing, so I’m back jumping around again like before. Not EXACTLY like before, because nothing is really like it was before, but as close to before as possible.

There are so many things to write about I’m not sure whether to try and do them in chronological order, grouping them by category, or what but what I do know is that this will be a long-ass column. I may even have to do it in two parts. These are the comedy highlights from recent months!!!

NEW TV PILOT COMING FROM

GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB

Very excited to announce the creation of an indie TV pilot called “The Raw Side of Comedy” that will be filmed at the great 300 seat Gotham Comedy Club in the next few weeks. Despite the fact that they tend to say there’s nothing new in comedy, this will be kind of new. It’s a competition/reality show, and I’ve been scouting talent for the last few months as one of the Exec. Producers on the show along with Gotham owner and founder Chris Mazzilli, Fawziyya Fox, Marlisa Patterson, Sherry Patterson and Darvin Milligan.

Some of the talent I chose will be Pedro Gonzalez, Drew Dunn, Rich Aronovich, Tony Dabas, Max May, Tommy Brennan, Elon Altman, Ryan Joseph and Talent Harris Jr. More to be revealed very shortly!!!

MARC MARON’S MOMA MOMENT

Not just an alliteration but a real thing, … Marc Maron had a 92Y talk at one of the most famous museums in the world, The Museum of Modern Art on West 53rd Street in Manhattan. Very prestigious. Packed crowd. It was to highlight the premiere of his first HBO special premiering the next night called “From Bleak to Dark” in which he talks about things like aging, antisemitism, grief, and other topics that only Marc Maron can make funny.

Moderated by MTV News’ Josh Horowitz, Marc had previously done Josh’s Happy, Sad, Confused podcast where hit on a lot of the same topics including reuniting with his Dad, why cats are better than kids, stories from WTF and things that Marc’s fans expect him to talk about. Marc of course being the acknowledged “King of Candidness and Introspection.”

Knowing Marc as long as I do I can honestly say that I think Marc changed the game with his one man show Scorching The Earth. I attended that show at 45 Bleecker, a theatre down in the Village and to this day I recall my own personal shock at his honesty and what he was willing to share with the audience. Especially concerning the break-up with his second wife Mishna who I happened to know at the time.

**THE NIGHT OF SCORCHING THE EARTH-2009**

Since that time, others have tried to copy Marc but I do believe he was the first to have the courage to go so deep and reveal himself to the audience in that way.

It affected me because I’m not sure I have the ability to share things so honestly, but Marc went where no other human had gone before to share something, … which I think may be a quote from Star Trek. The audience loved it and since that time other comedians have tried to bare their souls on stage but I truly believe that Marc was the first.

Embarrassment is just a thought after all. If I share something that’s hard for me to say, I’m the only one who blushes, and who’s hands sweat. No one ever had to stay home from work the next day from anything I shared.

NICK KROLL IN A SPECIAL SHOW

Who would ever expect to have the opportunity to see Nick Kroll in a relatively small, intimate show after selling out Carnegie Hall? ( Redundant question!) When I got the e-mail that Nick would be performing at Kol Ami Temple in White Plains I thought it might be a misprint. It seems it was a retirement event for a Rabbi named Tom Wiener and Nick had been a student of his and went with him on a trip to Israel. (Not just the two of them! It was with a whole group! LOL)

I hadn’t seen Nick since that magical night when he sold out Carnegie Hall, and Covid restrictions were so strict that they wouldn’t even let his family backstage to visit him, but for some reason they let me in.

I expected a big crowd backstage but it was just Nick, his super-agemt Mike Berkowitz from WME and celeb photographer Marcus Russell Price who happened to be stationed right by the door, and caught the action right as I came in to hysterical laughter from both Nick and Mike who couldn’t believe they blocked Nick’s family but let ME in! I was actually embarrassed! Nick immediately took out his phone and posted it on Instagram.

