July 15, 2026 • 17 mins
Comedy icon Caroline Hirsch stops by to discuss this year's New York Comedy Festival, the future of stand-up, and the comedians she's most excited to see.
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Today's Daily Highlight from Elvis Duran in the Morning Show.
What Elvis Duran in the Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
There's so many millions of reasons we love living in
New York City, and there's so many millions of reasons
people love to come to.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
New York City. The one I want to talk.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
About right now is the New York Comedy Festival. This
is the twenty second year. The twenty twenty six New
York Comedy Festival is going down in November, but we
got to talk about it now because tickets go on
sale this morning at eleven the pre sale this morning.
And of course, the mastermind behind the New York Comedy Festival,
the biggest name in comedy in my opinion, of course,
(00:37):
Caroline Caroline Hurst is here.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Hi. Caroline, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
How many times did I laugh so hard I cracked
my pants in at Caroline's Comedy.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Club that there was me.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yes, we go back a long, long way, we sure.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do we do, and you were more beautiful than ever.
We love you, Caroline, And of course Greg Charles, who
is always at her side. They're connected at at whatever,
they're connected with it. Thank you guys for coming in
to talk about the Comedy Festival. If you're listening to us,
no matter where in this world you're listening, including here
in New York and New Jersey and Long Island and
Connecticut River. It's going down in November. Like I said,
(01:18):
tickets to pre sale this morning at eleven o'clock. Let's
talk about it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So the Comedy Festival is back again, and it's back
from Friday November sixth through Sunday November fifteenth, with about
probably close to two hundred and fifty shows around New
York City. Right now, we're announcing the headliners that we
have right now, but come September we do a whole
(01:42):
other announcement of everybody else that we've put together. Because
it takes so long to do all of this. It
takes a whole year to put this together.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Two hundred and fifty shows. That sounds so easy. I
don't know what the problem is. Okay, I want to
get to that list of headliners in a second.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Okay, So, but you know that you know that the
New York Comedy Festival started out being mainly stand up
but right now the future of comedy is more than that.
The future of comedy is improv our digital creators are podcasters,
all different site types of ways that comedy is delivered,
(02:18):
and the festival this year is a good example of
how we put that together.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
We let's talk about them. Let's start with your headliners.
I'm excited to hear who who is headlining this year?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Okay, so Mark Maron is back, Elena Glacier, Jordan Kepler,
Daniel Schloss, Miss pat and then we have the new
people that we're headlining, like Jordan Jensen, Adam Friedland, Sarah
Sherman and Patty Harrison, Joanne McNally, Ben Beckis and Zee
and Jess Hilarious is with us.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Also, everyone loves Hilarious.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Jess used to work at Carolines all the time, so
she's back headlining.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, we had her on our show not too long ago,
and I cracked my pants that day too. I was
pant full of crap in my life thanks to you, Caroline.
I don't know about you, guys. I have such a
hankering to see the comedians that make you laugh, but
they also make you think, it make you feel. I mean,
(03:15):
my favorite today is Jimmy Carr, of course, and Ricky's
Your vase does the same thing. Dave Chappelle is a
master in making people laugh and think, and then you
go back to the old days of comedy, the Richard
Pryor and George Carlin, and I want to see more
shows like that where you know, it's not all just
laugh to you crap your pants, but it's also a
(03:36):
thinking evening, you know, And do you see.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
More of that in comedy these days?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's kind of you know, the observational stand ups from
originally how we really have. When I first got into business,
that was the trend that was there. But I think
we've branched off, and I think that COVID had a
lot to do with it. I think that a lot
of the digital creators came out of that. They may
not be everybody's cup of tea, like what you like,
but there is a market for that, and there is
(04:03):
an audience for that. I understand exactly what you're saying.
You know, the John Stewarts of the world. You know
the Mark Maren's of the world, you know the Bill
Burrs of the world. I mean, I love all of that.
I love it more than anything else. But there is
a whole other generation and a half that appreciates a
bigger gamut than just the stand up.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Caroline is my superhero. I think that you're amazing with
what you've done being a woman in the business in general.
