Today on The Breakfast Club, Caroline Hirsch Talks NY Comedy Fest, Old vs. New Comedy, Chris Rock, Kevin Hart, Wanda Sykes, Tracy Morgan, Caroline’s Comedy Club + More
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Every day clicks up. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Finished for y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Done morning, everybody is d j Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne
to God. We are the Breakfast Club. Lna Roses here
as well. We got a special guest.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
In the building. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Caroline Hirst.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
Good morning, good morning, good morning guys. Nice to see
you all again, the.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Owner and founder of Caroline's on Broadway, the iconic comedy spot.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
But I miss so been to a comedy club since
I used to go to Caroline's all the time. Greg,
you always made sure we were good so many different
comedians that Carolina man. I literally have not been to
a comedy club in New York City.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Since I've been to a couple. But it's not the same.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Like I said, me and the wife used to go
damn there every other week and it didn't matter who
was performing because it was always somebody's good and you
would get to learn about comedians there.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
And that spot is heavily But I even did my podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I did a podcast weekend there and you showed us
so much love.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So before we get into big, what do we bring
Carolines back?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, Carolines is kind of exists with the New York
Comedy Festival, so we kind of closed down Carolines the building,
but not forgotten Carolines. But we do and produce shows
to the New York Comedy Festival, which happens this year
November sixth through the fifteenth, and we're very happy to
present a whole new slew of younger comedians to our
(01:22):
roster plus the older ones. And that's where the festival
has gone over the years. It used to be just
stand up, but now it's integrated with podcasts, with political humor,
with improv, with digital creators, so it's about a lot
of different people coming together in the festival. And this year,
Jess Hilarious is there headlining at the Hard Rock Hotel,
(01:45):
which is my favorite room in New York City.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I love it and I have never played it, so
I'm so excited.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yeah, we're excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes, they're hard Like Caroline gl it was.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
It was, you know, it was so bittersweet. I knew
the time. It was forty over forty years doing it
and it was time to say, Okay, what's my next
thing to do in life? And I missed the staff.
I'm missing the talent. I missed my customers, I miss
all of that about it, but went on to do
the festival as a way to really stay in the
(02:16):
business and work with everybody that kind of graduated from
Carolines too.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
And I will say I'm one of the graduates because
I that was like my favorite comedy club to come
up here. And do you know they will always warn
us comics about New York and how hard it is
like to succeed. If you can make it in New
York on that stage, you can make it anywhere. And
I just remember always being welcomed. The service was great,
(02:42):
the vibe right there in the middle of Times Square,
and I also love how it worked right. One of
the interesting things about Carolines on Broadway was y'all vetted
every stand up that came there right, like you didn't
just let anybody come in there and do stand if
they call theyself a stand up comedian. Because even when
my first time going, I was told like, no, you
(03:02):
have to have two comedians vouch for you, and Nick
Cannon and Kevin Hart called and vouch for me. And
I got on that stage and I have been playing
a stage for years, and that's where Charlamagne and God
first came and saw me.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't think envy you came to see me there,
But I.
Speaker 7 (03:18):
Actually love what I was able to bring the Carolina
and Carolina I'll.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Sway back in twenty and eighty eight, he was and
you swd out every.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Show, every show, every year.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
So I remember sitting in the audience watching you. Yeah,
like a little fireball on stage, excited whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So thank you for even having me at the New
York Comedy Festival.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Oh I'm so excited to have you there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Hell yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
What's your biggest memory of Caroline's We hear, I know,
we hear. I love tell a story all the time
about Charles Oakley throwing the chicken wings.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I will never forget that night, break it down.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
I will never forget that night. It was like who
was on stage at that time? It was to Dre
and ed Lover. It was ed Lover night, like who's
in the house, and it was a part of that.
And all of a sudden, I see I see a
glass go across the room, and then I see chicken
(04:11):
wings going across the room. It was like but it
was like one big fun party that we you know,
Greg Charles and I We always talk about that about
how that went on that night. So it was a
lot of fun. It's when the nineties Nicks used to
come in all the time. I mean it would be
like after a game, before a game, they were in town.
(04:33):
We had so much fun at that time, Anthony Mason.
It was like it was like like home base for them,
and it was so much fun. And they'd always come
in to see Ed Lover's show.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
I remember when I remember the Kevin Hart weekend when
Kevin Hart, that was like the weekend everybody was like, Okay, Kevin,
Kevin has arrived.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Kevin has arrived. And actually, you know, after that, so
with the Comedy Festival, you know, we had Kevin at
Carolines for a number of shows that he sold out.
Then we produced him at the Beacon Theater for a
number of shows, and then we went and put him
in Madison Square Garden. And that was the idea of
Louis Veranda to tape a movie with him, and then
(05:12):
Kevin did that.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
Can we talk about the institution of comedy clubs though, right,
because what you just said with Kevin Hart and then
Jess and that being like her first experiences here in
New York. I feel like sometimes people miss, like if
you're younger, you miss. You don't get to learn the
community that the comedy club is or the education that
people get there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
On the stage.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
They get a big education there because I'll tell you
what happens is that when you sell out. When you
were selling out Carolines, the agents got on the phone
to everybody else and say, Okay, now we're ready for theaters,
you know, like stuff like that. So that was that.