I brought my daughters to meet Nick and called him before to ask if I could see him after the show to take a photo and introduce him to my daughters Elizabeth and Kathryn. He’s always the best!

Chrissy D and The Podcast/Radio Scene

Last summer when I was in Montreal at JFL’s 40th anniversary I found myself hanging with NY Comedy Club owner Emilio Savone, Chris DiStefano, Nimesh Patel, and Adam Gilbert at one of the raucous parties that is part of that scene. Chrissy D invited me to come on his Chrissy Chaos podcast and that actually happened.

I drove out to Staten Island to his beautiful studio, overlooking the water, and was greeted by his team led by his producer who goes by the name of The Homeless Pimp! You gotta respect that choice! I found out his real name but I’m not gonna share it in case he does’t want people to know!

Needless to say we had a blast! Chrissy is a riot as you all know. I brought the jacket that Nick Kroll and John Mulaney made for me for their “Oh, Hello” Show on Broadway and Chrissy wore the red beret cause I don’t do hats, … cause of the hair! I know you get it!!! (LOL)

**This jacket is one of my greatest treasures!!!**

He invited me back to do the pod he does with Sal Vulcano, and I’m really looking forward to that. I think he posted my episode on his Patreon. And a day or two later they posted that my heart attack story got over 1 million views! It’ a rough way to get views but I hope it gets me back there again!

And as I was leaving, Sam Morril came in to do another episode. Sam is one of the young comics that used to do my late night show at The Comic Strip back in the day, and it’s so great to see him getting the recognition he deserves. I always knew he was very unique and now he’s killing it all over the country. Most of those guys from that late night show went on to do very well.

Gary Vaynerchuk better known to his millions of fans as Gary Vee had a podcast coming out of his studios in Hudson Yards. So I’m at 3 different events and three different employees of his tell me separately that I’d be a great guest on Gary Vee’s podcast. Now I’m totally psyched because I had wanted to connect with Gary in the past as so many people tell me we should know each other. Now it was gonna happen. Except it didn’t.

The first girl totally flaked. The second guy was a comic himself, Sean Millea who actually did bring me down to tape a podcast in Gary’s studio in the One37 part of Vayner Media. We waited weeks to set it up and when I finally got there it went superb. Really great stuff and it never got posted. Don’t know if it even ever got edited. The podcast was told to close up shop. But it was really fun for me to see the world of Vayner Media. Literally hundreds of Gen Z’s working in cubicles , and I got the tour so I saw it for myself. Amazing!!!

A big shout out to Xen Sams for her wonderful top-rated radio show ” A Moment of Xen” on iHeart Radio on Saturday nights from 9-10 P.M. Xen is a fund of knowledge about everything and has a great love for comedy. which is why we get along so well. I hadn’t seen her in a while till I ran into her at The Friars Club on one of the rare occasions that it was open. We decided we had to do something cool together and she invited me on twice so far. A really cool, funny, innovative show and Xen is the best.

And Paul Chamberlain is back! You might remember him as having produced the Maui Comedy Fest8val, and then the Crapshoot Comedy festival in Vegas which I attended. I was shooting videos with all the stars for a company named “Be Terrific” who hired me get all the interviews and run the red carpet.

Paul has a fascinating story and one that’s very admirable. After Vegas, and I’m not spilling any secrets, because he’s very open about it, despite all of his hard work, he had a very hard time emotionally because of a lot of stuff that went down. It took him out for a while but now he regrouped and is doing amazingly well again.

He contacted me to tell me he always appreciated my support because he knew I love supporting talented hard working people and I became a guest on his “Smart, Funny Tortured Podcast” which was an emotionally cleansing thing for both of us. So glad to hear he’s doing great and has some big plans for the future involving comedy.

And no column would be complete in talking about radio and podcasts without mentioning the great Frank Morano who has the top rated overnight show on WABC Radio called “The Other Side of Midnight.” He’s on all week from 1-5 A.M. and fills the time slot with fun and interesting segments because he’s another fund of knowledge who also loves comedy and is funny in his own right. Radio funny!

