Caroline Hirsch talks with Mendte in the Morning about the New York Comedy Festival coming back for its 21st year and who will be performing in November.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, this is exciting. It's that time again, time for
the biggest comedy festival in the world, the New York
Comedy Festival. It says here more than two hundred comedians,
but they keep adding comedians all the time. How many?
Who knows how many you're going to end up with?
And to talk about that is the founder and producer
of the New York Comedy Festival, Caroline Hirsh. Caroline, thanks
(00:22):
so much. It's really a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Nice to meet you, Larry.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It is. This is an enormous event and it's getting
bigger every single year. Talk about the width and breadth
of this thing and how you take over New York City, Well,
it's this.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know, we've expanded in the last year. We have
now ten days, two weekends from November seventh through the sixteenth.
And what we cover is we have stand up, we
have improv we have podcasts. We're diversified in all the
different types of comedy that you can imagine. So that's
what we try to bring to New York. A week
of laughs, and you know at the best venues in
(00:58):
the world at Madison Square, Garden, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall,
and the Beacon so we have something for everyone and
we're excited about our lineup this year as always. And
you know, by the time we're finished, we have like
probably over three hundred comedians that will take the stage
all around the city for those ten days, right, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You have a rising star competition, right, we do.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We have New York's Funniest which happens during the festival,
and out of that we have showcased lots of comedians
that have gone on to do to be very very
well known, to get agents and managers, podcasts and all
of that, like Tim Dillon, Nepergatzi, Ricky Verles, Michael Cha,
Josh Johnson. I mean, we have a you know, lots
(01:46):
of people that have come out of the festival, which
myself and Louis Veranda, and Andrew Fox and Greg Charles,
we all put a mark on who we think is
the next rising star.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I started with the rising stars, and maybe I should
start with the headliners who are some of the big
names at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Some of the big names this year is we have
the Basement Yard at Madison Square Garden. Hannah Berner is
back again with us. First we did a podcast, but
now she's doing stand up she's really terrific. I have
seen her do stand up terrific. Michael Blaxon, who worked
for us at Caroline, is now at the hard Rock
with Ryan Long and let me mention that the hard
Rock is a hub for us during the comedy festival.
(02:23):
So we take over the hard Rock Hotel and the
venue there, which is the most gorgeous venue, and we
bring everything that we used to do with Carolines we
bring to the hard Rock right there on forty eighth Street,
So that's kind of our hub and that's where we
do that. We also have Alex Edelman representing him. You know,
he had a Broadway Broadway show that was sold out
(02:45):
during the run and an epic special from it, and
we're he's doing stand up at Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I saw you have Pete Holmes. I'm a big Pete Holmes.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh yeah, we love working with Pete. He's such a
sweet He's so sweet. He's so sweet. And then we
have Strangers with Candy with Stephen Colbert, Paul Donano, and
Amysa Harris on the on the twenty fifth anniversary of
their cancelation.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Is it is amazing how this this has become the
biggest comedy event in the world, and I think, don't
you believe that?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I know, well, I believe it, and we curate and
have the best of the best, and you know, God
bless us. We've been able to do this for twenty
one years and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger,
and the world has become like a the world picked
up our culture in comedy because now it's really global
(03:42):
what we're doing. And to mention that, one of our
other partners in the festival this year is Threads, which
is part of Meta that has probably three hundred and
fifty users and the comedy world loves it because they
get this banter back and forth and creators love it.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Also. The dates of the New Comedy Festival are November
seventh November sixteenth, and you're probably asking to yourself, well,
why are we talking about this in July? Because today
is an important date and if you don't get tickets
to what you want to see or the comic you
want to see, you're not going to get in. So
you have to buy your tickets early.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yes, today is the presale going on with Red Financial
and American Express Card and the presale it starts today
through Friday and next week it's open to the public.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You know, what is the what is the state of
comedy these days? Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You know when I opened my club way back in
the early eighties, it was like I had maybe twelve headliners.
Can you imagine what goes on today. And with the
creation of the Internet, it just made it bigger and
bigger and bigger. And COVID had a lot to do
with it too, because we have a lot of new
creators that came out of COVID sitting at home doing
(04:55):
nothing and then they just started posting videos and it
opened up a lo lot of careers for people and
it's become The Internet was very democratic. You know. You
take somebody like a Joe List who made his own
little special, put it out on YouTube and then had
this big following that they came to see them.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Right, So you have the Internet and you're watching people
on the internet. You do have all of these specials
now on television and you have a million stations. How
has that affected comedy clubs?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well, this is the thing they always talked about, Well,
if it was on TV, you wouldn't go out. But
it's the opposite. If you watch it on TV, you
get you get an audience that really wants to see
you for live events. It's just like the music business.