It was a process at Carolines. And you can really
see how how we promoted comedy. And I'm not slapping
(05:51):
myself on the back about this one, but when I
upened Carolines in the early eighties, nobody covered comedy at all.
No media really covered comedy. I had to convince the
Daily News, the Post, and eventually the New York Times
came around and wrote this great article about Carolines, and
I think it was nineteen eighty five, calling it like
(06:11):
the yuppy little nightclub in New York, and it kind
of put us on the map. And then we broke
out after that. And then you saw from when I
opened this at I was on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.
Then I was down at the Seaport, and then I
opened on Broadway in nineteen ninety two and stayed there
for thirty years. Wow, it was a long time.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
What would you call it now, Because like you said,
you've you've always done the New York Comedy Festival, and
you're telling us about the stuff with keV.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
You got them at the.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Beacon and at the Garden, Like, what would you call
what you're doing there?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
It's kind of the same stuff that we're doing. We
take a lot of the acts that we, you know,
had at Carolines with people that we've been watching over
the years and taking them kind of out of the
clubs and into also into the clubs and kind of
promoting them and putting putting ourselves behind them and really
getting out there. I wrote them, lots of comedians can
come to town and sell out, but nobody even knows
(07:04):
they're there. You know, we make a big deal about
the art. And I always have done that, so, you know,
right from the get go. So so I always believed
in comedy and like here's this you know, young woman
at the time when I started this, and what the
hell is she know about comedy? But I there was
something happening in the air. David Letterman was going on
(07:27):
in the air, and it was just all of the
young comedians coming up. The new observational humor was happening
at that time, and then I just started hiring people.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
If you were opening Carolina today, would you build a
comedy club or would you build a media company.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I'd like to say that I dabbled in media. I
mean we're called Carolines Media right now. You know, I
had a TV show for years on the A and
A channel from like nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety six.
We taped about one hundred and twenty episodes of stand
up comedy during that time, where there was a young
Dave Chappelle on there, a young John Stewart, a young
(08:08):
Raver Romano. I mean, we had everybody coming up the
ranks at that time on that TV show.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So you think it'd be more of a media company.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
I think so, you know, Charlamagne, I I had a
lot of chances to produce things along the way, and
I just kind of stepped back from it, not knowing
and not probably having the foresight to see where all
of this was going down the line. But I think
we helped nurture the careers of those people. Look, Wanda
Sykes met Chris Rock because she was an opening act
(08:41):
for Chris and they got to be such great buddies.
He hired her to be on the show. And Wanda
will tell that story all the time.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
I've heard all the time about how he saw her
and was like, I'm gonna have something for you.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So that was that Caroline.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
She was the opening act for Chris.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Wow, what comedian was was performed the most at Caroline
because I remember seeing Tracy Morgan a lot.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Tracy was my little baby, so he kind of started
out there first, starting up, and we stayed with him,
even though customers would say, oh my god, that act
was just so blue, But we stayed with Tracy because
we believed in Tracy and we always love Tracy so
dirty they call it blue. That was an expression. It's
(09:25):
very blue. But you know, we've just worked with just
so many people over the years. You know, you talk
about Kevin. I was at Kevin's movie last night, Hilarious.
It was really really a funny, funny movie and enjoyed
seeing all that comedy on the stage and Kevin, I
(09:45):
think it's I think it was one of the funniest
movies I've ever seen him in.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
A nice At that time, he was trying to figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I think it was yeah, eight or nine to one Sunday.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
I think we put three on each night and two
on Sunday. Yeah, h yeah, Okayhosday and then he was
ready to Then he came back in the festival and
we did I think three sold out Beacon shows and
then we moved on to Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
What's the capacity at the Beacon.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Twenty eight hundred seats?
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Is the still a room for like the next Kevin
Hard or Seinfeld or Chris Rock to like slowly develop
over years, or like we live in this society that
demands overnight success.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Well, I think that more people are kind of skipping
the club and learning how to do that, and they
all want to do theaters now, but they don't have
the capacity to do it. And I watch I see
who goes tries to go into theaters and they can
only sell half or a quarter of it, and they
kind of fudge it. But that's because their management wants
them to do it, their agent wants them to do it,
(10:59):
and I think they to push it a little too
fast to do that. I think it's it's to build
that that that that following, that slow following that gets
you you need.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
We talk about Carolines and you talk about, you know,
reaching out to the papers, but one of the things
based out of New York and growing up in New York,
Carolines was big for having the staff bring the comedians
to radio. Whose idea was that and why did that
work so well? Because nobody else before that really said,
you know what, we're going to make sure every comedian
goes to radio, and we're going to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Have a staff that does that, which is I'll.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Tell you how that started. So I opened Carolines. It
must have been nineteen eighty through eighty two eighty three,
and Howard Stern was on Afternoon Drive and he wanted
I believed the first one I remember was Pee Wee Herman.
He wanted him on his show, and then Richard Belzer
and that was the start of comedians on the radio
(11:54):
for me. And that's what that happened. And then when
Howard was kind of fire from NBC and went to
k Rock, that and he wanted more and more of that,
and that's how we started and then other like this show,
all of this all created over when and Wendy had
(12:16):
everyone on and she did her own show there at
the club. We had a lot of fun those days,
we really did.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Where did you love for the entertainment in comedy come from?