There’a big difference between radio funny and comedy club funny because radio is basically straight improv. Not easy to fill four hours every night but Frank does it and he does his homework and is very gracious to his guests in the way he treats them on air.

I always have the best time and besides speaking about my Happiness books I also get to tell stories from GNN ( Gurian News Network) and from my book “Man Robs Bank With His Chin – And Other Unusual Stories Missed by Mainstream Media.”

Stories like ” Man Displays Uncanny Ability To Pick Up Heavy Things With His Eye”, and “Man Paints Replica of the Cistine Chapel With His Beard.”, which is really fun for me, and the reason that GNN is your source for All The News That’s Fit To Dance To.” We laugh away the hour together, and it always goes really fast.

On April 19, 2023 at the New York Botanical Gardens, the National Psoriasis Foundation will be honoring Frank Morano for his dedication and support in helping to find a cure for psoriatic disease patients. And I will be there for sure!!!

PAULY SHORE’S ONE MAN SHOW

AT NY COMEDY FEST

I was so happy to hear that Pauly was bringing his one man show “Stick to the Dancing- Stories From My Childhood” to The Asylum. The Asylum is an art house on Manhattan’s West Side, and the old UCB space, and Pauly’s show was part of the 18th annual New York Comedy Festival produced by Caroline Hirsch of Carolines on Broadway, which alas closed down on Dec. 31st after 30 years in that same location. We’ll get to that in another section of this column.

Pauly has an amazing story growing up in LA’s Comedy Store owned by his parents Mitzi Shore, and Sammy Shore a funny comedian I had met several times, but first through Milton Berle, my sponsor in The Friars Club!

How Pauly survived is a miracle having Sam Kinison as a babysitter, and the show goes through Pauly’s years on MTV, making movies like Biodome, Son-In-Law, his days as The Weasel and his catch phrase Hey, BU-DDY, and I was touched by his genuine humility and gratitude for all the good things he’s experienced as well as all the painful things he’s experienced.

I know him a long time, since the late 90’s and he seems like a truly changed man. He was very grateful to the audience and very gracious to people after the show. It was very touching and I really enjoyed it.

18th ANNUAL NY COMEDY FEST

AND CAROLINES CLOSING

For the last 18 years Caroline Hirsch and her amazing team like Louis Faranda, and Greg Charles, plus relative newbies like Carolyn Gitomer and Jonny Moran have put on the New York Comedy Festival, the biggest and most prestigious comedy festival in the US. Hundreds of shows in every possible venue throughout the boroughs!

At the time in November, I don’t think people were aware that Carolines would be closing on Dec. 31st in it’s Times Square location after 30 years in the same spot. It was described in the news as a rent dispute. The landlord had to be pretty dumb or just very greedy to lose the jewel of Times Square. Jeff Ross and I got to talk about it on FOX TV.

The main hangout for the fest was The Hard Rock Hotel in Times Square. It was a constant party and several of the shows were in the hotel. I actually got to see some new talent and drew a few names from one of the shows for my new show Raw Side, where Chris Mazzilli and Rick Dorfman were two of the judges. Always good to see Reg Thomas, and Daniel Simonsen who I’ve had on a couple of my own self-produced shows.

Also great to see my man Cipha Sounds DJ’ing and doing comedy opening Mo Amer’s sold out show at Manhattan Community College way downtown. Now that I’m jumping around again I go everywhere!!!

**CIPHA SOUNDS ON THE ONES AND TWOS WITH MO AMER**

My history with Carolines goes back to the 80’s when she first opened in a much smaller space on 26th and 8th. I clearly recall the night I first met Jerry Seinfeld and Paul Reiser there. They were both pretty new, and both on the same show and I remember being so impressed with them that I went over to introduce myself and offered to introduce them to my manager at the time, David Jonas, probably best known for managing Freddie Prinze.