But comedy is it's you know, I have a soft
spot for it. One might say it hits me in
the funnybone. I love it, and I think that what
you're doing is amazing. It's like the best eleven nine
days of time here in New York City, and I
just I'm so excited to see some of these people because,
like you said, we know some of these names very well.
(04:47):
Some of them I have no idea, but those have
been some of the best shows I've ever been to.
Is when I didn't know what I was walking into
and I got surprised.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So this is great.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I think we're pretty good curators of what works. I
think we deliver because you know, I go to lots
of the shows and stand in the back and I
watch the audience reactions and I see all these happy
faces walking out.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Do people crap their pants when they know you're in
the back of the audience.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
No, whit a minute.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I kind of did. If you remember a couple of
years ago, I did down for laughs and it was
part of the New York Comedy Festival, and it was
all to go for helping Hearts of Joy, which helps
children with Down syndrome right to get the heart operations
that they need. And Caroline was in the back and
it was a totally clean show. They didn't want any cursing,
(05:34):
they didn't want any dirty comedians.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
So we had a.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Book a clean show first of all. That is very
hard to do.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And I'm in the back thinking, oh my gosh, Caroline
is watching the show that we put together and it's
a totally clean show.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's so different, Like what is she thinking?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But she seemed to enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think that evening and you raise lots of money.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, Caroline is known as the Queen of comedy, but
she's never done stand up.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Have you ever tried to stand up before?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
No? But I think way back, maybe I should have. Yeah,
where we went from the early days of watching you know,
Jay Leno in the club and Jerry Seinfeld. Even when
I see Jerry go, we both say, can you believe
what has happened? This art form just exploded in the
last forty years. I mean, it's unbelievable. And then the
(06:24):
younger generation and you know, it had a lot to
do with the cable channels at that time that really
looking for cheap ways to entertain people put on lots
of comedy and then a younger generation got hooked on that.
So we owe it all to cable TV and then
to the Internet for digital creators.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You know, Caroline, all those years running Caroline's Comedy Club,
the world famous Carolines, you were usually in the back,
watching in the shadows, observing, and you had you were
running an incredibly successful business at the same time. What
have you learned through all of this?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Well, look, early on, when I first started the club
and I was standing in the back, I had to
convince journalists and radio people also that comedy was on
the rise and you should really take note of the
people for me at Carolines. And it was early on
it was Howard Stern, who was on NBC Radio in
the afternoon that looked at our lineup and wanted to
(07:22):
take on people like Richard Belzer and Pee Wee Herman
and bring him on the show. And this started the
whole start of Carolines as a national entity. And mentions
on the David Letterman Show happened that way. It was
the start of something really new. And I really think
that Carolines was part of this cultural movement that really
(07:43):
I'm going to tell you I had convinced people to
come there and cover comedy. It was like, who are
you talking about this? Jay Leno? Who is this guy?
Speaker 6 (07:52):
You know?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
It was like that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
So the Jerry Seinfels, the Richard Lewis, the Gary Shanlings,
you know. The first year when I was and and
a booking comedian, so it was it was tough. But
then I guess tenacity, I stayed with it, and forty
years later, it's a phenomena.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Wait, do you have them all on speed dial? Like
could you pick up your phone right now and just
like call, like, you know all these people, Jerry Seinfeld,
you know, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
What it is? They got their people now, you know
what that is?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, well, yeah, I was kind of hoping you could
push the speed doll for Richard Pryor giving him a
little call for us.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
He wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh, but yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Let's talk about the cancel culture that hit the comedy
world for a while. It seems to be relieving, of course,
not only in comedy but in other industries as well,
the cancel culture, how do you feel about like the
Luis cy Ks and guys like that.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
God, how everybody's forgotten about that. But the thing about
Louis now, i've known movie. The thing about Louis is
that I've known Louise since he's a young young man
and he did something that was not appropriate when I
guess he was in his early thirties. I think I read,
I read, you know, his story in the New York Times.