Because you worked as in retailer executive in fashion?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Yeah, I worked for maybe people still remember the chain Gimbals,
which was on thirty third Street and sixth Avenue.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Gimbles was like had forty one stores around the country,
and I was kind of a market rep. So I
would suggest what was selling for the buyers to buy.
And I did that and it was like almost I
wasn't working. They were closing. Friends of mine said we're
opening up cabaret. Come be a partner with us, and
that's how it started. So we did some cabaret acts.
(12:59):
Wasn't quite working in my mind, and then went on
to start hiring like a Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and
we were off and running.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
There Have you always loved comedy like I did?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
I did comedy albums a as a kid, so I've
always watched Johnny Carson at that time, so you know
got to you know, learned a lot about you know
what kind of worked, And I'll tell you, from sitting
in a room for forty years, you kind of know
what works, and you kind of know what's going to
succeed and who's going to make it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Did you love the fact that people didn't necessarily know
who you were, like, of course the comedians did, but
you could have been at all the shows and I
don't think I've met you until you came up here
last time on radio.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Like, but you was there all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
I'm there all the time. And actually our offices were
right around the corner behind the behind the bathrooms there,
so we I was there constantly. I've come in like
probably the day was I came out about eleven or
twelve and then stayed through the beginning of the first
shows and then went home. It was, it was, it was,
it was.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
It was.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
It was great time. I met great people. I met
the most talented people in the world. Comedy is the
hardest art form in the world to do, so it
was it was enlightening. And to see where everybody kind
of went after that, I mean from doing you know,
having a Jerry Seinfeld doing his first New Year's Eve
(14:22):
at Carolines was like a big deal at that time,
That's what.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
I'm saying, Like, I mean, I know the reason y'all
left the building was the guy put the lease up
too much, right or something like that.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Well, part of that part of that time for change,
I think I was ready. You know, people like you know,
they they never want to retire from what they do,
and I wanted to go out in kind of a
big way. And we had such a celebration that I mean,
it was covered in the media like an opening and
it was a closing, and maybe it was like we
(14:54):
all needed to move on to something else at that time.
But I loved the Carolines and I loved the people,
Like meeting all of you you know, we do you
have that kind of job when you get to meet
all of these people.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Did you feel like a ballplayer who was ready to
hang it up, like you know what, I left it
all on the court.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Do you feel like you still had more to do?
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Right? No, I think we do more with the festival
festival right now. Yeah, and then able to keep my
finger on what's going on.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
So what do you like more to the intimacy of
a Carolinees or the festival at this gale, I mean
ten days, five boroughs, two hundred plus comedians, one hundred
plus shows.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's a lot.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
It's a lot. It's a lot to cover. But we
get to work with everybody that we want to work with,
and then we keep my eye on everyone. So that's
the great part. But I still get like, I'll go
into town Hall, I'll go to the venue at the
hard Rock, which I love, and I go in there
and I see everybody having such a great time and
the performers loving the venues that we're in. I just
(15:51):
it just it just makes me feel like it's just
an extension of Caroline's.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that's what I love most about it.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
And then also for the comics, gives us a bigger
platform than just you know, than just the stage, although
Caroline's great, right, but like the festival, it's gonna be
I'm being in front of people I've never has never
seen me. They hear they may hear me on the
Breakfast Club. They don't know what I'm coming with what
I got. I'm gonn knock their socks off, Caroline, I'm
telling you, But then I'm gonna.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And how do people get tickets. How can they get tickets?
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Well, you can go to New York Comedy Festival dot
com and uh, tickets are on sale right now. They
just went on sale yesterday, so there's lots of great
seats left hopefully, and then go there now because everything
really sells out with the festival. So you want really
great seats, you have to do it. Now.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
What's the night that feels the most, like Caroline? You
think all of these too big.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That have that feel?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Well, I think Justice shows, Yeah, like the and Intimate
Space and.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I do four shows.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You know, this is what the live This is why
live events have been so exciting because people now can
connect with people like you that they see and hear.
And that's really what's kept comedy going. With the explosion
of you know what what cable are now, Internet and
Netflix and Hbo all fostering you know, comedians and YouTube.
(17:29):
So let's not forget that that has made a lot
of a lot of comedians sell out for the live events.
People really get to see them and if they like them,
they go.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
In your experience, right, Like, what has been the best
parallel that you've seen comedians step into, whether it's like
a commentary like what just is doing here? Or acting
first like looking back, like what's the This one makes
the most sense for a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
It used to be that everybody wanted that sitcom, but
that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Now.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
They want to tour, they want to be on their
own pod casting very very important and very important to
the festival. We really back a lot of that up
and we really brought that live to the stage also
over the years. That's the difference. It's coming from all
over digital creators. It's like they don't it used to
(18:17):
be TV or I needed that spot on Johnny Carson.
It's changed. It's changed so much.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
You know, social media has made people famous before they're funny, right,
have virality become a bigger currency than talent?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
We have.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
We came into those problems where we would put somebody
into the club because they were this internet star and
they kind of didn't have it unless they really got
and worked on an act to do. So we did
it once, but we never booked them back again.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
We see, that's where I feel like, that's that's when
I had.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
To get vetted.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
That's when he started vetting everybody, like, yo, you need
you need people to vouch for you, like real stand
up comedians.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
That's going to put asses in these seats to vouch
for y'all.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
Not.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That's when I got Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart to
do that. I'm glad they did.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
That's when I realized just was actually funny really stage
to me. I mean, I'm old iman than nineteen and
seventy eight. So the litmus test for me is what
you do on that stage? See her on that stage,
I'm like, oh, just really do you really do?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Stand up?