You got the great album, they want to go here,
you do it. So it's it's always compared it to music.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, and there are comedy There are absolutely comedy superstars.
I mean that are at the top of the list,
some of the top names, and you have many of
them coming up on the We have them.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And I started out with the best in the business.
I started out with Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Gary Shandling,
we start Bill Maher. We started with the best, and
we continue to produce the best.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Now, did you know immediately when you saw these people, Yeah,
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I mean that's what I've been on the basis of
Carolines was a headliner club where everybody was just doing
little showcase, little bits of people here and there. But
you know, I had Jay Leno come in when he
was you know, just starting out, not starting out, but
he had an act, but he was like an opening
act in Atlantic City. But here was headling headlining at Carolines.
Same thing with Jerry Seinfeld, Gary Shanley, Sondra Bernhardt when
(06:34):
she was just you know, blossoming in her career. So
it's been a fun Bill Maher many many headlining nights
with Bill Maher at the Chelsea Club, Paul Rubens, p B. Herman.
So we had a fun, fun time. Yeah, in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm reluctant to ask this question. So you don't have
to name names, because it's like picking your favorite children.
But is there I'm not going to ask you to
pick a favorite comic. That's not what I'm going to do.
But are there are some people now that you've seen
and you go, oh, that's they're going to be a star.
They have it, And are they going to be at
this festival? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, we yeah, yeah, there they will be stars.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, you're thinking of names right now.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You're thinking of a few people right now. You don't
want to pick out your favorite child. I understand. Let's
give the information one more time because we have to
wrap this up. But let's give the information one more
time about how people can get tickets.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, you can go to New York Comedy Festival dot
com and you can do the pre sale today with
Bread Financial and through Friday and next week tickets are
on sale to the public.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
What an honor to me you. Thank you so much
for coming in today. Caroline Hirsch, founder and executive producer
of the New York Comedy Festival and the visionary behind
Caroline's on Broadway, the legendary comedy club that, as you
just heard, helped to launch countless careers. It was really
your pressure pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Thank you
Well, this is exciting. It's that time again, time for
the biggest comedy festival in the world, the New York
Comedy Festival. It says here more than two hundred comedians,
but they keep adding comedians all the time. How many?
Who knows how many you're going to end up with?
And to talk about that is the founder and producer
of the New York Comedy Festival, Caroline Hirsh. Caroline, thanks
(00:22):
so much. It's really a pleasure to meet you.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
Nice to meet you, Larry.
Speaker 1 (00:25):
It is. This is an enormous event and it's getting
bigger every single year. Talk about the width and breadth
of this thing and how you take over New York City, Well,
it's this.
Speaker 2 (00:37):
You know, we've expanded in the last year. We have
now ten days, two weekends from November seventh through the sixteenth.
And what we cover is we have stand up, we
have improv we have podcasts. We're diversified in all the
different types of comedy that you can imagine. So that's
what we try to bring to New York. A week
of laughs, and you know at the best venues in
(00:58):
the world at Madison Square, Garden, Carnegie Hall, Town Hall,
and the Beacon so we have something for everyone and
we're excited about our lineup this year as always. And
you know, by the time we're finished, we have like
probably over three hundred comedians that will take the stage
all around the city for those ten days, right, and.
Speaker 1 (01:20):
You have a rising star competition, right, we do.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
We have New York's Funniest which happens during the festival,
and out of that we have showcased lots of comedians
that have gone on to do to be very very
well known, to get agents and managers, podcasts and all
of that, like Tim Dillon, Nepergatzi, Ricky Verles, Michael Cha,
Josh Johnson. I mean, we have a you know, lots
(01:46):
of people that have come out of the festival, which
myself and Louis Veranda, and Andrew Fox and Greg Charles,
we all put a mark on who we think is
the next rising star.
Speaker 1 (01:56):
I started with the rising stars, and maybe I should
start with the headliners who are some of the big
names at the time.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
Some of the big names this year is we have
the Basement Yard at Madison Square Garden. Hannah Berner is
back again with us. First we did a podcast, but
now she's doing stand up she's really terrific. I have
seen her do stand up terrific. Michael Blaxon, who worked
for us at Caroline, is now at the hard Rock
with Ryan Long and let me mention that the hard
Rock is a hub for us during the comedy festival.
(02:23):
So we take over the hard Rock Hotel and the
venue there, which is the most gorgeous venue, and we
bring everything that we used to do with Carolines we
bring to the hard Rock right there on forty eighth Street,
So that's kind of our hub and that's where we
do that. We also have Alex Edelman representing him. You know,
he had a Broadway Broadway show that was sold out
(02:45):
during the run and an epic special from it, and
we're he's doing stand up at Carnegie Hall.