He fest up to what he did and he apologized
(09:11):
for what he did. And I think that the cancel culture,
you know, would forgive a murderer coming out of prison
because he put his time in, as opposed to just
forgetting about what Louie did. So I have forgiven Louie.
I think he paid his penance, and I you know,
he's wonderful. We had him in the festival last year
and he taped the special Lits right now on Netflix.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Yeah, Nate, you had a question. When I go to
Instagram and I start scrolling, it's a lot of people
doing their sets or their bits or whatever. Is it
standard practice now in comedy clubs to just film everything
and then give that to the comedian. So that they
can cut it, edit it, and post it at their leisure.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
We used to have the Monday Nights which was kind
of like the New Talent Night, and everybody he kind
of you know, did that to tape themselves so they
can see themselves and use it as a tape to
try to get a job somewhere else. They did that.
I think they do more like comedians don't want to
give their work up online like that unless somebody's paying
for it. So, but they do a lot of crowd work.
(10:16):
Crowd work is the way you can get around doing
that and not give up much of your.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Material fout crowd work.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Oh, don't ask me about that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
We know how she feels about No.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
I saw I saw a comedian. I can't remember who
it was. And he goes, if you have a comedian
that starts talking to you, just don't say anything back
to them. They can't do anything unless you give them
something to work with.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
I think it's a look. It works for getting the
word out about yourself, introducing yourself online, and it works
for that. But you know, we used to say that's
the hackiest thing around.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Really still do?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I mean, but people have made careers on.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
This Carolina Hirsh is with us, by the way, of course,
I hear talking about the twenty second New York Comedy Festival.
Tickets are are on pre sale this morning at eleven o'clock,
Great Charles. Where do I go to buy my tickets?
At eleven this morning? For presale, you.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Go to Nycomedyfestival dot com. That's where you can unlock
the pre sale code ooh, And then tickets go on
sale to the general public Monday, July twentieth at eleven
am Eastern time.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, get your tickets.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Two hundred and fifty different shows, all happening beginning November sixth,
the New York Comedy Festival. Great Charles, by the way,
has always has been working at Caroline since I've met you, Caroline.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Right, Do you guys miss it? Do you miss the club?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I I miss I missed the staff. I miss going
into my office connecting with everybody. I miss going into
the room at night and seeing a lot of the
new talent. I miss not having that to do so
now I have to do a lot of that online.
But you know that's where you know, I walk into
the room at night, see emerging talent and go I
(12:01):
gotta keep eye on this one, that one, this one,
and that one, and I love that whole part of it.
And that's what I do, miss so find that best
thing coming up. So Gandhi, we're going to be working
with you in the festival.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yes, I'm so excited. I can't wait. What are you doing? Gandhi?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Well, like she was saying earlier, there are all these
different formats now that they're kind of venturing into, and
I have a podcast, so they were nice enough to
invite me in my podcast to be part of the
New York Comedy Festival. And there might be a little
stand up involved in it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
A baby baby, I need to see this. Yeah, awesome,
we'll see.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
It's been my fouls for so long. I've always just
wanted to try it, and I have so much written,
so I figured, you know what, in the midst of
doing this podcast, we could just you know, try a
little set and see how it goes. And the very
helpful with suggestions on how to start practicing and getting
it together.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Awes another reason you need to come to the New
York Comedy Festival. I've been gearing up to ask the
question I'm gonna ask. I ask it every year when
Caroline comes in, When are you going to reopen your club?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Where are we get to heave it.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
With doors you can walk through and seat you can
sit in and crap your pants.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I know I miss having it. It was a bittersweet
to close. Look, I kept the name. I did not
sell the club. I did not sell the name. So
in the back of my mind there was always something
else to do, So it's always on my mind to
do it. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
More importantly than that of us.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I'm a little worried.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
There's this theme in the show you, Danielle, Everyone's crapping
their pants.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Where's the last time you had a.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
Everyone's pants somewhere?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
To be fair, there is that bug going around.
