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

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!!!

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

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COMEDY MATTERS ROUNDUP WITH RICHARD LEWIS, AMY POEHLER, CITY WINERY, HAMPTONS COMEDY FEST AND LOTS MORE!!!

WITH MY PAL RICHARD LEWIS-CIRCA 2008

RICHARD LEWIS IS BELOVED

My history with Richard Lewis goes back to the early 90’s if not the 80’s, but my first real memory of us together was in 1995 at the NY premiere of the film Drunks in which he was the star. Richard had a reputation of never using anyone else to write for him, but I was determined to at least give it a shot.

I felt like i knew him so well, and that he was me in a different body. I related to every story he told about his family. His persona was very comfortable to me. His nervousness, his self-deprecation, his Jewish background. It was me in a different body. At least that’s how I felt.

Anyway, I was invited to the premiere and I wrote up a bunch of jokes, proposing a tour called “Born To Be Nervous”, because if I ever got a tattoo, that’s what it would say. Some guys get “Born To Be Wild”! I get “Born To Be Nervous.”

I got to the theatre early hoping to see Richard to give him the material which I had typed up,and put into a folder. Probably after having made a carbon copy! ( Some of you probably don’t even know what that is! (LOL)

All I remember is getting on the wrong line, which is perfect for me, in exact alignment with my ADHD, and what usually happens, … and I recall being told that I just missed Richard and that he was already in the theatre. I decided to go to the rest room, ,and as I was going down the stairs, who was coming up the stairs but Richard Lewis, which is also the kind of thing that happens to me.

He looks at me surprised and says, ” What are you doing here?” And I said, “Picking up some chop meat for my mother” which was my usual answer if I was somewhere like on the beach and some “nudnik” greeted me with, ” What are YOU doing here?” as if I was not allowed to go to the beach like everyone else!

I blurted out that I was here to see the film and support him and that I brought him these jokes that I wanted him to read. Inside was a note asking him to let me know his thoughts. He took the envelope and went into the theatre.

I don’t think I saw him when it was over and before I left but that very night, this message was on my answering machine, and I have treasured it ever since. Hope you can hear it! It’s 28 years old but listen for the word “Hilarious”!

When I wrote my first Happiness book called “Healing Your Heart, By Changing Your Mind- A Spiritual and Humorous Approach To Achieving Happiness” in my other persona, I asked Richard for a blurb and this is what he wrote for the cover:

“Dr. Gurian is a master of so many disciplines , including  being a brilliant humorist, the pressure probably caused his own heart attack. Lucky for us, his genius helps us minimize our risk and live healthier after an episode. He’s on my speed dial along with God.”

And when I produced a black tie event in honor of Susie Essman for the Gold Coast International Film Festival Richard and I met up at The Friars Club, when it was still prestigious to be a member of the Friars Club, and we shot a little tribute to Susie, … where else but in the Men’s Room! The Friars had just done a big article on me in The Epistle which is what we were reading!

We also shot a bunch of fun videos at The Friars and whenever Richard was coming to town he’d let me know and we’d hang out and have lunch, which was a good thing to do when The Friars was The Friars!

So when I heard the news that he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease I was very upset. I had spoken to him fairly recently and he told me he was shooting Season 12 of Curb, and was very excited about it. I had planned to call him today when just as I was about to, he sent me the little video he posted on Twitter.

RICHARD TELLING HIS TRUTH

I had no idea about the four surgeries, or that he made the choice to retire and then this happened. Life is very crazy, but Richard Lewis is amazing, a true tower of strength, and one of the funniest guys of all time, and I know he’ll be okay. He’s truly beloved. Sending prayers for his continued good health, and much gratitude for his longtime friendship.

AMY POEHLER’S SWEDISH DEATH CLEANING SERIES

One of the advantages of what I do is getting invited to cool things! So when I got invited to the screening of Amy Poehler’s new show on Peacock, sponsored by The Hollywood Reporter, I made sure to RSVP immediately. It was at the Crosby Hotel in Soho.

Amy’s goal was to create an unscripted series with no fighting. Something positive and not catering to man’s basest instincts like most reality shows. Most reality shows seek drama and allow people to ruin their lives on screen. Most participants don’t go unscathed! I have personal experience which I won’t go into here.

She, under her Paper Kite Productions along with Scout Productions, the creators of “Queer Eye”, and her producing partner Kate Arend created a show called “The Gentle Art of Swedish Death Cleaning”. I was afraid it was going to be very sad, but it was really quite uplifting in a way. The concept is based on the fact that we’re all going to die, a very unpleasant fact. It seems that life is a death sentence.

But when we make our transition someone has to go through all the stuff we’ve collected, and some of us border on being hoarders. My apartment is packed with things from decades, some of which I have not looked at in just as long.

In the episode we viewed an artist from Kansas City named Amy Moreno was the subject. She was an openly gay, proud, Chicano artist who had lost her longtime partner to Covid. Her rooms were just completely covered in piles of papers, books, art supplies, and art work to the point where the furniture underneath them was not even visible.

Hence the need for the Swedish Death Cleaners, three caring, very diverse people who go through the whole entire home, and figure out what needs to be kept, what can be donated to a new home, and what can be disgarded.

Looking through a lifetime of memories was at times tearful and at other times joyous. At the end her home was absolutely beautiful like an art museum, and the art she donated led to her receiving an award from the Mayor of her town at a surprise event in her honor arranged by the Swedish Death Cleaners.