Speaker 8 (19:18):
From That's how I was the first time I went
to see I text. I think that text, man, it
was like I see, like this is that's the start,
Like just you're different on the stage.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
In Atlantic City.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
Yeah, when I brought my mom, bro.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yeah, but that you know that that's the test to
how you go on I mean, just sell out all
the shows that you know, you really are. You have
to be really funny, you have you have that following.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
Ever felt bad for somebody when they bombed on the
stage at Carolines and that kind of took them under
like all right, let's work like let me kind of
develop us talent.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And it worked out.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Well. Listen, We never told anybody that they weren't funny.
We never did that. We would phrase it like, you know,
maybe it should work on this or that, or your
material needs more work. You really need to write. Our
best thing was you know, Lewis and I always told
everybody you really need to write. You have to be original,
(20:11):
you have to have your own voice. That was something
that we try to tell all of the young comedians.
They want to how can I get how can I
get good at this? That's what you have to do,
and it's it's not overnight. This takes a long time
to do.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That is resilience, the most underrated skill in comedy.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
No, resilience is a skill that you really need to
have because you know not everybody's going to left at
that terrific joke you told. So you have to know
and you have to be confident that you're going to
be on that stage. And when you're confident and give
it out there, the audience knows that.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
And you never sensed anybody at Caroline's like told somebody
stay away from that or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
No.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I never did, No, No, I never did. But sometimes
I would cringe.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
I'd cringe it myself when you watch stand up go
from clubs to cable to screaming too. You know, social
media like which shift changed comedy more than people even realize.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Well, what's made new digital stars would be the Internet. Okay,
but you know, if you go back in time, it
started with radio went to early TV or comedy. That's
what transferred all comedy. Radio, comedy went back to TV.
Then the birth of cable with HBO getting behind young
(21:26):
comedians and doing the stand up specials and showtime, and
then after that Netflix stepped in when that became the
phenomenon and kind of stole I tell you stole the
thunder from HBO what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Well, like she said, ten days, five boroughs, two hundred comedians,
one hundred plus shows, get out there and get your
tickets out very own, just hilarious.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
We'll be hard rock hotel. How many shows?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Four shows?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Four shows?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I will be there for one of them, definitely, positively,
six to fifteenth that's right.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
I love the the marketing, like how I just saw
something like it's it's gone viral, Like how y'all are marketing?
Y'all have like the stickers comedians faces and the rooms
are going to be in and y'all stamping them all
over New York City.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That is so dope. That's really dope.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
It's gonna be thank you. They started in the bagas Yeah,
I think it's so creative.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Then y'all wrapped the side because that's how you would see. Yeah,
you would see who was in the thing, to see
who's gonna be there this weekend.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
So that was called sniping. You used to do the
Carolines posters, and we used to put them all over
New York. Remember when I first started, You.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Need to bring Caroline's back. I know you're like, I'm
over this and that's no, but I need something.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
If I want to take I want to go somewhere
in Carolina where they everybody knows what your name is,
like a big hug.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
When you go to the hard rock, you walk down
the stairs to pretend it's Carolines and we'll make sure
the hospitality is as long as you.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
There, we can all right, it's Caroline Hirsch.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Hold up every day a week, click your glass up
the Breakfast Club, finish your
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Mm hm
Every day clicks up. The Breakfast Club.
Speaker 2 (00:05):
Finished for y'all.
Speaker 3 (00:06):
Done morning, everybody is d j Envy just hilarious, Charlamagne
to God. We are the Breakfast Club. Lna Roses here
as well. We got a special guest.
Speaker 4 (00:16):
In the building. Ladies and gentlemen, we have Caroline Hirst.
Speaker 5 (00:20):
Good morning, good morning, good morning guys. Nice to see
you all again, the.
Speaker 3 (00:24):
Owner and founder of Caroline's on Broadway, the iconic comedy spot.
Speaker 6 (00:28):
But I miss so been to a comedy club since
I used to go to Caroline's all the time. Greg,
you always made sure we were good so many different
comedians that Carolina man. I literally have not been to
a comedy club in New York City.
Speaker 4 (00:42):
Since I've been to a couple. But it's not the same.
Speaker 3 (00:44):
Like I said, me and the wife used to go
damn there every other week and it didn't matter who
was performing because it was always somebody's good and you
would get to learn about comedians there.
Speaker 4 (00:52):
And that spot is heavily But I even did my podcast.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
I did a podcast weekend there and you showed us
so much love.
Speaker 4 (00:58):
So before we get into big, what do we bring
Carolines back?
Speaker 5 (01:01):
Well, Carolines is kind of exists with the New York
Comedy Festival, so we kind of closed down Carolines the building,
but not forgotten Carolines. But we do and produce shows
to the New York Comedy Festival, which happens this year
November sixth through the fifteenth, and we're very happy to
present a whole new slew of younger comedians to our
(01:22):
roster plus the older ones. And that's where the festival
has gone over the years. It used to be just
stand up, but now it's integrated with podcasts, with political humor,
with improv, with digital creators, so it's about a lot
of different people coming together in the festival. And this year,
Jess Hilarious is there headlining at the Hard Rock Hotel,
(01:45):
which is my favorite room in New York City.
