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

GARY VEE LOVES COMEDY

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

TRIBUTE TO ERNIE ANASTOS

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

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

COMEDIANS AT THE GRAMMYS

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

FUN GOINGS ON AT BROADWAY COMEDY CLUB

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

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

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

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

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

JACKIE MASON DOC

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

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

ATLANTIC CITY COMEDY CLUB THANKS TO EMILIO SAVONE

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

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

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

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

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

RAY ELLIN OWNS ARUBA

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

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

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

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

CHARITY EVENT AT GOTHAM

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

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

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

PRAYERS FOR RON BENNINGTON

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

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

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

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

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