After the showing there was a Q&A, and then they had a lovely reception with lots of food and drinks and bags of Swedish Fish. Amy didn’t stay for the reception and kind of snuck out, but at least I had the chance to congratulate her before she left, and she was so surprised to see me! She and I go back a ways and her photo was one of the ones they used in my recent cover story in Sutton Place Magazine.

SPORTS OR SCHWARTZ???

When I got the call from producer Jeremy Moses asking me to be a guest on Game Breakers I asked him what kind of a show it was. When he told me it was a sports/comedy show I had to laugh because there’s probably no one who knows less about sports than me! I know about Schwartz! Wide World of Schwartz is my specialty!

Ron Bennington from Sirius XM used to kid me about it all the time and they would sign me up for these in office game lotteries and tell me who to vote for. I didn’t have a clue. But Jeremy assured me I would not have to know much about sports, … they just wanted to talk to me.

I love a challenge, so I grabbed my Gurian Angels jacket that Nick Kroll and John Mulaney had made for me to open their hit Broadway show “Oh, Hello”, and I went as the captain of the Gurian Angels, one of the top teams in the sport of Biggling, the most politically correct sport of all time.

There’s two opposing teams in Biggling. One guy stands up at the plate holding a ball and the other guy throws a bat at him. The first guy swings the ball and tries to hit the bat. If he does he walks very slowly around 6 bases. No one wins or loses. Very politically correct.

Anyway I had a blast with the two hosts, comedians Eitan Levine and Drexton Clemons. We laughed for the whole time, and they even said they wanted me back. I’ll go if they do!

RUGELACH AND REVELRY

Not many people could figure out how to combine the two but Periel Aschenbrand did! In conjunction with Old Jewish Men from Instagram fame, she does a monthly brunch comedy show at Stand Up New York, another one of my favorite places, that’s catered by Zabar’s. The Rugelach were exquisite, as was the line-up.

Periel was the host. She has an Israeli husband and therefore according to her, a lifetime membership in the IDF! (LOL) She had a great line-up with Rich Aronovich, Chanel Ali, who claimed to be Jewish as the comedy Drake, and went to Israel on birthright, Kosha Dillz, who’s a comedy rapper, Dan Naturman who’s always so funny and Modi who closed the show with a bang. Modi has the kind of stage presence you don’t see much anymore. He works with an energy and a flare. and commands the stage in a way that is reminiscent of the great Mal Z. Lawrence, who I knew well, and which I say to be taken as the greatest compliment.

Rich Aronovich has created a character on Instagram whose dancing can have me mesmerized and laughing for an hour trying to figure out how he has the nerve to do what he does. If I ever feel down I look up his profile. He will be in my new show The Raw Side of Comedy!

CITY WINERY KILLING IT WITH COMEDY

Another great show at City Winery from Unhinged Comedy hosted by Jahan Djo, who wondered why there’s no Jewish superheroes, and featuring Matt Ruby who has a new special on You Tube called “Substance’ made up of 4 sets, … three where he was under the influence of different things, and one set sober, Raanan Hershberg, who describes himself as looking like an Israeli Jonah Hill, and talking about how hot people should not be spokespeople for body positivity, ( a great concept!), the always funny Jared Freid, Adrienne Iapalucci who just came off opening for Louis CK at MSG, and Jeff Arcuri who had one of the most unusual things happen ever on stage.

He was about to tell jokes about his ex-girlfriend when someone in the crowd yelled out that they knew her. And they actually did, and knew the details of their break-up! . He was so astonished he could hardly speak for a moment, which led him to say, ” I’ve never been heckled by my past before” which got a HUGE laugh.

HAMPTONS COMEDY FEST IN SAG HARBOR

I enjoy The Hamptons as much as anyone else but it’s a long drive to go back and forth in one night. However when I saw the line-up that comic/producer Paul Anthony put together I knew I had to attend. People have no idea how much work it takes to produce a show, so kudos to Paul for the sold-out show I attended.

I could easily do a paragraph about each comic but this column tends to get so long that I have to be cognisant of that. Paul is best known for producing the LI Comedy Fest for 17 years, the Berkshire Comedy Fest for 5 years, and the 50+ tour with all comics over the age of 50! It’s mostly clean family type comedy with a mature appreciate audience.

It was held at Bay Street Theatre in Sag Harbor and I got out there early enough to enjoy the scenery. There will be two more shows to the festival, one in September and one in October wrapping around the high season as Paul explained.

David Weiss a comedian who’s also a reporter from 1010WINS radio opened the show. I think I knew David from when I used to be a judge at the NY’s Funniest Reporter Shows at The Comic Strip produced by Ryan McCormick and Mark Goldman of Goldman/McCormick PR.

He was followed by Rich Walker, who jokingly claims to have walked away from the chance to do a sit-com called “Everybody Loves Richie”, Kendra Cunningham who has a special called “Meatball Therapy”, and Bryan McKenna who’s been touring with Jim Breuer for the last 7 years. Jim called Governor’s looking for an opener and Bryan was the only one available. Talk about good luck and being in the right place at the right time! Jim produced his first album and he’s doing another one from Westside Comedy Club in October.

Closing the show was my buddy Chris Roach who was a co-star on Kevin James’ show “Kevin Can Wait”and who travels with Kevin and will be opening for him on May 20th in Westhampton. I guess I’ll have to drive out there again! (LOL)

ERIC NEUMANN SELLS OUT GRAMERCY

It’s always so gratifying to me to see a comic I know since they started out doing so well that they have so many fans they can sell out a venue. I know Eric from his very early days at The Comic Strip where he often did shows with his friend and partner at the time Marc Gerber.