Speaker 2 (01:48):
I love it and I have never played it, so
I'm so excited.
Speaker 5 (01:51):
Yeah, we're excited to have you.
Speaker 1 (01:52):
Yes, they're hard Like Caroline gl it was.
Speaker 5 (01:56):
It was, you know, it was so bittersweet. I knew
the time. It was forty over forty years doing it
and it was time to say, Okay, what's my next
thing to do in life? And I missed the staff.
I'm missing the talent. I missed my customers, I miss
all of that about it, but went on to do
the festival as a way to really stay in the
(02:16):
business and work with everybody that kind of graduated from
Carolines too.
Speaker 7 (02:20):
And I will say I'm one of the graduates because
I that was like my favorite comedy club to come
up here. And do you know they will always warn
us comics about New York and how hard it is
like to succeed. If you can make it in New
York on that stage, you can make it anywhere. And
I just remember always being welcomed. The service was great,
(02:42):
the vibe right there in the middle of Times Square,
and I also love how it worked right. One of
the interesting things about Carolines on Broadway was y'all vetted
every stand up that came there right, like you didn't
just let anybody come in there and do stand if
they call theyself a stand up comedian. Because even when
my first time going, I was told like, no, you
(03:02):
have to have two comedians vouch for you, and Nick
Cannon and Kevin Hart called and vouch for me. And
I got on that stage and I have been playing
a stage for years, and that's where Charlamagne and God
first came and saw me.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
I don't think envy you came to see me there,
But I.
Speaker 7 (03:18):
Actually love what I was able to bring the Carolina
and Carolina I'll.
Speaker 5 (03:22):
Sway back in twenty and eighty eight, he was and
you swd out every.
Speaker 2 (03:26):
Show, every show, every year.
Speaker 5 (03:28):
So I remember sitting in the audience watching you. Yeah,
like a little fireball on stage, excited whatever.
Speaker 2 (03:34):
So thank you for even having me at the New
York Comedy Festival.
Speaker 5 (03:37):
Oh I'm so excited to have you there.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Hell yeah, Yeah.
Speaker 3 (03:41):
What's your biggest memory of Caroline's We hear, I know,
we hear. I love tell a story all the time
about Charles Oakley throwing the chicken wings.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
I will never forget that night, break it down.
Speaker 5 (03:51):
I will never forget that night. It was like who
was on stage at that time? It was to Dre
and ed Lover. It was ed Lover night, like who's
in the house, and it was a part of that.
And all of a sudden, I see I see a
glass go across the room, and then I see chicken
(04:11):
wings going across the room. It was like but it
was like one big fun party that we you know,
Greg Charles and I We always talk about that about
how that went on that night. So it was a
lot of fun. It's when the nineties Nicks used to
come in all the time. I mean it would be
like after a game, before a game, they were in town.
(04:33):
We had so much fun at that time, Anthony Mason.
It was like it was like like home base for them,
and it was so much fun. And they'd always come
in to see Ed Lover's show.
Speaker 6 (04:43):
I remember when I remember the Kevin Hart weekend when
Kevin Hart, that was like the weekend everybody was like, Okay, Kevin,
Kevin has arrived.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Kevin has arrived. And actually, you know, after that, so
with the Comedy Festival, you know, we had Kevin at
Carolines for a number of shows that he sold out.
Then we produced him at the Beacon Theater for a
number of shows, and then we went and put him
in Madison Square Garden. And that was the idea of
Louis Veranda to tape a movie with him, and then
(05:12):
Kevin did that.
Speaker 8 (05:13):
Can we talk about the institution of comedy clubs though, right,
because what you just said with Kevin Hart and then
Jess and that being like her first experiences here in
New York. I feel like sometimes people miss, like if
you're younger, you miss. You don't get to learn the
community that the comedy club is or the education that
people get there.
Speaker 1 (05:29):
On the stage.
Speaker 5 (05:30):
They get a big education there because I'll tell you
what happens is that when you sell out. When you
were selling out Carolines, the agents got on the phone
to everybody else and say, Okay, now we're ready for theaters,
you know, like stuff like that. So that was that.
It was a process at Carolines. And you can really
see how how we promoted comedy. And I'm not slapping
(05:51):
myself on the back about this one, but when I
upened Carolines in the early eighties, nobody covered comedy at all.
No media really covered comedy. I had to convince the
Daily News, the Post, and eventually the New York Times
came around and wrote this great article about Carolines, and
I think it was nineteen eighty five, calling it like
(06:11):
the yuppy little nightclub in New York, and it kind
of put us on the map. And then we broke
out after that. And then you saw from when I
opened this at I was on Eighth Avenue in Chelsea.
Then I was down at the Seaport, and then I
opened on Broadway in nineteen ninety two and stayed there
for thirty years. Wow, it was a long time.
Speaker 6 (06:31):
What would you call it now, Because like you said,
you've you've always done the New York Comedy Festival, and
you're telling us about the stuff with keV.
Speaker 1 (06:37):
You got them at the.
Speaker 6 (06:37):
Beacon and at the Garden, Like, what would you call
what you're doing there?