When Carolines moved to The Seaport, I did too, very often to see my buddy Gilbert Gottfried, who used to make me laugh so hard in those early days I recall once begging him to stop because I couldn’t take the pain of laughing anymore! And then I brought Jackie Mason down there one night to see a comedy group I thought would be perfect for a movie I was writing for him called “The Detective” which was set in a fictional “tough Jewish neighborhood.” He played a Jewish version of a bumbling Detective Clouseau.

Anyway, every comic wanted to be on that stage before it closed and I was lucky enough to do two spots there that month, one on Jeff Ross’s last headline show on Sunday, Dec. 18th. A night to remember for me! Jeff has always been very gracious and we have shared some special moments, like the time in Montreal when he and I were having lunch together, and a man came over to tell him that he won the award for his film “Patriot Act.” A very special moment to be shared!

Carolines made a touching speech to Jeff on stage about how long he had been at the club, and afterwards we hung out backstage and she said that Carolines isn’t going anywhere and would be back bigger and better than ever, And knowing Caroline I can’t wait to see her next move!!!

ASIAN WOMEN TAKING OVER COMEDY

(ESPECIALLY BLOND ASIAN WOMEN)

I had been hearing so much about this Cali based comedian Jiaoying Summers, so I was so glad to finally be able to meet her at The Stand one night. I was so impressed with her story and how she managed to escape the one-child policy in China at the time she was born, where the “one-child” that everyone was allowed to keep was a boy. And boy are they paying for that now!

I love her story , I love the way she speaks English with such perfection, and I especially love when she says she would be considered ugly in China because that is certainly not the case here. She came to the Comedy Matters offices where we shot some fun videos and she got to connect to a photo of her idol Phyllis Diller. She couldn’t believe I knew her. I will try and post the video for you to see how quick she is, how funny, and how far from ugly she is in any country! (LOL)

Since then we’ve become friends and I’ve seen her perform at Carolines, The Stand and other clubs as well. We even shot a couple of fun videos together at the Comedy Matters TV crib!

Then L.A. comic Kiki Yeung, the founder of “Crazy, Woke Asians”, who’s also one of the parents on the ABC show Parent Test came to town to host her own show as part of the NY Comedy Festival. The show was down at Alex Carabano’s St. Marks Comedy Club.

She was kind enough to let me know she was coming to town, so I made sure to make it down there. The funny part was that the show was called “Kiki Funny Mama’s Night Out”, so I didn’t realize till half way through that all the comedians were Asian by choice. Somehow I thought it was just a coincidence! (LOL) ‘The Parent Test’ is on Thursday nights on ABC and streams on Hulu the next day.

Kiki Yeung at St. Marks Comedy Club

And lastly, she’s not blonde but she’s back in town! It’s Kilara Sen back from Japan. I first met Kilara playing the clubs around town, and was struck by how good she was especially performing in a language that was not her native tongue!

In 2019 I went to Japan alone, and she was kind enough to meet me at my hotel the night I landed which made my trip an amazing experience because it’s pretty weird getting to another country alone where the culture is so different.

We ran around and shot some fun videos there and she told me her dream was to one day move back to The States, and now she’s here performing again! She’s really funny, … not blond as you can see, … but really funny!

AND I THINK THAT’S IT FOR THIS COLUMN! I HAVE A LOT MORE BUT I WILL FINISH IT UP IN MY NEXT COLUMN COMING VERY SOON! STAY TUNED FOR WHAT’S HAPPENING IN COMEDY ON THE COMEDY MATTERS BLOG/VLOG!

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Tags: Chris Distefano, Chris Rock, Comedy, Comedy Central, Comedy Matters, Gotham Comedy Club, Jeff Ross, Jeffrey Gurian, Jiaoying Summers, John Mulaney, Kiki Yeung, Marc Maron, Marcus Russell Price, Mike Berkowitz, Nick Kroll, The Comic Strip, William Morris Entertainment, WME

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Comedy Matters TV On The Scene with National Lampoon, Chris Distefano at Gotham, The Irishman, and more!!!