Speaker 7 (13:55):
I was wondering.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
To be fair. Come on.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Comedy is a really part of our culture, bigger than
ever and a very important part of our culture.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
It's it's art and it's medicine. I think comedy is
one of the coolest things that exist because it makes
us all happy. Like, who doesn't like comedy? I actually
did meet one person once that's said they didn't like comedy.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
I found that weird.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Did you run gets so weird?
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah, it's so important, you know, it's it's an it's
influential form of entertainment that we love. I mean we
get we get some facts from it, we get some
political point of views from it, we get healthy benefits
from it. So it's it's all good for.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Us nowadays with everything going on in this crazy world,
you need to laugh, right, So it's more important than ever.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Oh, you know what's funny you said that. It's funny
you said that, because it seems like we say that
every single year it gets worse.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Hey, I have totally been blown away at maybe it's
my algorithm on Instagram or whatever. All of these hecklers
that are physically walking up to the stage and effing
around with the comedian, and the hecklers who pay to
come to these shows and want to interact without invitation
(15:20):
with these comedians. Why is that so prevalent now? It
hasn't always been this huge of a thing.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Because they know they'll be on social media. That's why
years ago there wasn't a camera in the room. Now
there's a you know, a thousand cameras in the room
to capture it. So everybody's kind of a star, you know,
make yourself a star being obnoxious, So it's like part.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Of it is also just the comment section in general
on social media. Everybody thinks their opinion matters and counts,
and if you're in public, you can't type it, so
you have to scream it true.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
That's that's true, that's that's true. And then again, you know,
you know, we were always in our room. We've watched
people with bones, people getting out of this seat's, people hackling.
We kept a real control about that. But I guess
anybody can run in at the Beacon Theater, run up
to the stage and start screaming at the performer.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Please don't look. It's so important comedy, as we all agree.
Without it, we would be we wouldn't have a reason
to crack our pants.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
There you go right back to that.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The twenty twenty six New York Comedy Festival November sixth
through the fifteenth. The pre sale for tickets go go
out for sale at eleven this morning. You can go
to NY Comedy Festival dot com and all the information
is right there. It's NY Comedy Festival dot com. You
are such royalty for us, Caroline, and thank you, such honoring,
(16:46):
thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You are royalty as well.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Thank you see money, oh, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
We got a lot of royalty roll into the room.
We love you guys, and congratulations already on what looks
like it's going to be the best comedy of to
Whatliver Go to Nycomedyfestival dot com or make sure you
just follow them on Instagram at Nycomedy Fest.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Caroline and Greg, thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Thank you you guys, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Hello, Hello, Hello, Elvis Duran in the Morning Show
Today's Daily Highlight from Elvis Duran in the Morning Show.
What Elvis Duran in the Morning Show.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
There's so many millions of reasons we love living in
New York City, and there's so many millions of reasons
people love to come to.
Speaker 3 (00:14):
New York City. The one I want to talk.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
About right now is the New York Comedy Festival. This
is the twenty second year. The twenty twenty six New
York Comedy Festival is going down in November, but we
got to talk about it now because tickets go on
sale this morning at eleven the pre sale this morning.
And of course, the mastermind behind the New York Comedy Festival,
the biggest name in comedy in my opinion, of course,
(00:37):
Caroline Caroline Hurst is here.
Speaker 4 (00:38):
Hi. Caroline, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
How many times did I laugh so hard I cracked
my pants in at Caroline's Comedy.
Speaker 3 (00:49):
Club that there was me.
Speaker 4 (00:54):
Yes, we go back a long, long way, we sure.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
Do we do, and you were more beautiful than ever.
We love you, Caroline, And of course Greg Charles, who
is always at her side. They're connected at at whatever,
they're connected with it. Thank you guys for coming in
to talk about the Comedy Festival. If you're listening to us,
no matter where in this world you're listening, including here
in New York and New Jersey and Long Island and
Connecticut River. It's going down in November. Like I said,
(01:18):
tickets to pre sale this morning at eleven o'clock. Let's
talk about it.