Speaker 5 (06:42):
It's kind of the same stuff that we're doing. We
take a lot of the acts that we, you know,
had at Carolines with people that we've been watching over
the years and taking them kind of out of the
clubs and into also into the clubs and kind of
promoting them and putting putting ourselves behind them and really
getting out there. I wrote them, lots of comedians can
come to town and sell out, but nobody even knows
(07:04):
they're there. You know, we make a big deal about
the art. And I always have done that, so, you know,
right from the get go. So so I always believed
in comedy and like here's this you know, young woman
at the time when I started this, and what the
hell is she know about comedy? But I there was
something happening in the air. David Letterman was going on
(07:27):
in the air, and it was just all of the
young comedians coming up. The new observational humor was happening
at that time, and then I just started hiring people.
Speaker 6 (07:39):
If you were opening Carolina today, would you build a
comedy club or would you build a media company.
Speaker 5 (07:45):
I'd like to say that I dabbled in media. I
mean we're called Carolines Media right now. You know, I
had a TV show for years on the A and
A channel from like nineteen ninety to nineteen ninety six.
We taped about one hundred and twenty episodes of stand
up comedy during that time, where there was a young
Dave Chappelle on there, a young John Stewart, a young
(08:08):
Raver Romano. I mean, we had everybody coming up the
ranks at that time on that TV show.
Speaker 1 (08:14):
So you think it'd be more of a media company.
Speaker 5 (08:17):
I think so, you know, Charlamagne, I I had a
lot of chances to produce things along the way, and
I just kind of stepped back from it, not knowing
and not probably having the foresight to see where all
of this was going down the line. But I think
we helped nurture the careers of those people. Look, Wanda
Sykes met Chris Rock because she was an opening act
(08:41):
for Chris and they got to be such great buddies.
He hired her to be on the show. And Wanda
will tell that story all the time.
Speaker 8 (08:47):
I've heard all the time about how he saw her
and was like, I'm gonna have something for you.
Speaker 2 (08:51):
So that was that Caroline.
Speaker 5 (08:53):
She was the opening act for Chris.
Speaker 3 (08:55):
Wow, what comedian was was performed the most at Caroline
because I remember seeing Tracy Morgan a lot.
Speaker 5 (09:01):
Tracy was my little baby, so he kind of started
out there first, starting up, and we stayed with him,
even though customers would say, oh my god, that act
was just so blue, But we stayed with Tracy because
we believed in Tracy and we always love Tracy so
dirty they call it blue. That was an expression. It's
(09:25):
very blue. But you know, we've just worked with just
so many people over the years. You know, you talk
about Kevin. I was at Kevin's movie last night, Hilarious.
It was really really a funny, funny movie and enjoyed
seeing all that comedy on the stage and Kevin, I
(09:45):
think it's I think it was one of the funniest
movies I've ever seen him in.
Speaker 1 (09:50):
A nice At that time, he was trying to figure
it out.
Speaker 4 (09:54):
I think it was yeah, eight or nine to one Sunday.
Speaker 5 (10:00):
I think we put three on each night and two
on Sunday. Yeah, h yeah, Okayhosday and then he was
ready to Then he came back in the festival and
we did I think three sold out Beacon shows and
then we moved on to Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2 (10:20):
What's the capacity at the Beacon.
Speaker 5 (10:22):
Twenty eight hundred seats?
Speaker 6 (10:25):
Is the still a room for like the next Kevin
Hard or Seinfeld or Chris Rock to like slowly develop
over years, or like we live in this society that
demands overnight success.
Speaker 5 (10:36):
Well, I think that more people are kind of skipping
the club and learning how to do that, and they
all want to do theaters now, but they don't have
the capacity to do it. And I watch I see
who goes tries to go into theaters and they can
only sell half or a quarter of it, and they
kind of fudge it. But that's because their management wants
them to do it, their agent wants them to do it,
(10:59):
and I think they to push it a little too
fast to do that. I think it's it's to build
that that that that following, that slow following that gets
you you need.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
We talk about Carolines and you talk about, you know,
reaching out to the papers, but one of the things
based out of New York and growing up in New York,
Carolines was big for having the staff bring the comedians
to radio. Whose idea was that and why did that
work so well? Because nobody else before that really said,
you know what, we're going to make sure every comedian
goes to radio, and we're going to.
Speaker 4 (11:29):
Have a staff that does that, which is I'll.
Speaker 5 (11:31):
Tell you how that started. So I opened Carolines. It
must have been nineteen eighty through eighty two eighty three,
and Howard Stern was on Afternoon Drive and he wanted
I believed the first one I remember was Pee Wee Herman.
He wanted him on his show, and then Richard Belzer
and that was the start of comedians on the radio
(11:54):
for me. And that's what that happened. And then when
Howard was kind of fire from NBC and went to
k Rock, that and he wanted more and more of that,
and that's how we started and then other like this show,
all of this all created over when and Wendy had
(12:16):
everyone on and she did her own show there at
the club. We had a lot of fun those days,
we really did.
Speaker 8 (12:22):
Where did you love for the entertainment in comedy come from?
Because you worked as in retailer executive in fashion?
Speaker 5 (12:30):
Yeah, I worked for maybe people still remember the chain Gimbals,
which was on thirty third Street and sixth Avenue.
Speaker 4 (12:36):
I don't know.
Speaker 5 (12:38):
Gimbles was like had forty one stores around the country,
and I was kind of a market rep. So I
would suggest what was selling for the buyers to buy.
And I did that and it was like almost I
wasn't working. They were closing. Friends of mine said we're
opening up cabaret. Come be a partner with us, and
that's how it started. So we did some cabaret acts.