Posted by Jeffrey Gurian on December 11, 2019

National Lampoon Back on the Scene!

National Lampoon which celebrates its 50^th anniversary in 2020, just launched a new comedy space and weekly stand-up series, “LIC Comedy,” in Long Island City thanks to Lampoon Pres. Evan Shapiro, and Exec. V.P. of Digital Media Gian Hunjan, along with Creative Associate Claudia Barran. They acquired the brand back in 2017 but just partnered with LIC Artists and The Plaxall Gallery to do a series of comedy shows, besides bringing back the beloved and iconic National Lampoon Radio hour.

Premiering December 19, the new, 11-episode podcast, in partnership with Forever Dog Podcast Network and available on iTunes, Spotify and other podcasting platforms will feature a collection of National Lampoon comedy sketches, characters, music and more, thanks to lead writers Cole Escola (Emmy-nominated “At Home with Amy Sedaris,” “Difficult People”) and Jo Firestone (Adult Swim, “The Tonight Show”).

I went out there for the inaugural show and the place is amazing. It’s a huge 12,000 square foot community center/art gallery, with many rooms, and fortunately I got there early enough that Gian found me wandering in the street, greeted me and guided me in, and then Evan gave me the tour including an outdoor space right on some kind of waterway that will be amazing for parties during the nice weather. That’s THEIR plan not mine! Those who know me know that I LOVE parties! (LOL)

The plan is to have a show every Friday night in perpetuity. The inaugural show was well attended by an interesting and upscale, handpicked group of people, in a very relaxed setting and each of the comics commented on the unusual setting, … performing in a spacious art gallery, with a slide of a huge frame on the wall behind them.

First up was Pat Burtscher, who was originally from Toronto, then lived in London and moved here to NY as of last May. He stuck out to me because he had such unusual and unique premises, which I love and respect. Things like, ” We’re the only animals that give ourselves jobs” which is a great premise and then he expanded upon it, which is how I learned to do comedy, from some of the greats. You get a strong premise and build a bunch of jokes around it. That’s the essence of writing comedy. Or at least it should be!

When I went up to him after the show to compliment him he reminded me that we had already met back in August when we were on the same show at the Fairfield Comedy Club, and I drove him and two other comics, Beecher and Jason Salmon back to New York. Pat was sitting in the back seat so I didn’t get to learn his face! (LOL) I love unique because it’s so hard to find!

Also on the show was Ali Kolbert who talks a lot about being 27 but looking much younger, which is true. Ali had been an NBC page and wound up making her late night debut on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon.

And the always funny Ricky Velez came on next. Ricky’s part of the Fat Baby crew with Giulio Gallarotti, Josh Wesson and Benny Demarco and I love the energy that those guys bring wherever they go. Ricky is also tight with Pete Davidson and performs on shows with him on the road.

Ricky talked a lot about his baby, being a Dad, his own Dad, and how his wife comes from money and wears pajamas, which to paraphrase him is a rich person’s game!

**RICKY VELEZ HOLDING IT DOWN, IN THE TIGHTEST SAGGIEST PANTS EVER- – – BUT SOMEHOW HE MAKES THEM LOOK GOOD!**

Dave Merheje followed and I had seen Dave this past summer on the Ronnie Chieng TV gala when he surprised me by performing in shorts and a T-shirt for television, while Ronnie was in a beautiful suit.

Dave’s background is Lebanese and it was funny hearing him tell the story of how his uncle once came to the door for Christmas proclaiming that he was Santa Claus, without a costume, just a beard, yelled out “Ha, Ha, Ha” instead of “Ho, Ho, Ho”, and the kids were scared that Santa Claus had an Arabic accent! Btw, he didn’t wear shorts this time, he wore bright red sweats pants!

