COMEDY MATTERS ROUND-UP WITH JEFF ARCURI, RYAN HAMILTON, OZ PEARLMAN, SHERROD SMALL, RONNY CHIENG, EDDIE MURPHY’S SON, AND SO MUCH MORE!!!

RYAN HAMILTON GOT HIT BY A BUS!!!

There’s an excellent chance that Ryan Hamilton may be the only person in the world to get hit by a bus and turn it into a Netflix special. It’s a tremendous accomplishment to be able to take what could have been a catastrophe and make it funny. Not only funny but turn it into a Netflix special called “This Just Hit Me”, produced and directed by another fave of mine, Nate Bargatze.

Back in 2014 I brought Nate on Sirius XM as my guest on the Ron and Fez show with the great Ron Bennington on Sirius XM radio. Talk about taking something serious and making it funny, Ron is currently openly battling stage 4 colon cancer and doing what he calls a “Portcast” jokingly named after the port in his chest. The whole comedy world and his millions of listeners are praying for him, and if it’s true that laughter is the best medicine, he will beat this thing!!!

I have known Ryan for a long time, and for whatever reason he has always reminded me of Jerry Seinfeld, so I think it’s absolutely perfect that he wound up opening for him. There’s something about his smile, and the way he carries himself and his delivery that reminds me and lots of other people of Seinfeld.

Btw, how do you think your own last name would sound as the title of a show? It’s been so long that “Seinfeld” sounds like a perfect name for a comedy show. But what if your last name was Schwartzvontz and you were really funny and got your own TV show! Can you picture tuning into Schwartzvontz every week??? ( Just a thought!)

Anyway, I dropped by The Cellar one night and manager Liz Furiati, who only calls me “Gurian”, led me to a place where I could watch Ryan do his set. He takes self-deprecating humor to the next level, which is something every audience loves. I always say if anyone on the street said the things to us that we say about ourselves, violence would ensue! (LOL) I went right home and watched his Netflix special that night and it’s great! Absolutely great!

Nate btw, co-wrote and starred in his first feature film called “The Breadwinner” this past May and also set a Guinness World Record for selling over two MILLION tickets on his ” Big Dumb Eyes” tour, making it the most well-attended stand-up tour in history. I have such a good eye for talent!!! (LOLOL)

JEFF ARCURI AND KATIE THURSTON AT THE 92Y

Before I even start this paragraph please go to Instagram and follow Jeff Arcuri. He only has 2.1 million followers and I feel bad for him cause he’s just so funny! Only 2.1 million followers!!!

When I had Jeff perform on one of my shows, which I believe was at an event space on the West side, I knew he was funny but had no idea how huge his career would become. I really just have a good eye for talent!!!

His stage presence is very unique, and the fact that he laughs out loud once in a while, in a signature laugh, makes what he says even more endearing. Some people, like Eddie Murphy have a signature laugh. You hear it and you immediately know who it is!

The 92Y on 92nd Street and Lexington Avenue always has a fantastic line-up of talent and I get to cover the comedy related shows. Jeff’s Netflix special is called “Jeff Arcuri: Nice To Meet You” and it’s a lot about his marriage to Katie Thurston, which just happened in March of 2025. Katie was on reality TV as one of the stars of The Bachelorette, but the special not only talks about how they met, and how grateful he is for that, but it also centers on how they manage to get through her diagnosis with stage IV breast cancer, which thank G-d is in remission.

Real “meet cute” of how they first met. Katie came across Jeff’s posts on IG and DM’ed him, telling her friends that she found her future husband. After connecting on the phone they finally met in 2024, and married the following March AFTER her diagnosis. That is a good man! Such a great story, and a great couple. It takes a true comedic artist to take a potentially dark subject and make it funny! Make sure to watch it!!! I was supposed to see them after the screening and hopefully will be able to do that soon!

TWO FILM SCREENINGS IN A WEEK

In an embarrassment of riches, two films I was involved in had screenings within one week. The first was called “Eat, Drink, and Laugh” about the history of the legendary comedy club The Comic Strip that opened on June 1st of 1976, and is still going strong today. It launched the careers of so many big stars including Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy, Chris Rock, Adam Sandler, Ray Romano, Colin Quinn, and I could go on and on.

The reason I know so much about it is because I wrote the book on the club, called ” Make ‘Em Laugh”, featuring a foreword by Chris Rock, and the book led to the making of the film, which I was honored to be a co-producer on. The other Exec. Producers were Abby Russell who now owns the only comedy club in Southampton called “Sticks and Stones” and her partner at the time Brent Sterling Nemetz.