(12:59):
Wasn't quite working in my mind, and then went on
to start hiring like a Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and
we were off and running.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
There Have you always loved comedy like I did?
Speaker 5 (13:10):
I did comedy albums a as a kid, so I've
always watched Johnny Carson at that time, so you know
got to you know, learned a lot about you know
what kind of worked, And I'll tell you, from sitting
in a room for forty years, you kind of know
what works, and you kind of know what's going to
succeed and who's going to make it.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Did you love the fact that people didn't necessarily know
who you were, like, of course the comedians did, but
you could have been at all the shows and I
don't think I've met you until you came up here
last time on radio.
Speaker 4 (13:40):
Like, but you was there all the time.
Speaker 5 (13:42):
I'm there all the time. And actually our offices were
right around the corner behind the behind the bathrooms there,
so we I was there constantly. I've come in like
probably the day was I came out about eleven or
twelve and then stayed through the beginning of the first
shows and then went home. It was, it was, it was,
it was.
Speaker 8 (13:59):
It was.
Speaker 5 (14:00):
It was great time. I met great people. I met
the most talented people in the world. Comedy is the
hardest art form in the world to do, so it
was it was enlightening. And to see where everybody kind
of went after that, I mean from doing you know,
having a Jerry Seinfeld doing his first New Year's Eve
(14:22):
at Carolines was like a big deal at that time,
That's what.
Speaker 6 (14:27):
I'm saying, Like, I mean, I know the reason y'all
left the building was the guy put the lease up
too much, right or something like that.
Speaker 5 (14:33):
Well, part of that part of that time for change,
I think I was ready. You know, people like you know,
they they never want to retire from what they do,
and I wanted to go out in kind of a
big way. And we had such a celebration that I mean,
it was covered in the media like an opening and
it was a closing, and maybe it was like we
(14:54):
all needed to move on to something else at that time.
But I loved the Carolines and I loved the people,
Like meeting all of you you know, we do you
have that kind of job when you get to meet
all of these people.
Speaker 6 (15:04):
Did you feel like a ballplayer who was ready to
hang it up, like you know what, I left it
all on the court.
Speaker 1 (15:09):
Do you feel like you still had more to do?
Speaker 5 (15:11):
Right? No, I think we do more with the festival
festival right now. Yeah, and then able to keep my
finger on what's going on.
Speaker 6 (15:18):
So what do you like more to the intimacy of
a Carolinees or the festival at this gale, I mean
ten days, five boroughs, two hundred plus comedians, one hundred
plus shows.
Speaker 1 (15:28):
That's a lot.
Speaker 4 (15:28):
That's a lot.
Speaker 5 (15:29):
It's a lot. It's a lot to cover. But we
get to work with everybody that we want to work with,
and then we keep my eye on everyone. So that's
the great part. But I still get like, I'll go
into town Hall, I'll go to the venue at the
hard Rock, which I love, and I go in there
and I see everybody having such a great time and
the performers loving the venues that we're in. I just
(15:51):
it just it just makes me feel like it's just
an extension of Caroline's.
Speaker 2 (15:56):
Yeah. Yeah, that's what I love most about it.
Speaker 7 (15:58):
And then also for the comics, gives us a bigger
platform than just you know, than just the stage, although
Caroline's great, right, but like the festival, it's gonna be
I'm being in front of people I've never has never
seen me. They hear they may hear me on the
Breakfast Club. They don't know what I'm coming with what
I got. I'm gonn knock their socks off, Caroline, I'm
telling you, But then I'm gonna.
Speaker 4 (16:25):
And how do people get tickets. How can they get tickets?
Speaker 5 (16:27):
Well, you can go to New York Comedy Festival dot
com and uh, tickets are on sale right now. They
just went on sale yesterday, so there's lots of great
seats left hopefully, and then go there now because everything
really sells out with the festival. So you want really
great seats, you have to do it. Now.
Speaker 6 (16:49):
What's the night that feels the most, like Caroline? You
think all of these too big.
Speaker 1 (16:53):
That have that feel?
Speaker 5 (16:54):
Well, I think Justice shows, Yeah, like the and Intimate
Space and.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
I do four shows.
Speaker 5 (17:06):
You know, this is what the live This is why
live events have been so exciting because people now can
connect with people like you that they see and hear.
And that's really what's kept comedy going. With the explosion
of you know what what cable are now, Internet and
Netflix and Hbo all fostering you know, comedians and YouTube.
(17:29):
So let's not forget that that has made a lot
of a lot of comedians sell out for the live events.
People really get to see them and if they like them,
they go.
Speaker 8 (17:39):
In your experience, right, Like, what has been the best
parallel that you've seen comedians step into, whether it's like
a commentary like what just is doing here? Or acting
first like looking back, like what's the This one makes
the most sense for a lot of people.
Speaker 5 (17:51):
It used to be that everybody wanted that sitcom, but
that doesn't happen anymore.
Speaker 8 (17:56):
Now.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
They want to tour, they want to be on their
own pod casting very very important and very important to
the festival. We really back a lot of that up
and we really brought that live to the stage also
over the years. That's the difference. It's coming from all
over digital creators. It's like they don't it used to
(18:17):
be TV or I needed that spot on Johnny Carson.
It's changed. It's changed so much.