Giulio Gallarotti came out and closed the show with a strong set, talking about how he doesn’t like to smoke weed and gave a strong reason why, and I was hoping he’d do a song as Lil Young Big his rapper alter-ego. Maybe next time.

But it was a very cool event, and when I asked Evan what he wanted people to know about it he said to tell you guys that the show will run every Friday at 10, part of the ticket sales go to support local artists, the tickets are 15 bucks and they have the least expensive drinks of any comedy club in the five boroughs!

Chris Distefano Uses Family As Inspiration for Jokes

I’ve known Chris Distefano since the beginning when we used to do open mic shows at Gotham Comedy Club and he was honing bits like “Tell me no”, and talking about his Mom dating a guy named Phineas with polio, and he was always hilarious. So it was great to see him headlining Gotham with sold out shows. The place was so packed they threatened to put strangers with me at my table! (LOL)

I was seated right next to Chris’ manager comedy heavyweight Rick Dorfman of Authentic Talent and Literary Agency, who jokingly asked me if I didn’t have anything better to do than go to a comedy show!

**BACKSTAGE WITH CHRIS DISTEFANO AT GOTHAM COMEDY CLUB AFTER HIS SOLD OUT SHOW!**

He held it down for an hour with non-stop laughs and his very unique delivery. That’s a very rare thing to have and I was glad to tell him that after the show. It’s very hard to have a unique delivery. Gilbert Gottfried does it, Judah Friedlander does it, and Chris does it too.

He makes it sound like he doesn’t know what he’s going to say next in that very kind of staccato way he has of speaking, jumping from one thing to another. To the audience it sounds like he’s saying it all for the very first time. He hits on very current topics like memes, peanut allergies, cancel culture etc.

And he kept his jacket on the whole time too, but took it off for the VIP meet and greet after the show. Almost the whole audience signed up for it and lined up to buy merch and take photos.

A lot of his merch was about History Hyenas the podcast he does with his comedy bro’ Yannis Pappas. Both of these guys were my guests on Sirius XM’s Bennington Show. After the Gotham show I went backstage to ask him a couple of questions.

THE INTERVIEW

JG: So tell me about History Hyenas.
CD – History Hyenas is a podcast I do with Yannis Pappas, it’s been going on about 18 months now, we just sold out The Gramercy Theatre a couple of weeks ago and we’re gonna do another show , actually a residency there throughout 2020, and we’ve had Jim Gaffigan on, Bill Burr, Andrew Schulz, and all the episodes are available on i-Tunes…
JG – But what’s the concept of the show?

CD – The concept of the show is it’s a history show but it’s comedy first, so you’ll learn but you’ll laugh first and foremost, it’s always comedy and then we’ll throw in some history stuff that you can regurgitate at a party and sound and look cool!

JG – Do the comics have to study history before they come on?

CD – No, we don’t require comics to study at all. They come on and if they are passionate about it, like Jim Gaffigan came on and did a whole episode about the Samurai culture in Japan because he had just come from there and he loved it. Bill Burr came on and did a whole history tour of Boston because he knows all about it, and that works but we’ve had other episodes where we just had Michael Kosta on or Sam Morril and just shoot the shit just being three comics in a room.

JG – I just got back from Japan and it’s crazy over there. I did a couple of shows there and it’s insane.
CD – Yeh, I would love to go to Japan.

JG – It’s a long fucking trip!

CD – Yeh, I’ll take an edible.

JG – You better bring more than one for 14 hours. What else do you have that people should know about, … your special 38 Waist?

CD – Well my special 38 Waist is on Comedy Central, but I’m gonna do a second special Size 36 Waist, that comes out on Comedy Central in August of 2021.
JG- Really? Or are you just fuckin’ with me?