Speaker 4 (01:22):
So the Comedy Festival is back again, and it's back
from Friday November sixth through Sunday November fifteenth, with about
probably close to two hundred and fifty shows around New
York City. Right now, we're announcing the headliners that we
have right now, but come September we do a whole
(01:42):
other announcement of everybody else that we've put together. Because
it takes so long to do all of this. It
takes a whole year to put this together.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Two hundred and fifty shows. That sounds so easy. I
don't know what the problem is. Okay, I want to
get to that list of headliners in a second.
Speaker 4 (01:56):
Okay, So, but you know that you know that the
New York Comedy Festival started out being mainly stand up
but right now the future of comedy is more than that.
The future of comedy is improv our digital creators are podcasters,
all different site types of ways that comedy is delivered,
(02:18):
and the festival this year is a good example of
how we put that together.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
We let's talk about them. Let's start with your headliners.
I'm excited to hear who who is headlining this year?
Speaker 4 (02:27):
Okay, so Mark Maron is back, Elena Glacier, Jordan Kepler,
Daniel Schloss, Miss pat and then we have the new
people that we're headlining, like Jordan Jensen, Adam Friedland, Sarah
Sherman and Patty Harrison, Joanne McNally, Ben Beckis and Zee
and Jess Hilarious is with us.
Speaker 3 (02:46):
Also, everyone loves Hilarious.
Speaker 4 (02:51):
Jess used to work at Carolines all the time, so
she's back headlining.
Speaker 2 (02:55):
Yes, we had her on our show not too long ago,
and I cracked my pants that day too. I was
pant full of crap in my life thanks to you, Caroline.
I don't know about you, guys. I have such a
hankering to see the comedians that make you laugh, but
they also make you think, it make you feel. I mean,
(03:15):
my favorite today is Jimmy Carr, of course, and Ricky's
Your vase does the same thing. Dave Chappelle is a
master in making people laugh and think, and then you
go back to the old days of comedy, the Richard
Pryor and George Carlin, and I want to see more
shows like that where you know, it's not all just
laugh to you crap your pants, but it's also a
(03:36):
thinking evening, you know, And do you see.
Speaker 3 (03:39):
More of that in comedy these days?
Speaker 4 (03:41):
That's kind of you know, the observational stand ups from
originally how we really have. When I first got into business,
that was the trend that was there. But I think
we've branched off, and I think that COVID had a
lot to do with it. I think that a lot
of the digital creators came out of that. They may
not be everybody's cup of tea, like what you like,
but there is a market for that, and there is
(04:03):
an audience for that. I understand exactly what you're saying.
You know, the John Stewarts of the world. You know
the Mark Maren's of the world, you know the Bill
Burrs of the world. I mean, I love all of that.
I love it more than anything else. But there is
a whole other generation and a half that appreciates a
bigger gamut than just the stand up.
Speaker 5 (04:24):
Caroline is my superhero. I think that you're amazing with
what you've done being a woman in the business in general.
But comedy is it's you know, I have a soft
spot for it. One might say it hits me in
the funnybone. I love it, and I think that what
you're doing is amazing. It's like the best eleven nine
days of time here in New York City, and I
just I'm so excited to see some of these people because,
like you said, we know some of these names very well.
(04:47):
Some of them I have no idea, but those have
been some of the best shows I've ever been to.
Is when I didn't know what I was walking into
and I got surprised.
Speaker 3 (04:53):
So this is great.
Speaker 4 (04:53):
I think we're pretty good curators of what works. I
think we deliver because you know, I go to lots
of the shows and stand in the back and I
watch the audience reactions and I see all these happy
faces walking out.
Speaker 5 (05:06):
Do people crap their pants when they know you're in
the back of the audience.
Speaker 4 (05:09):
No, whit a minute.