The screening was at the Greenport, Long Island Arts Center and it was very exciting for me to see the film again as I hadn’t seen it since Comic Strip owner and founder Richie Tienken and I brought it to Montreal to be shown at the Just for Laughs Festival, the biggest comedy festival in the world. After the screening we participated in a Q&A joined by national headliner and Comic Strip alum Sherrod Small, whose Comic Strip story will always stand out in my mind.

He and Tony Rock, another of Chris Rock’s brothers, auditioned for The Strip and passed together, by the notoriously difficult to please Lucien Hold, R.I.P., and they were so happy that they literally “cried on the corner!” I never forgot that they told me that! That’s how much it meant to be passed at The Strip!

A few days later Sherrod headlined Sticks and Stones and I opened for him. It’s a great space and it was a great show!!!

FILM NUMBER 2- WE MET AT GROSSINGERS

This is such an important film for our time. The success of Netflix’s “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” brought renewed interest in that time period of the 50’s when Jewish people and Black people were denied staying at many of the grand hotels of the time. They actually had the nerve to put up signs saying ” No Blacks and No Jews.”

So when Jewish people started becoming successful through very hard work, they built their own hotels that far outshone any others in existence. They were all upstate N.Y. and the area became known as The Borscht Belt because many of the immigrants were from Russia and eastern Europe where borscht ( beet soup) was a staple of the diet.

Grossingers was owned and run by Jenny Grossinger, who was the first woman to ever own a hotel. It had been started by her parents as a small boarding house, but she wound up with a hotel the size of a small city with it’s own airstrip. They would fly in the big stars.

I was there at two different times in my life, as a child from 10-13 singing solo in a professional choir that would sing there for the High Holidays, and then again as an adult as a comedy writer, writing for many of the big stars that performed there like Milton Berle, who became my sponsor in The Friars Club, Jerry Lewis, Jackie Mason, Pat Cooper, Henny Youngman, Dick Shawn, Myron Cohen, Dick Capri and so many more. The comedians of the Golden Age of comedy!

Jackie Robinson was a superstar baseball player but because he was Black he was not allowed in any of the hotels. As a matter of fact he wasn’t even allowed to fraternize with his teammates socially after the games. But Jenny Grossinger made a home for him and his family at the hotel, and as strange as it may seem in our times, when she was honored on a TV show ” This Is Your Life” Jackie came on as a guest and they hugged on national TV and it was the very first “inter-racial hug” seen on national television.

Sad to even have to write something like that, … but true!!! The Jewish community was always very inclusive of everyone which is why this is an important story for today’s times, so big thanks to Bobby Friedman of Bungalow Entertainment, and Harris Salomon of Atlantic Overseas Pictures for producing it and big thanks to Paula Eiselt, award winning director for directing the film, and for telling me I was one of her favorite interviews! In case I didn’t mention it I’m in several scenes!!! (LOL)

EDDIE MURPHY’S SON DOING COMEDY

While making my comedy rounds my intuition told me to stop by West Side Comedy Club. As I walked in I was so pleasantly surprised to see comedy staple and my old friend GIna Savage back at the club as a Manager/Producer. She’s been at Carolines, the Comedy Cellar, and now back at West Side to make some changes, and she’s producing a show of clean comedy called ” Clean Up Your Act.”

So we’re sitting together enjoying the show with Drew Michael and Eva Evans when she tells me that Eddie Murphy’s son Myles is in from LA and will be doing a spot! Now I’m past the point of getting excited when I meet people cause people say I know everyone. Well, I was excited only a few times in my life. I was excited to meet Mick Jagger, I was excited to meet Billy Idol, I was excited to meet Woody Allen and Salvador Dali, and The Beach Boys, and I was excited to meet Melanie Hamrick who’s Mick Jagger’s girlfriend for many years. And for whatever reason I was really excited to meet Myles Murphy. And after I met him my excitement was warranted!

He was not introduced to the audience as Eddie’s son, and he never mentioned it in his act. He had great stage presence and was very comfortable on stage, which surprised me when I found out he had only been performing for 11 months.

When he came off stage we sat for quite a while, and I shared many stories with him about his Dad that he told me he never knew. The only reason I knew them was because I wrote the book on the history of the legendary comedy club The Comic Strip, where Eddie started his career. He never knew that his Dad started out in a trio called “The Identical Triplets” with Rob Bartlett, and Bob Nelson, two White guys and him.