Speaker 1 (02:51):
I saw you have Pete Holmes. I'm a big Pete Holmes.
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh yeah, we love working with Pete. He's such a
sweet He's so sweet. He's so sweet. And then we
have Strangers with Candy with Stephen Colbert, Paul Donano, and
Amysa Harris on the on the twenty fifth anniversary of
their cancelation.
Speaker 1 (03:12):
Is it is amazing how this this has become the
biggest comedy event in the world, and I think, don't
you believe that?
Speaker 2 (03:20):
I know, well, I believe it, and we curate and
have the best of the best, and you know, God
bless us. We've been able to do this for twenty
one years and it gets bigger and bigger and bigger,
and the world has become like a the world picked
up our culture in comedy because now it's really global
(03:42):
what we're doing. And to mention that, one of our
other partners in the festival this year is Threads, which
is part of Meta that has probably three hundred and
fifty users and the comedy world loves it because they
get this banter back and forth and creators love it.
Speaker 1 (03:58):
Also. The dates of the New Comedy Festival are November
seventh November sixteenth, and you're probably asking to yourself, well,
why are we talking about this in July? Because today
is an important date and if you don't get tickets
to what you want to see or the comic you
want to see, you're not going to get in. So
you have to buy your tickets early.
Speaker 2 (04:17):
Yes, today is the presale going on with Red Financial
and American Express Card and the presale it starts today
through Friday and next week it's open to the public.
Speaker 1 (04:29):
You know, what is the what is the state of
comedy these days? Oh my god.
Speaker 2 (04:34):
You know when I opened my club way back in
the early eighties, it was like I had maybe twelve headliners.
Can you imagine what goes on today. And with the
creation of the Internet, it just made it bigger and
bigger and bigger. And COVID had a lot to do
with it too, because we have a lot of new
creators that came out of COVID sitting at home doing
(04:55):
nothing and then they just started posting videos and it
opened up a lo lot of careers for people and
it's become The Internet was very democratic. You know. You
take somebody like a Joe List who made his own
little special, put it out on YouTube and then had
this big following that they came to see them.
Speaker 1 (05:12):
Right, So you have the Internet and you're watching people
on the internet. You do have all of these specials
now on television and you have a million stations. How
has that affected comedy clubs?
Speaker 2 (05:24):
Well, this is the thing they always talked about, Well,
if it was on TV, you wouldn't go out. But
it's the opposite. If you watch it on TV, you
get you get an audience that really wants to see
you for live events. It's just like the music business.
You got the great album, they want to go here,
you do it. So it's it's always compared it to music.
Speaker 1 (05:42):
Yeah, and there are comedy There are absolutely comedy superstars.
I mean that are at the top of the list,
some of the top names, and you have many of
them coming up on the We have them.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
And I started out with the best in the business.
I started out with Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, Gary Shandling,
we start Bill Maher. We started with the best, and
we continue to produce the best.
Speaker 1 (06:04):
Now, did you know immediately when you saw these people, Yeah,
I did.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
I mean that's what I've been on the basis of
Carolines was a headliner club where everybody was just doing
little showcase, little bits of people here and there. But
you know, I had Jay Leno come in when he
was you know, just starting out, not starting out, but
he had an act, but he was like an opening
act in Atlantic City. But here was headling headlining at Carolines.
Same thing with Jerry Seinfeld, Gary Shanley, Sondra Bernhardt when
(06:34):
she was just you know, blossoming in her career. So
it's been a fun Bill Maher many many headlining nights
with Bill Maher at the Chelsea Club, Paul Rubens, p B. Herman.
So we had a fun, fun time. Yeah, in the eighties.
Speaker 1 (06:50):
I'm reluctant to ask this question. So you don't have
to name names, because it's like picking your favorite children.
But is there I'm not going to ask you to
pick a favorite comic. That's not what I'm going to do.
But are there are some people now that you've seen
and you go, oh, that's they're going to be a star.
They have it, And are they going to be at
this festival? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (07:08):
Yeah, yeah, we yeah, yeah, there they will be stars.
Speaker 1 (07:12):
Yeah, you're thinking of names right now.
Speaker 3 (07:14):
You're thinking of a few people right now. You don't
want to pick out your favorite child. I understand. Let's
give the information one more time because we have to
wrap this up. But let's give the information one more
time about how people can get tickets.
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Well, you can go to New York Comedy Festival dot
com and you can do the pre sale today with
Bread Financial and through Friday and next week tickets are
on sale to the public.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
What an honor to me you. Thank you so much
for coming in today. Caroline Hirsch, founder and executive producer
of the New York Comedy Festival and the visionary behind
Caroline's on Broadway, the legendary comedy club that, as you
just heard, helped to launch countless careers. It was really
your pressure pleasure. Thank you so much.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
Thank you
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