Speaker 1 (05:11):
I kind of did. If you remember a couple of
years ago, I did down for laughs and it was
part of the New York Comedy Festival, and it was
all to go for helping Hearts of Joy, which helps
children with Down syndrome right to get the heart operations
that they need. And Caroline was in the back and
it was a totally clean show. They didn't want any cursing,
(05:34):
they didn't want any dirty comedians.
Speaker 6 (05:36):
So we had a.
Speaker 3 (05:37):
Book a clean show first of all. That is very
hard to do.
Speaker 1 (05:40):
And I'm in the back thinking, oh my gosh, Caroline
is watching the show that we put together and it's
a totally clean show.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
It's so different, Like what is she thinking?
Speaker 1 (05:47):
But she seemed to enjoy it.
Speaker 4 (05:49):
I think that evening and you raise lots of money.
Speaker 2 (05:54):
Yeah, Caroline is known as the Queen of comedy, but
she's never done stand up.
Speaker 3 (06:00):
Have you ever tried to stand up before?
Speaker 4 (06:02):
No? But I think way back, maybe I should have. Yeah,
where we went from the early days of watching you know,
Jay Leno in the club and Jerry Seinfeld. Even when
I see Jerry go, we both say, can you believe
what has happened? This art form just exploded in the
last forty years. I mean, it's unbelievable. And then the
(06:24):
younger generation and you know, it had a lot to
do with the cable channels at that time that really
looking for cheap ways to entertain people put on lots
of comedy and then a younger generation got hooked on that.
So we owe it all to cable TV and then
to the Internet for digital creators.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
You know, Caroline, all those years running Caroline's Comedy Club,
the world famous Carolines, you were usually in the back,
watching in the shadows, observing, and you had you were
running an incredibly successful business at the same time. What
have you learned through all of this?
Speaker 4 (06:59):
Well, look, early on, when I first started the club
and I was standing in the back, I had to
convince journalists and radio people also that comedy was on
the rise and you should really take note of the
people for me at Carolines. And it was early on
it was Howard Stern, who was on NBC Radio in
the afternoon that looked at our lineup and wanted to
(07:22):
take on people like Richard Belzer and Pee Wee Herman
and bring him on the show. And this started the
whole start of Carolines as a national entity. And mentions
on the David Letterman Show happened that way. It was
the start of something really new. And I really think
that Carolines was part of this cultural movement that really
(07:43):
I'm going to tell you I had convinced people to
come there and cover comedy. It was like, who are
you talking about this? Jay Leno? Who is this guy?
Speaker 6 (07:52):
You know?
Speaker 3 (07:52):
It was like that.
Speaker 4 (07:53):
So the Jerry Seinfels, the Richard Lewis, the Gary Shanlings,
you know. The first year when I was and and
a booking comedian, so it was it was tough. But
then I guess tenacity, I stayed with it, and forty
years later, it's a phenomena.
Speaker 1 (08:10):
Wait, do you have them all on speed dial? Like
could you pick up your phone right now and just
like call, like, you know all these people, Jerry Seinfeld,
you know, you know.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
What it is? They got their people now, you know
what that is?
Speaker 2 (08:23):
Yeah, well, yeah, I was kind of hoping you could
push the speed doll for Richard Pryor giving him a
little call for us.
Speaker 4 (08:30):
He wasn't he.
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Oh, but yeah, unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (08:34):
Let's talk about the cancel culture that hit the comedy
world for a while. It seems to be relieving, of course,
not only in comedy but in other industries as well,
the cancel culture, how do you feel about like the
Luis cy Ks and guys like that.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
God, how everybody's forgotten about that. But the thing about
Louis now, i've known movie. The thing about Louis is
that I've known Louise since he's a young young man
and he did something that was not appropriate when I
guess he was in his early thirties. I think I read,
I read, you know, his story in the New York Times.
He fest up to what he did and he apologized
(09:11):
for what he did. And I think that the cancel culture,
you know, would forgive a murderer coming out of prison
because he put his time in, as opposed to just
forgetting about what Louie did. So I have forgiven Louie.