Now he’s handled by Emilio Savone who owns the New York Comedy Club chain and who also started out many years ago working at The Comic Strip. That’s how far we go back so when I heard that Eric was at the Gramercy I knew I had to show up.

I sat right behind Eric’s Mom who he kept referring to throughout his whole time on stage. And she laughed as much if not more than everyone else! She always told him not to do too much crowd work but he didn’t listen, and did it anyway referencing her the entire time.

Dan Altano hosted the show, followed by Marc Gerber, and Jen Gittess who “admitted” to being in a relationship with Eric. We all got to hang out backstage afterwards at the party, and they seem really happy together. It was great meeting Marc’s wife and finding out they have a child. Life can not be about comedy alone, or else you will feel very unfulfilled!!!

AND WITH THAT I SIMPLY MUST END THIS COLUMN! (LOL) I ACTUALLY HAVE MORE TO ADD BUT IT WILL HAVE TO WAIT! JUST WANTED TO LET YOU ALL KNOW THAT MY SHOW ON MAY 10TH AT THE EXPO IN THE NEW OLLY OLLY MARKET WAS A BIG SUCCESS! WITH AARON BERG, DREW DUNN, ANDRE KIM, RAANAN HERSHBERG, AND JEFF ARCURI! WITH A SPECIAL SURPRISE GUEST SPOT FROM THE AMAZING DEREK GAINES!!! HOPE TO SEE YOU AT THE NEXT ONE!!!

SPECIAL THANKS TO CELEB PHOTOG JEFF SMITH FOR THE GREAT PHOTOS AS USUAL!

Posted in: Celeb Photos, Comedians In The News, Comedy, Comedy Central, Comedy Clubs, Comedy Events, Comedy Festivals, Comedy Matters, Comedy Videos, Entertainment News, Jeffrey Gurian News

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

National Lampoon Back on the Scene!

National Lampoon which celebrates its 50th 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 iTunesSpotify 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!

PAT BURTSCHER TALKING TO HIS LIVER

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.

WITH RAY ROMANO AT THE COMIC STRIP

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

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STAR STUDDED GARDEN OF LAUGHS RAISES 2 MILLION BUCKS FOR KIDS

I had been waiting for weeks to cover the biennial “Garden of Laughs” at the Hulu Theatre at Madison Square Garden. It’s a star studded event that raises money for underprivileged kids and kids with disabilities. It’s produced by Rory Rosegarten of The Conversation Company and his team, and features some of the biggest comedy stars in the biz as well as many top actors. We were expecting Jerry Seinfeld, Bill Burr, Jon Stewart, John Mulaney, Michael Che, John Oliver, Iliza Shlesinger, Tiffany Haddish, Brian Regan, and actors Debra Messing, Lucas Hedges, Ansel Elgort, Michael K. Williams, Toby Leonard Moore, Gaten Matarazzo, and all hosted by 3 time host Steve Schirripa of Sopranos fame.

WITH RORY ROSEGARTEN PRODUCER OF GARDEN OF LAUGHS

A lot of people don’t know that Steve booked some of the biggest comedy acts when he used to book talent in Las Vegas, and he’s very funny in his own right. Not every star decides to do the red carpet so we’re never really sure who’s going to come out. It was slated to start at 6:30, so I made sure to get there at 5:30 to have time to set up because there’s no real schedule with a red carpet. It’s very stressful. Sometimes several stars come out at once and while you’re talking to one, another one you would have liked to talk to walks by. It’s also all improv. Some journalists come with stock questions that they ask each person. Not me! All my stuff is improv’ed on the spot.

I specifically had my videographer show up at 4 to pack the camera bag and make 100% sure we had all of our equipment.  We went over it together.  So imagine my surprise at 6:10 when he suggested that we do a mic check and the shock ran through my body when we realized we hadn’t packed the microphone.  I can’t describe the horror, and the icy cold feeling that ran through my body. Weeks of planning, and I’m on the red carpet with no mic.

The one thing you need to do interviews besides the camera and we didn’t bring it. I decided I’d have to run home and get it. But I live on the other side of town and it was rush hour. Perfect! I told my assistant to try and shoot some B-roll, and I ran out like a maniac, flashing my red carpet badge to security as I ran through one door after another. As I was running I tried to figure out which would be the fastest way to get home. Should I run back to 8th avenue to take the train, call an Uber, or just jump into a taxi.

I chose the closest taxi and just like in the movies I told the guy to step on it. I said I had to get across town and back in 20 minutes which was impossible. I turned on my WAZE and we got to my house at 6:26. I told him to wait in the downtown direction, jumped out of the cab, ran past my doormen, got the mic and ran back downstairs so fast that both of my shoes opened and I didn’t stop to re-tie them.

Just past 6:30 my assistant texted me that no one had come out yet. As we got closer to the Garden he texted me that John Mulaney was on the red carpet! Shoot! I was hoping he’d come out late but he came out first. Luckily my videographer had the sense to tell John he was working with me, and that I had to run home to get my mic, so John left me this hilarious message, which made it a little bit better!

Of course as we got near the Garden we got stuck in traffic, and every block seemed to take a year. Finally we pulled up in front, I gave the driver a big tip just like in the movies and ran back in, not expecting to have to go through airport-like security again. But I was wrong. Very wrong.  I flashed my badge but it did no good. I told the guy I had forgotten my mic and had to run home to get it and I was missing the whole red carpet but he wouldn’t hear of it. He said he had to do his job. The only man in Manhattan who had to do his job. And of course because I was so nervous I kept leaving something metal in one pocket or another and literally had to go through the metal detector about 10 times while the people behind me waited patiently.