CD – No I swear. Cause I’ve been on Keto, and I have a good boxing trainer Paulie, who’s here tonight that feeds me oregano pills, he’s here in the green room, I have a cartoon in development with Comedy Central, and of course I hope that all those things go, but my real passion right now is the podcast Hisstory Hyenas. That’s why the shows were sold out at Gotham this weekend, and why shows in general are selling out for me now is because of that podcast.

JG – Where do you tape it from?

CD – We tape it from The Comedy Cellar, RiotCast Studios, Bobby Kelly’s podcast network, and we tape anywhere from 4 hours a week to 8 hours a week depending on how much coffee Yannis has had.

JG – Tell me about the cartoon.

CD – It’s slated to come out hopefully some time in 2020, and I also have a non-scripted show in development with Comedy Central. The cartoon’s about my life. it’s about being a single Dad, with a bi-racial kid, and a father who’s in the Mafia. ( Lots of laughter)

JG – That’s a hilarious story. It’s gotta be a hit.

CD – So it’s me and my Dad raising this Puerto Rican kid doing the best we can.

JG – Is there anything you’d like to do that you haven’t done yet?

CD – Well in 2020, I moved up in certain markets to theaters, so I’m hoping to go from the comedy clubs to the theaters, and start selling theaters out, that’s really my main goal for 2020.

JG – Well I just have to say that I’ve seen you from the beginning and you’ve always been funny so I’m not surprised that you’re doing so well because you deserve it because you worked really hard.

CD – Thank you Jeff I really appreciate that. Thank you brother. Always a pleasure to see you!

John Belushi on Saint Marks

Thanks to long-time comedy manager Jason Steinberg of Steinberg Talent, I got to see this play. It’s called “With A Little Help – It’s John Belushi” and it’s at Theatre 80 on St. Marks Place, and owner Lorcan Otway told me his family has been in the theatre business for over 300 years! That’s longer than I’ve been in comedy!!! And the theatre is beautiful by the way filled with show biz memorabilia including some rare posters!

The award winning play is an ensemble piece with about 8 characters all of whom playing two or three parts except for Jack Zullo who wrote the show and plays a very spirited John Belushi. He definitely brings John’s energy level to the stage.

All good actors and very entertaining, but if I had to say anything at all in a positive yet constructive manner, 90 minutes into it they hadn’t gotten to the SNL years yet, and John’s discovery by Lorne Michaels. Otherwise as I said, … very entertaining. They mentioned National Lampoon a lot, so it was very fitting that when I left I ran out to LIC to catch the inaugural National Lampoon show mentioned above.

Jason by the way. who has been instrumental in the careers of many big stars handles Tony Woods who just had a big thing in the New York Times, and Donnell Rawlings who just launched a new podcast, The Donnell Rawlings Show. He announced it on Joe Rogan’s podcast that for the very first time he spoke by himself, all alone for 44 minutes! Joe had been encouraging him to do it for months, and he didn’t wanna show up on the show again without having done it, … so he finally did it!

KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON GOES SOLO

I caught up with my girl Krystyna Hutchinson at Stand Up New York, and we hadn’t seen each other in too long so we took a moment to catch up. She was hanging with Justin Silver and she just did her first time solo headlining gig at American Comedy Company in San Diego and brought Justin to open for her.

She said that 4 out of 5 shows were sold out and she did 45 minutes for the first time and found it very draining, but lots of fun.

**KRYSTYNA HUTCHINSON AND JUSTIN SILVER AT STAND UP NEW YORK**

GM Jon Borromeo told me the club is focussing on discovering and promoting young talent, that hadn’t been able to get stage time at other clubs, and he named Zach Zimmerman as an example, who just happened to be standing next to him at the time, and said he did his one man show at the club!

COMEDIANS IN “THE IRISHMAN”

If you’re willing to sit through 3 hours of Martin Scorcese’s new hit “The Irishman” which I did because it’s on Netflix and I could get up, walk around, get a snack and pause it when I wanted to you’d see a bunch of comedians in roles, and I personally counted about 18 people I knew personally from the comedy and acting world.