I think he paid his penance, and I you know,
he's wonderful. We had him in the festival last year
and he taped the special Lits right now on Netflix.
Speaker 6 (09:35):
Yeah, Nate, you had a question. When I go to
Instagram and I start scrolling, it's a lot of people
doing their sets or their bits or whatever. Is it
standard practice now in comedy clubs to just film everything
and then give that to the comedian. So that they
can cut it, edit it, and post it at their leisure.
Speaker 4 (09:55):
We used to have the Monday Nights which was kind
of like the New Talent Night, and everybody he kind
of you know, did that to tape themselves so they
can see themselves and use it as a tape to
try to get a job somewhere else. They did that.
I think they do more like comedians don't want to
give their work up online like that unless somebody's paying
for it. So, but they do a lot of crowd work.
(10:16):
Crowd work is the way you can get around doing
that and not give up much of your.
Speaker 3 (10:20):
Material fout crowd work.
Speaker 4 (10:22):
Oh, don't ask me about that.
Speaker 3 (10:23):
We know how she feels about No.
Speaker 6 (10:26):
I saw I saw a comedian. I can't remember who
it was. And he goes, if you have a comedian
that starts talking to you, just don't say anything back
to them. They can't do anything unless you give them
something to work with.
Speaker 4 (10:40):
I think it's a look. It works for getting the
word out about yourself, introducing yourself online, and it works
for that. But you know, we used to say that's
the hackiest thing around.
Speaker 3 (10:51):
Really still do?
Speaker 4 (10:54):
I mean, but people have made careers on.
Speaker 2 (10:56):
This Carolina Hirsh is with us, by the way, of course,
I hear talking about the twenty second New York Comedy Festival.
Tickets are are on pre sale this morning at eleven o'clock,
Great Charles. Where do I go to buy my tickets?
At eleven this morning? For presale, you.
Speaker 7 (11:14):
Go to Nycomedyfestival dot com. That's where you can unlock
the pre sale code ooh, And then tickets go on
sale to the general public Monday, July twentieth at eleven
am Eastern time.
Speaker 3 (11:26):
Yeah, get your tickets.
Speaker 2 (11:27):
Two hundred and fifty different shows, all happening beginning November sixth,
the New York Comedy Festival. Great Charles, by the way,
has always has been working at Caroline since I've met you, Caroline.
Speaker 3 (11:38):
Right, Do you guys miss it? Do you miss the club?
Speaker 4 (11:41):
I I miss I missed the staff. I miss going
into my office connecting with everybody. I miss going into
the room at night and seeing a lot of the
new talent. I miss not having that to do so
now I have to do a lot of that online.
But you know that's where you know, I walk into
the room at night, see emerging talent and go I
(12:01):
gotta keep eye on this one, that one, this one,
and that one, and I love that whole part of it.
And that's what I do, miss so find that best
thing coming up. So Gandhi, we're going to be working
with you in the festival.
Speaker 3 (12:14):
Yes, I'm so excited. I can't wait. What are you doing? Gandhi?
Speaker 5 (12:17):
Well, like she was saying earlier, there are all these
different formats now that they're kind of venturing into, and
I have a podcast, so they were nice enough to
invite me in my podcast to be part of the
New York Comedy Festival. And there might be a little
stand up involved in it.
Speaker 3 (12:32):
A baby baby, I need to see this. Yeah, awesome,
we'll see.
Speaker 5 (12:45):
It's been my fouls for so long. I've always just
wanted to try it, and I have so much written,
so I figured, you know what, in the midst of
doing this podcast, we could just you know, try a
little set and see how it goes. And the very
helpful with suggestions on how to start practicing and getting
it together.
Speaker 2 (13:01):
Awes another reason you need to come to the New
York Comedy Festival. I've been gearing up to ask the
question I'm gonna ask. I ask it every year when
Caroline comes in, When are you going to reopen your club?
Speaker 3 (13:13):
Where are we get to heave it.