Finally he let me through and then I first had to re-fill my pockets. By the time I got upstairs I had missed Mulaney and Tobey Leonard Moore from Billions who I would have loved to talk to, so I finally bent down to re-tie my shoes, and then Michael K. Williams came along. I loved Michael’s characters “Omar” on “The Wire” and  “Chalkie” White on Boardwalk Empire so I was excited to talk to him. He told me that working with Martin Scorcese was a dream come true for him and that he also works with kids from Garden of Dreams which is the charity itself that Garden of Laughs raises money for.

WITH MICHAEL K. WILLIAMS ON THE RED CARPET AT MSG

To tell you the truth I had never noticed that he had a scar that ran from his forehead right near his eye and down onto his cheek. Obviously I didn’t bring it up, he did. He said he was working with a young boy of 14 who also has scars on his face from an assault, and that he was able to give him some reassurance that he’d be okay. Michael told me he had been assaulted by a gang on his 25th birthday. Man’s inhumanity to man.

Rory Rosegarten came out and told me had been looking for me because he knows I always come early to these things. When I told him the mic story he said the exact same thing that John Mulaney said without having heard him say it. You can hear it for yourself in the video below. He was there with his family.  I was able to congratulate him on another successful show, and it was great to see him looking so healthy again.

Michael Imperioli who played cousin Christopher Moltisante on The Sopranos came out next, and we hadn’t seen each other in years so it was so nice to re-connect. He’s got a movie coming out with Nick Cage, and an NBC TV series based on the movie The Bone Collector, and when we inquired about each other’s health and I told him I had survived a heart attack he said he was sorry, and it sounded like he said he was sorry I survived. Funny!!!

WITH MICHAEL IMPERIOLI ON THE RED CARPET AT GARDEN OF LAUGHS

Bill Burr is always a great time on the red carpet and as soon as he sees me he starts yelling out things like “Oh no”, and “This is gonna be good.”  I told him I was thinking of texting him to let him know I was going to be there so he could think up some insults for me, but he said he didn’t need any advance notice because they just came naturally. He started out by asking me about my sport jacket and if I had gotten it at Woodstock, which was actually very funny.

LAUGHING WITH BILL BURR AT GARDEN OF LAUGHS

 

I asked him if he knew of the You Tube video called “Bill Burr Roasting People” which has over 5.4 million views and opens with he and I on the red carpet where he says he hopes I go bald so that one day we’re two old bald guys on the red carpet.” He said that not only does he know about it he hates that people think he doesn’t like me because he LOVES me, … and that made me feel really good.

I had sent him a recording that the late great Patrice O’Neal had left for me on my phone one night at 4:05 A.M. It was the first night we had done the Black Phillip Show together and Patrice was so happy with it he couldn’t wait to call me and so humbly suggested that we do a show together just the two of us. He said he didn’t want to assume anything, as if I might have said “No”, but unfortunately we never got to do it. I still get messages and e-mails from guys who track me down to give me props on my work on Black Phillip.  R.I.P Patrice. Btw Bill said he listened to it, and I hope he did cause it’s one of my greatest possessions, along with the phone message that Richard Lewis left me saying that some jokes I had written for him were “hilarious” and if he was ever going to use anyone else’s jokes it would be mine!

Bill’s interview went on so long that at one point he asked me if it was still an interview or just two guys talking on the corner! Then he offered me a $700. class he was giving on how to end an interview. He’s hilarious and the very best! And he’s off on a tour from Iceland to Israel!

Just when I thought it was over, I left the red carpet but luckily didn’t pack up yet when I saw Tracy Morgan talking to Bill Burr and went over to catch up with Tracy. His new season if his TBS show “The Last O.G.” was premiering that night and we had a few laughs on camera. He always says something so nice to me and this time he said, “You ARE comedy!”

WITH TRACY MORGAN AT GARDEN OF LAUGHS

Last on the red carpet was John Oliver who was going to be the very first presenter that night. I asked him if his kids were old enough to know that he’s playing Zazu the bird in the new remake of The Lion King directed by John Favreau due out this July.  He said his son is only three and he took him to a movie in which he did the voice of a porcupine named Steve.  He told him that was his Dad and his son said ” No it isn’t”, just like my Too Much Tuna sketch with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney. Anyway this little video is a recap of my adventurous day on the red carpet of Garden of Laughs.

Please feel free to “Like”, Comment and Subscribe and please share it with a friend.  On Twitter and IG I’m @jeffreygurian

 

 

 

 

 

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Weekly Humorist Up For Webby Award

A Webby Award is an award for excellence on the Internet and it’s presented annually by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators. It’s a big honor to be nominated for a Webby and Marty Dundics’ Weekly Humorist is in line to win one for Best Humor Site, in the upcoming 23rd annual Webby Awards contest.

The event itself will be held on Monday, May 13th at Cipriani Wall Street in lower Manhattan, and will be hosted by everyone’s favorite Jenny Slate, so memorable from Kroll Show on Comedy Central. Jenny played many characters especially “niece Denise” and Liz from Publizity which was a sketch I got to be in.

Marty himself describes his recent comedy startup as an “underdog”,  but people love underdogs and they’re only up against College Humor, Funny or Die, The Daily Show and Cards Against Humanity which bills itself as a game for horrible people.

Marty, who’s the CEO and Editor-In-Chief of Weekly Humorist birthed this babe and is basically a one man band. He has an office on Wall Street wHere he hosts the popular comedy podcast Talkward, and produces “Guaranteed Delivery” a monthly standup show at The Mailroom lounge, a very cool space in the same building. I’ve been on it and he gets great talent. This was a flier from his recent show in April.