Speaker 6 (18:23):
You know, social media has made people famous before they're funny, right,
have virality become a bigger currency than talent?
Speaker 1 (18:32):
We have.
Speaker 5 (18:33):
We came into those problems where we would put somebody
into the club because they were this internet star and
they kind of didn't have it unless they really got
and worked on an act to do. So we did
it once, but we never booked them back again.
Speaker 7 (18:48):
We see, that's where I feel like, that's that's when
I had.
Speaker 4 (18:51):
To get vetted.
Speaker 7 (18:52):
That's when he started vetting everybody, like, yo, you need
you need people to vouch for you, like real stand
up comedians.
Speaker 2 (18:58):
That's going to put asses in these seats to vouch
for y'all.
Speaker 5 (19:01):
Not.
Speaker 2 (19:01):
That's when I got Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart to
do that. I'm glad they did.
Speaker 6 (19:04):
That's when I realized just was actually funny really stage
to me. I mean, I'm old iman than nineteen and
seventy eight. So the litmus test for me is what
you do on that stage? See her on that stage,
I'm like, oh, just really do you really do?
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Stand up?
Speaker 8 (19:18):
From That's how I was the first time I went
to see I text. I think that text, man, it
was like I see, like this is that's the start,
Like just you're different on the stage.
Speaker 4 (19:26):
In Atlantic City.
Speaker 8 (19:27):
Yeah, when I brought my mom, bro.
Speaker 5 (19:29):
Yeah, but that you know that that's the test to
how you go on I mean, just sell out all
the shows that you know, you really are. You have
to be really funny, you have you have that following.
Speaker 8 (19:40):
Ever felt bad for somebody when they bombed on the
stage at Carolines and that kind of took them under
like all right, let's work like let me kind of
develop us talent.
Speaker 2 (19:47):
And it worked out.
Speaker 5 (19:50):
Well. Listen, We never told anybody that they weren't funny.
We never did that. We would phrase it like, you know,
maybe it should work on this or that, or your
material needs more work. You really need to write. Our
best thing was you know, Lewis and I always told
everybody you really need to write. You have to be original,
(20:11):
you have to have your own voice. That was something
that we try to tell all of the young comedians.
They want to how can I get how can I
get good at this? That's what you have to do,
and it's it's not overnight. This takes a long time
to do.
Speaker 1 (20:25):
That is resilience, the most underrated skill in comedy.
Speaker 5 (20:28):
No, resilience is a skill that you really need to
have because you know not everybody's going to left at
that terrific joke you told. So you have to know
and you have to be confident that you're going to
be on that stage. And when you're confident and give
it out there, the audience knows that.
Speaker 3 (20:43):
And you never sensed anybody at Caroline's like told somebody
stay away from that or anything like that.
Speaker 6 (20:48):
No.
Speaker 5 (20:48):
I never did, No, No, I never did. But sometimes
I would cringe.
Speaker 6 (20:53):
I'd cringe it myself when you watch stand up go
from clubs to cable to screaming too. You know, social
media like which shift changed comedy more than people even realize.
Speaker 5 (21:05):
Well, what's made new digital stars would be the Internet. Okay,
but you know, if you go back in time, it
started with radio went to early TV or comedy. That's
what transferred all comedy. Radio, comedy went back to TV.
Then the birth of cable with HBO getting behind young
(21:26):
comedians and doing the stand up specials and showtime, and
then after that Netflix stepped in when that became the
phenomenon and kind of stole I tell you stole the
thunder from HBO what they were doing.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
So yeah, I agree.
Speaker 3 (21:42):
Well, like she said, ten days, five boroughs, two hundred comedians,
one hundred plus shows, get out there and get your
tickets out very own, just hilarious.
Speaker 4 (21:50):
We'll be hard rock hotel. How many shows?
Speaker 2 (21:52):
Four shows?
Speaker 1 (21:53):
Four shows?
Speaker 3 (21:54):
I will be there for one of them, definitely, positively,
six to fifteenth that's right.
Speaker 7 (21:59):
I love the the marketing, like how I just saw
something like it's it's gone viral, Like how y'all are marketing?
Y'all have like the stickers comedians faces and the rooms
are going to be in and y'all stamping them all
over New York City.
Speaker 2 (22:10):
That is so dope. That's really dope.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
It's gonna be thank you. They started in the bagas Yeah,
I think it's so creative.
Speaker 3 (22:18):
Then y'all wrapped the side because that's how you would see. Yeah,
you would see who was in the thing, to see
who's gonna be there this weekend.
Speaker 5 (22:24):
So that was called sniping. You used to do the
Carolines posters, and we used to put them all over
New York. Remember when I first started, You.
Speaker 4 (22:33):
Need to bring Caroline's back. I know you're like, I'm
over this and that's no, but I need something.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
If I want to take I want to go somewhere
in Carolina where they everybody knows what your name is,
like a big hug.
Speaker 5 (22:46):
When you go to the hard rock, you walk down
the stairs to pretend it's Carolines and we'll make sure
the hospitality is as long as you.
Speaker 4 (22:56):
There, we can all right, it's Caroline Hirsch.
Speaker 1 (22:58):
It's the Breakfast Club. Good morning, mm hmmm.
Speaker 6 (23:01):
Hold up every day a week, click your glass up
the Breakfast Club, finish your
Speaker 5 (23:09):
Mm hm
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