Speaker 2 (13:14):
With doors you can walk through and seat you can
sit in and crap your pants.
Speaker 4 (13:19):
I know I miss having it. It was a bittersweet
to close. Look, I kept the name. I did not
sell the club. I did not sell the name. So
in the back of my mind there was always something
else to do, So it's always on my mind to
do it. We'll see what happens.
Speaker 7 (13:35):
More importantly than that of us.
Speaker 3 (13:37):
I'm a little worried.
Speaker 7 (13:38):
There's this theme in the show you, Danielle, Everyone's crapping
their pants.
Speaker 3 (13:43):
Where's the last time you had a.
Speaker 7 (13:47):
Everyone's pants somewhere?
Speaker 3 (13:50):
To be fair, there is that bug going around.
Speaker 7 (13:55):
I was wondering.
Speaker 3 (13:58):
To be fair. Come on.
Speaker 4 (14:02):
Comedy is a really part of our culture, bigger than
ever and a very important part of our culture.
Speaker 5 (14:11):
It's it's art and it's medicine. I think comedy is
one of the coolest things that exist because it makes
us all happy. Like, who doesn't like comedy? I actually
did meet one person once that's said they didn't like comedy.
Speaker 6 (14:22):
I found that weird.
Speaker 1 (14:22):
Did you run gets so weird?
Speaker 4 (14:26):
Yeah, it's so important, you know, it's it's an it's
influential form of entertainment that we love. I mean we
get we get some facts from it, we get some
political point of views from it, we get healthy benefits
from it. So it's it's all good for.
Speaker 1 (14:43):
Us nowadays with everything going on in this crazy world,
you need to laugh, right, So it's more important than ever.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Oh, you know what's funny you said that. It's funny
you said that, because it seems like we say that
every single year it gets worse.
Speaker 2 (14:58):
Hey, I have totally been blown away at maybe it's
my algorithm on Instagram or whatever. All of these hecklers
that are physically walking up to the stage and effing
around with the comedian, and the hecklers who pay to
come to these shows and want to interact without invitation
(15:20):
with these comedians. Why is that so prevalent now? It
hasn't always been this huge of a thing.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
Because they know they'll be on social media. That's why
years ago there wasn't a camera in the room. Now
there's a you know, a thousand cameras in the room
to capture it. So everybody's kind of a star, you know,
make yourself a star being obnoxious, So it's like part.
Speaker 5 (15:42):
Of it is also just the comment section in general
on social media. Everybody thinks their opinion matters and counts,
and if you're in public, you can't type it, so
you have to scream it true.
Speaker 4 (15:53):
That's that's true, that's that's true. And then again, you know,
you know, we were always in our room. We've watched
people with bones, people getting out of this seat's, people hackling.
We kept a real control about that. But I guess
anybody can run in at the Beacon Theater, run up
to the stage and start screaming at the performer.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
Please don't look. It's so important comedy, as we all agree.
Without it, we would be we wouldn't have a reason
to crack our pants.
Speaker 4 (16:21):
There you go right back to that.
Speaker 2 (16:23):
The twenty twenty six New York Comedy Festival November sixth
through the fifteenth. The pre sale for tickets go go
out for sale at eleven this morning. You can go
to NY Comedy Festival dot com and all the information
is right there. It's NY Comedy Festival dot com. You
are such royalty for us, Caroline, and thank you, such honoring,
(16:46):
thank you.
Speaker 3 (16:47):
You are royalty as well.
Speaker 1 (16:49):
Thank you see money, oh, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
We got a lot of royalty roll into the room.
We love you guys, and congratulations already on what looks
like it's going to be the best comedy of to
Whatliver Go to Nycomedyfestival dot com or make sure you
just follow them on Instagram at Nycomedy Fest.
Speaker 3 (17:07):
Caroline and Greg, thank you so much.
Speaker 7 (17:09):
Thank you you guys, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 3 (17:14):
Hello, Hello, Hello, Elvis Duran in the Morning Show
Elvis Duran and the Morning Show ON DEMAND News
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