He’s also the founder of Humorist Media, which develops comedy media programming and publishing.  Despite having a long history with comedy, having worked at National Lampoon, and The Late Show with David Letterman, he’s funny but he’s never performed himself.

Voting ends this Thursday April 18th with the winner to be announced on Tuesday April 23rd, and you can vote by going to this site, …but do it now while you’re thinking about it, because voting ends on Thursday :  

https://vote.webbyawards.com/PublicVoting#/2019/websites/general-websites/humor

 

WITH MARTY DUNDICS DOWN AT THE WEEKLY HUMORIST OFFICE

PLEASE REMEMBER TO “LIKE” COMMENT AND SUBSCRIBE AND FEEL FREE TO SHARE THIS WITH PEOPLE YOU HATE! 

 

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Comedians Rule Boy Band

With comedian/actor/writer Seth Herzog

When you hear the words “Boy Band” maybe you think of The Backstreet Boys, NSYNC, or New Kids on the Block. Well change that image cause from now on you’re gonna be thinking of Seth Herzog, Dave Hill, Jordan Carlos and Steve Agee, who played part of a gay couple with Brian Posehn on the Sarah Silverman Program.

(L-R) Stephen Levinson, Dave Hill, Jordan Carlos, Joel Levinson and Seth Herzog

All four of the above are comedians who thanks to first time feature screenwriters Joel and Stephen Levinson play members of a boy band called “The Heartthrob Boyz” who were wildly successful in the 90’s,  and went into the studio 15 years ago to record an album and are still there working on the same album. They’ve aged, gained weight and lost hair but didn’t lose their childish sense of humor.

Joel and Steven wrote the script together and Joel directed it. They screened it last night at the Chelsea Music Hall on West 15th Street in Manhattan and preceded the screening with a VIP cocktail party at 7 P.M. I who am never late for anything was literally the first one there which is how I got to talk with Joel and Steve, and Seth who was there early too making sure that everything went smoothly, which it did.

Stephen Levinson holding the film poster with his brother Joel Levinson

I brought the lovely, talented and amazing Jessica Robinson with me, who is kind of my muse, and we had the best time!

The Levinson boys wrote the script over a six month period and shot it in 10 days in Yellow Springs, Ohio, the home of independent film! (JK) They shot it there because it’s near Dayton where they live and because that’s where they had connections for locations and also they said that the rates of everything else were much lower. ( Lower than New York? Who would have believed it? LOL)

I always like to know how things come about so I asked them how they met Seth Herzog. They met through comedy writer Rob Kutner who wrote for The Daily Show and Conan through a project called Purim Shpiel, a sketch comedy show in honor of the Jewish holiday of Purim, and Seth always played a wicked character named Haman, who to this day is responsible for Jewish people eating what’s called Hamantashen on the holiday of Purim, actually coming up later this month. (Google it!)

They said that Seth played the perfect asshole so he was the first one cast in Boy Band to play the bad boy of the group. He’s also a producer on the film. Last May at a John McEnroe charity event at Carolines on Broadway where I covered the red carpet I got to interview my buddy Seth and he told me all about Boy Band before it was shot.

The film was loaded with recognizable faces, like David Gruber Allen and Julie Goldman, and I was pleasantly surprised to see my pal Jerry O’Connell in a pretty big role as a newscaster, opposite Seth’s wife, on-air journalist/actress Hitha Herzog, who he somehow coerced to be in the film.  (LOL) Jerry will soon have his own talk show called Jerry O.  on FOX owned stations, and it’s set to begin on August 12th. It will feature celebs and comedy for sure because Jerry is a funny guy, who appreciates the importance of comedy.

Hitha Herzog and Jerry O’Connell

They even had Questlove from The Roots in the film playing an alien, hence the horns, also appearing in the newscast with Hitha and Jerry.

Seth as you should know is the warm up comic for The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, and so works with Questlove on a day to day basis. Stephen Levinson is also a writer on that show. And Gilbert Gottfried’s voice made an appearance speaking as a puppet named Morty who played an accountant.

The film also featured comedian Esther Ku playing the character of Tina, Steve Agee’s character’s girlfriend. Esther recently co-hosted the AVN ( porno) awards in Las Vegas, and she had a big part in this film.

Esther looked absolutely gorgeous as she did hosting the AVN awards, and it’s so nice seeing her owning that power and not playing down her looks like many female comedians of the past felt they had to do in order to be taken seriously as a funny person. (Having to be taken seriously as a funny person is a funny concept!) And Esther had the foresight to be Asian before it was even popular!

The screening had a great turnout, and was packed with lots of industry people. I ran into comedy exec. Maureen Taran, and Ali Farahnakian founder and owner of The P.I.T. who many people may not recall was also one of the founding members of USB. He was there with wife TV producer Beth Saunders, and he showed her the photo he took of me in the street many years before that wound up, unbeknownst to me, on the wall of the Men’s Room in The P.I.T.

Funny story, … I was walking in the street at a street fair when this nice guy who I had never met before asked if he could take my photo. He said he thought I had an interesting look and because he was so nice I agreed. At the time I didn’t know who he was. So one night I’m at The P.I.T. and I had to use the Men’s Room and while I’m standing there doing my business, I happen to look to my right and see my photo staring me in the face. It was hilarious and we’ve been friends ever since. He’s just a great guy.

And when Bravo TV wanted to shoot scenes with me for RHONY, with Countess LuAnn de Lesseps and Princess Carole Radziwill for a sketch I created and co-wrote for them, Ali was kind enough to give us The P.I.T. for the shoot and after-party.