Ray Romano has a big part as Bill Bufalino, the attorney who repped Teamster leader Jimmy Hoffa and was the cousin of mob boss Russell Bufalino played by Joe Pesci.

In an example of perfect casting, Jim Norton had a nightclub scene where he portrayed the late legendary Don Rickles, and Sebastian Maniscalco who’s always hilarious had a great serious role playing the part of “Crazy Joe” Gallo, which he did so well.

**WITH SEBASTIAN AT MADISON SQUARE GARDEN AFTER HIS SOLD OUT SHOW**

Bobby Funaro who started out working the door at Carolines on Broadway and went on to be in The Sopranos played a character named Johnny, Paulie Herman who used to own Columbus Cafe and is in just about every mob movie played Whispers DiTullio, the late Vinny Vella played a meat company manager and others I’ve known and/or worked with or interviewed in different projects over the years were the amazingly talented Bobby Cannavale who played a crazy character named Skinny Razor, Bo Dietl, legendary detective who recently ran for Mayor and unfortunately did not win, Kathrine Narducci who played Russell Bufalino’s wife Carrie, as well as Artie Bucco’s wife in The Sopranos, and attended my play “A Punch In The Face” dedicated to actor/martial artist/Hells Angel Chuck Zito who also attended, Stevie Van Zandt from E-Street who played Jerry Vale in this movie, and Silvio Dante in The Sopranos, my old friend Danny Abeckaser who went from a club promoter/owner to movie actor and producer, Garry Pastore who played Albert Anastasia, and most recently played a gangster named Matty ” The Horse” in HBO’s The Deuce and is the cousin of another old friend of mine, Vinny “Big Pussy” Pastore, and there were more!

**BACKSTAGE WITH BOBBY CANNAVALE AND CHRIS ROCK AND THE CAST ON BROADWAY WHEN COMIC STRIP OWNER RICHIE TIENKEN AND I WENT TO SEE “THE M-F’ER WITH THE HAT”**

LOVE FOR PATRICE GOES ON

So I’m walking down St. Marks Place the other night on my way to the John Belushi play when I hear someone yelling out to me. At first I didn’t turn around cause I’m from New York, but then he said “Mr. Gurian”, so I turned and looked.

It was this nice young musician named Supremo Massiv who happened to have a gig right across the street but ran out and had to tell me what a big fan he was of the work I did with Patrice O’Neal on the Black Phillip Show and how much the show meant to him.

It happens wherever I go, most recently in Japan, but in Boston, at Skankfest, at a Syndicate event, and with people from all over the world, the love for Patrice lives on. And a few months ago I started taking a photo with each and every one of them.

**WITH “BLACK PHILLIP” FAN SUPREMO MASSIV ON ST. MARKS PLACE IN NYC**

MEDERI CENTER BENEFIT

The Mederi Center located in Ashland, Oregon was founded by a master nutritionist named Donnie Yance, who specializes in treating cancer and other serious illnesses with herbs and nutrition in conjunction with traditional medicine.

Some friends of his, including consciousness guru Alan Steinfeld of New Realities, saw me performing at West Side Comedy Club one night and the next thing I knew I was the MC at a big fundraiser they held on 11/22 at the Warehouse of the Fairfield Theatre Company in Fairfield, CT starring pop star and cross over artist Gino Vannelli and jazz singer Grammy nominee Roberta Gambarini. It was a fabulous night, well attended and raised a lot of money!

**WITH JENNIFER YANCE, GINO VANNELLI AND DONNIE YANCE AT THE WAREHOUSE OF THE FAIRFIELD THEATRE COMPANY**

Tags: "Jim Norton", "National Lampoon", "stand-up comedy", cancer treatment, Chris Distefano, Comedy, comedy world, Gino Vannelli, Healing, inside look at the comedy world, National Lampoon movies, Patrice Oneal, Ray Romano, The Irishman

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