He also never knew the story of how his Dad discovered Chris Rock at The Strip, and he also never knew how Joe Piscopo gave SNL newcomer Eddie a break that would change his career. The show was running short one week and producer Jean Doumanian who produced the show for one year asked Joe if he would do five minutes of stand-up. Joe graciously gave the time to Eddie, but Eddie was nervous to do it, so he called his manager, Comic Strip owner Richie Tienken and when Richie asked him why, Eddie said, ” Because I curse.” So Richie said, ” Then don’t curse!”

Eddie did the five minutes, accidentally cursed and was bleeped but when it came time for his contract to be renewed Richie negotiated for him to go from a featured player to a cast player by reminding them that he saved the show with his five minutes, and Eddie went from making $750. a week to making $3,000. a week and Richie told me that’s when he started taking his manager’s percentage. I even told Myles a story about his grandmother, … Eddie’s mother, who is still alive today and in her 80’s.

So I Ieave the club and am driving home listening to Joe Piscopo’s Sinatra show on WABC radio when suddenly Joe starts talking about Eddie Murphy. Then he mentions he’s doing a live broadcast from Winnie’s Jazz Club on West 38th Street, so I take it as a sign that I’m supposed to go and tell the story of how he helped Eddie at SNL, … hopefully on the air. I ran home and got a sport jacket cause I was dressed for comedy and showed up at Winnie’s. It was packed. I hesitantly walked up towards the desk where Joe was broadcasting from and stood there until he saw me.

Now Joe and I have been friends for more than 30 years. He looks up from his notes and says ” Jeff what are you doing here?” And I hurriedly whisper the story of Myles Murphy and why I came. Next thing I know Joe is introducing me on the radio and I get to tell the story to millions of his listeners all over the world! On my way out I got stopped by comic L.A. Hardy and we shared some fun stories about mutual friends. Crazy night!!!

JERRY SEINFELD AS AN OPENER???

Very few people can say that Jerry Seinfeld opened for them. One who honestly can is premiere mentalist Oz Pearlman, who was prepping for his first Netflix special at Gotham Comedy Club. The special will be due later this year, but Gotham is also Jerry Seinfeld’s favorite club to work out new material.

Jerry and Gotham owner Chris Mazzilli are close friends, and also major car enthusiasts, and Jerry is known to pop in every so often when he’s working on something new. The crowd goes absolutely insane as it did the night I was there. I go to see Oz any time I can as he’s an old friend and I hold the honor of arranging his very first TV appearance, about 17 years ago when he was performing as part of The Unseen, a two man mentalism act with then partner Ken Salaz.

This night in particular the host introduced a “special guest” who just happened to drop by, and Jerry came out to a standing ovation. During his set he announced that his family was there and when he was done he introduced Oz to the stage and stayed up there with him.

Oz blew Jerry’s mind when he asked him to think of a date of a special event in his life that he couldn’t possibly know, and then he wrote May 4th on a huge sketch pad that he keeps on stage to show what he predicted before the person says it out loud. When Jerry said ” May 4th” the crowd went wild. Turned out that May 4th was Jerry’s dog’s birthday and he hugged Oz on stage before he left! I’ve seen lots of mentalists but there’s no one like Oz Pearlman, the best of the best!!!

MARCUS RUSSELL PRICE BRINGS THE HEAT

You may know Marcus Russell Price as a celeb photographer and videographer in the comedy world, shooting at all big comedy-related events, but he’s also the producer of great comedy shows at Lincoln Center. His recent show featured Julie Kim and Simeon Goodson, but it also a promised a secret guest! And who that secret guest was I couldn’t wait to find out!

Turns out his secret guest was one of my faves and not an easy guest to get, the great Ronny Chieng! There’s something about Ronny Chieng’s delivery that really gets me. Having a unique delivery is so important in comedy, so not only is he so funny, but the way he delivers his material is just so unique, I could listen to it all night! I can hear it in my mind as I’m writing this. Can’t wait for Marcus’ next show and hopefully I’ll be on it!!!

COMEDY MATTERS GIRL OF THE MONTH

You may have seen Nagah Ezaldein weekly on Newsmax with John Tabacco, on his hit show Wiseguys, but she’s also really funny with a great sense of humor, and she dropped by the Comedy Matters crib to check out the comedy museum!!!

Congratulations if you’ve been able to get through the whole column. There was just so much to say and I had even more, but that will have to wait till the next one! In the meantime keep laughing, as hard as it may be these days, and remember “COMEDY MATTERS”!!!

YOU CAN FOLLOW JEFFREY ON INSTAGRAM AT @JEFFREYGURIAN AND ON YOU TUBE AT HTTPS://WWW.YOUTUBE.COM/COMEDYMATTERSTV

SEE YOU IN THE CLUBS!!!