Boy Band was a fun 90 minutes with a sci-fi element and even a touch of zombie stuff, and it’s available to be seen on all platforms that show movies! Make sure to check it out.

And with that, … I’m OUT!!!

Oh yeah, … and please make sure to like this post, comment and “Subscribe” to Comedy Matters TV by clicking on the “Follow” button at the bottom of the post. Also follow Jeffrey on Twitter and IG at @jeffreygurian.

 

 

 

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Comedy In An Alley

If you’ve been to any upscale, fancy Manhattan event chances are you’ve seen Francesco Belcaro. He’s hard to miss. Tall, handsome and stylish with 46 thousand followers on Instagram, and usually surrounded by models, chances are good he had something to do with making the event successful.

As a matter of fact I’ll be attending a black tie affair of his tomorrow night called The Venetian Carnival which will be held at The Top of the Standard. You can see him greeting me at a fashion party he arranged in a cool beautique, where the champagne was flowing freely in the  video below.

Pinko fashion Brand and Valdo Prosecco event.

Posted by Francesco Belcaro on Tuesday, October 23, 2018

A force in marketing, promotion, and real estate you can imagine my surprise when he invited me to a comedy event.

And then I saw that Mehul Patel was involved and I know that he does comedy shows in upscale venues to try and create a party kind of atmosphere where the audience hangs out afterwards to keep the show/party feeling going. There was no question that I would attend. It was a concerted effort between those guys as well as Rick Rosa and Maria Ton.

This show was called Laughter at Alley Cat and was held at a place called “Alley Cat” on a street I didn’t even know existed in New York. Theatre Alley. I had no idea what to expect when I drove down there, but it was a good sign that Waze knew just where to take me.

Luckily I was able to find a parking spot where Waze said it was, but when I got out of my car I didn’t  know where to go. I was parked right across from this narrow alley and Waze said I had arrived so I tentatively walked into this alley. Late at night in New York you don’t just walk into any alley, but I didn’t know where else to go. When I first walked in all I saw was this.

I ventured further and suddenly saw velvet ropes which in New York is always a good sign.

As I got even closer I saw the logo of the Alley Cat and felt relieved that I was in the right place.

Right away it had a cool vibe. Security guided me downstairs and then upstairs into a showroom that was packed with people already drinking and having a good time. Francesco spotted me and took me to the VIP room where I saw the other comics, host Rashad Bashir who I had just met recently at a show at Alex Carabano’s V-Spot restaurant and comedy club, Kendall Ketchum representing those with two X chromosomes, Shawn Jackson, Elon Altman, the afore-mentioned Mehul Patel, and Matt Pavich.

Front Row: Shawn Jackson and Yours Truly, Rear )L-R) Elon Altman, Kendall Ketchum, Matt Pavich, Rashad Bashir, and Mehul Patel.

Rashad Bashir was a great host who really got the energy pumping, and one by one all the comics brought their A-game which wasn’t always easy because of the noise from the bar. That’s the only problem with doing comedy from a “hip” venue that is not a traditional comedy club, trying to control the noise from the bar, and from people who may have drank enough to forget their manners and that a show is going on.

Mehul Patel onstage

Fortunately the host reprimanded them and most of the comics projected loudly on the mic to overcome the background noise. Matt Pavich had a different approach which I really respected because it’s hard to do. Rather than yell, he took a chance and spoke quietly, and the audience in turn quieted down to hear him. I’ve seen it done before but it takes courage because if it doesn’t work you’re in worse shape than you were in the first place. I gave him props for that after the show because it was a choice he made that worked.

All in all it was a very strong show, and I hope to go back and perform on it myself one month.

That’s all for me. Just remember that Comedy Matters, … and with that I’m OUT!!!

And please go to my Comedy Matters TV You Tube channel to see fun video interviews with all your favorite stars, and follow me on Twitter and IG at @jeffreygurian

 

 

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Patrice O’Neal 7th Annual Benefit Smash Success

Patrice O’Neal 7th Annual Benefit Smash Success

Every year for the last 7 years without fail, Bill Burr and comedy exec. Maureen Taran organize a special tribute to the late, great Patrice O’Neal. It’s truly amazing the respect that Patrice still gets. He left us on Nov. 29, 2011, and the love is still there.

It had a lot to do with the man himself, because other comedians have transitioned to that other plane, but people don’t talk about them as much, or do annual benefits in their honor. I always say that Patrice was much more than just a comedian. He was a comedy philosopher. He had a well thought out point of view, on many things, especially on how men should act around women.

And as I said the love for Patrice is just as strong as ever. I personally come across it, without exaggerating, probably on a weekly basis. People write to me by e-mail, or on FB or even stop me in the street and give me props for what we did on The Black Phillip Show. I’m always surprised because it was back in 2008, but people say that what we did changed their lives. That’s heavy for a radio show. And it was one of the greatest honors of my career to have been Patrice’s co-host on that show. We had a very unique relationship and one that his wife Vondecarlo could attest to.

You can hear it yourself in this rare phone call from Patrice to me the first night we did the Black Phillip Show together. it took a lot to get Patrice excited and he was not known for just throwing around compliments but he called me at 4:05 A.M. because he couldn’t wait till the morning to tell me how much he liked what we did together.

Anyway, Bill and Maureen hold the show at City Center, a venue in the heart of Manhattan which according to Google holds 2750 people, and every one of those 2750 people were there last night to see an incredible line-up of talent.  Rich Vos MC’ed a show that Patrice would have been proud of.

Although Rich said that it if had been a benefit for him all these years, … maybe Patrice would have shown up, … one year.  And then Rich brought up Joe List who ( and I’m sure it wasn’t for me) happened to do a lot of dental oriented material which is not a common theme. He even said that in root canal you take out the roots and throw them away and I meant to tell him that it’s the nerves they take out not the roots, but hopefully he’ll read this and find out.

Aussie comic Brendan Burns made the mistake of making fun of Vos, and Vos came back with nuclear weapons. He did that with every comic that made jokes at his expense, which was just about every one of them. And later at the after-party, his wife comic Bonnie McFarlane told me she was backstage with Rich and offered suggestions to him for the comebacks!

At the after party over hors-d’oeuvres I told Vos that he was like President Trump (not anything political), who doesn’t let anyone say anything about him without clapping back twice as hard. No one gets away with anything.

Mark Normand had some good advice for the audience.  He said it was ok to be offended, just shut up and keep it to yourself. Michele Wolf made fun of Vos’ foot size and he made fun of her voice. She also talked about otters raping baby seals, which she swore to be true, and white women’s privilege, which she also swore was true, and as she left the stage Vos asked for a big hand for Michael Rappaport.

Gary Gulman showed his prowess as a wordsmith as usual by deconstructing the word “ruthless” as having no ruth, like “Buzzi” or “Bader Ginsberg”, and went on to use words like hijinx, and tomfoolery. Writing these notes in the dark by the way was very difficult. I could hardly read my writing. And photos were out of the question. They had everyone place their phones in Yondr bags which in case you don’t know is a special bag that locks the phone inside of it until you leave. They literally leave you holding the bag!

After mine was locked I was worried that I had left the ringer on and that I’d get a call during the show and wouldn’t be able to turn off my phone  because it was locked in that stupid bag, but I didn’t want to leave to have it checked.

The music was hot and was supplied by Cipha Sounds who I had just seen the night before at Chelsea Music Hall where he performed on Ryan Ling’s Bird Brain Comedy Show, but this night he was spinning hip-hop in between acts.

And then it was Chris Redd from SNL followed by Bill Burr who closed the amazing show. Everybody killed. No surprise there.

And then it was off to the after-party at a place called Esther and Carol’s down on Broome Street. It’s the lounge of the Soho Hotel and it was arranged by the owners of The Stand who host the after-party every year. Unfortunately they are still waiting for their new two-level club to be finished down on West 16th Street, so in the meantime they’ve been doing pop-up shows in this cool lounge.

I walked in early and Bill was there talking to Maureen, and he saw me out of the corner of his eye and because he takes pleasure in torturing me, made sure to say something very loud like, “I sure hope that guy Jeffrey Gurian doesn’t come”.  I laughed and told him it was too late that I had already snuck in.

They had the whole staff there including owner Cris Italia, Joe Harary, and the always lovely Adele Carollo, and they had good food and drinks.  All of the comics who performed were there, as well as Ronny Chieng, Joe Bartnick who opens for Bill, Luisa Diez, Bonnie McFarlane who I spoke to the longest of anyone, and Krystyna Hutchinson who was also celebrating her birthday and came in with Wendi Starling, whose hair is now short and dark and I almost didn’t recognize her.

Joe List “the dental expert”, with Mark Normand and Michelle Wolf

But the highlight of the party for me was when I heard someone calling out my name and I turned to see Patrice’s Mom Georgia calling me over to say hello. She was sitting in the balcony with her daughter Zinder, because she made it down this long flight of stairs which was not easy for her, and they wanted her to sit in a safe place.

She’s always so gracious and we reminisced about Patrice and how great he was, and I told her how many times people contact me about Black Phillip and she said he always loved that show so much.  Then we took the photo you see above and for me that was the highlight of the evening.

I didn’t get a photo with Bill because I never know how to approach the man! (LOL) When he was getting ready to leave I walked over to say goodnight and he was talking with Ronny Chieng but he stopped his conversation to yell out, ” Jeffrey you have to stop crashing parties”, and I was concerned that Ronny didn’t know he was kidding!

So I decided to post some of the many photos that Bill and I have taken over the years, starting back in 2005. Great job Bill! Hope to sneak into #8 next year too!

With Bill Burr back in 2005

 

With Bill Burr in Montreal at Just for Laughs

With Bill Burr at West Side Comedy Club in 2018

With Bill Burr at the taping of Paul Virzi’s special 

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Kenny Warren and Gabe Dorado Do Magic

Kenny Warren and Gabe Dorado Do Magic

Magic is the only word that came to mind when I got to the Grisly Pear at 107 Macdougal Street. I had performed there many times when it was a bar upfront with almost kind of a comedy space in the back. Now it’s a legitimate comedy club in the back with a bar up front! And it’s all thanks to the hard work and dedication of comic/producers Kenny Warren and Gabe Dorado.

You may know Kenny from his show “Comics Cutting Comics” in which he cuts comic’s hair before they get up to perform, which would be horrifying if he wasn’t a legit barber. Fortunately he is, and works out of a shop up in Harlem called Levels. I’ve been there for a shoot we did together called ” Comics Cutting Comics Live” where I had the chance to perform in the barber shop, which was scary to me. Those who know me know I do not frequent barber shops! (LOL) Just the thought freaks me out, but for Kenny I show up! (LOL)

(L-R) Matt Pavich, Norlex Belma, Kenny Warren, Pat Brown, Larry Beyah, Barry Ribs, Jeffrey Gurian

And to show you the kind of guy  he is, he was nice enough not to insist on cutting my hair. Even when we did the show out at the Creek and the Cave, he let me slide on the cutting part, and he still let me perform.

When I got to The Pear, the first thing I happened to notice was a big poster like art thing of AMarie Castillo mounted on the wall.

It caught my attention, and then as I looked around I saw Kenny Babbitt, Napoleon Emil and Mallory Bryant up there too. And then I noticed that the walls of the entire place were covered with beautiful graphics of all the comics who performed there, with their social media tags.

Kenny is very big on giving up-and-comers a place to work out and feel at home. He even refers to the place as “the dojo.” He understands the struggle and what it takes to try and get known in this crazy business, and let me tell you it’s a very big thing to come into a club and see your very own picture up on the wall.

He’s doing six shows a week there, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday, including three on Friday alone, 8, 10, and 12, and he gets a packed house most of the time, unlike when the space was shared by other producers. He’s basically doing it on his own with people like Kathryn Henson producing their own shows, like her show “Late Night at The Pear” on Thursdays at midnight. Gabe Dorado runs the shows on Thursday at 10 P.M., Friday 6 and 8 P.M. and Saturday’s 10 P.M. and 12 A.M. slots.

The show I was on had a great line-up with the very funny Phil Duckett bringing it as the host. He really got the energy flowing, and then there was K.C. Arora, the aforementioned Katharyn Henson, Kareem Green who brought down the house with a very funny “choking” routine, a young funny comic named Marcello Hernandez, Onika McClean and just as I was leaving Neko White dropped by to do a set!

Kenny will be out in LA this month appearing at the clubs, and we wish him lots of luck! As for me, I hope to be doing more sets at the new Grisly Pear Comedy Club! Thanks Kenny!!!

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Breaking Down The Breakdown

The Red Room is a very cool space in the KGB Bar on East 4th Street, coincidentally right next door to the new New York Comedy Club. And once a month comic/actor Boris Khaykin puts on a really unique variety-type show called The Breakdown with Boris Khaykin, with the help of producer Jeremy Moses.

I got invited to be a guest and went down the month before to check it out and needless to say, but I’ll say it anyway, I was duly impressed. Boris and his co-host Jawnee Conroy also a talented comedian and actor have created a very unique format, along with Boris’ co-writer and co-producer of the show Alex Estrada!

The audience warm up was not a stand-up comedian but a musical improviser named Rebecca Vigil. A great song came out of absolutely nowhere. Amazing. Then Boris and Jawnee took the stage and worked off each other for about 10 minutes or so, and then Exacto an amazing beatboxer did a solo performance that blew everyone away. It sounded like he swallowed a drum kit!

Then the first guest was called which happened to be me! I made a point of thanking Ethan “Exacto” Scott for his incredible performance and remarked that his teachers must have hated him because I’m sure he disrupted every class he was ever in.

I got to talk about my Amazon Best Seller book on Happiness, “Healing Your Heart, By Changing Your Mind – A Spiritual and Humorous Approach To Achieving Happiness”, a subject I felt the audience could relate to, and they did. We spoke about changing negative thoughts we were holding onto that were not working for us, and in doing so raising our self-esteem, and self-confidence and conquering the fear that tells us we can’t do something we’d like to accomplish. Fear is a bully and we have to stand up to it.

Speaking of fear, I even got to talk about how I cured myself of stuttering, and how people can overcome obstacles in their lives. I feel like it went well and the audience feedback was very positive.

We also discussed my hair and decided it was the exact opposite of Boris’ beard. If I turned my head upside down, I’d have something close to Boris’ beard, which is real by the way, and is what to aim for if you want to grow a beard.

Not everyone has the genetics for it, so don’t feel compelled to grow a beard if you can’t because believe me, no one is interested in your INTERPRETATION of a beard! You either have one or you don’t. There’s a big difference between having a beard, and just having hair on your face! None of that patchy shit! (LOL)

I talked about hair establishing your identity which is why in the Army they shave off your hair right away to make everyone the same and take away your own personal identity. I also said that “Most men wear their hair like they’re embarrassed for having any” and someone in the audience created an immediate meme for Instagram which I thought was very cool!

Then after my interview segment some talented improv artists, Nick Carillo, Katie Hartman, got up and did a sketch using the facts from my interview as inspiration, and that’s always fascinating to me that someone can remember so much of what somebody else said. I have a hard time remembering someone’s name immediately after being introduced to them! (LOL) And then there was a sketch in which Lauren Kahn played Jawnee’s ex-girlfriend.

Next up as a guest was Jamilah Lemieux named in 2015 to The Root’s (the magazine, not Jimmy Fallon’s band) Root 100 list of the nation’s most influential African-American citizens.

She’s a journalist, columnist, cultural critic and editor and afterwards told me she’ll be moving to L.A. to try and get into writing for TV. She’s already got an idea for a script and she wants to do stand-up comedy.

Speaking of stand-up comedy, Emmy Blotnick was the purely stand-up comedy segment of the show and I was glad to finally meet her. Of all things she did some “dental humor” and joked about having to wear a nightguard to protect against the damage caused by grinding and clenching the teeth. How could she have known that was my specialty? Anyway it gave us something to bond over! ( Bonding, … get it? LOL)

And then there was the big close with Boris and Jawnee back on stage, and lots of people hung out to just party because it’s that kind of a hang. Next month’s show will feature Richard Kind, and I’m sure it will be hilarious so make sure to go check it out. I had a BLAST!!!

So until next time we meet please remember that COMEDY MATTERS!!!

Please like, comment and SUBSCRIBE to my Comedy Matters TV YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/guriannewsnetwork and follow me on Twitter and IG at @jeffreygurian

See you all soon!

 

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