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BACK ISSUES INTERVIEWS Stand-Up Comedians Jim Norton Robert Kelly Donnell Rawlings Brad Stine Tammy Pescatelli Leighann Lord George Sarris Nick DiPaolo Russ Meneve Shang and more By Tasha Harris, NYC Comedy Journalist STAGE TIME The Magazine That Stands Up For Comedy |
Usually when you finish your career, you kind of get into philanthropy a little bit so in a sense,
I guess it’s my way of mixing philanthropy and something I love – comedy. We have shows to
help cancer; shows for MS...We have shows for everything. We are a very charity-oriented
festival; we have everything from free events at the libraries and venues.
Our highest priced ticket last year was $30 dollars. There’s something for everybody. We accept
tape submissions. We have the advisory board and we pick a lot of input from a lot of people
and try to put up the best people we possibly can to be seen by both the industry and consumer.
When did you do stand up?
In 2003, I said, “Okay, my 2003 resolution: I’m going up. So around November, I started
writing and I got up the first time at Stand Up NY. You know how scary it is. I wrote and wrote,
I got up there and they hand me the mic, and it’s just you, a brick wall and a microphone.
You think you know how to do it and you kinda do but it’s so hard…it’s like everything else.
The great ones make it look easy. There’s so much to it and I enjoyed that challenge. I didn’t
get the bug where I had to perform constantly; that’s why it was easy for me to make a decision
to walk away and get on the industry side. I was more like a stressed-out, “I have to perform”
type of guy, not “this is great kind of thing.” I dreaded it actually.
It’s funny because Larry David out in Aspen had similar thoughts when he was like, “I would tell
the host when I got onstage ‘Listen Susie, stay close because if I start going in the tank,
I’m out of here.’” And as Larry himself put it, “When I was up there, things weren’t going my
way, which usually they weren’t, the crowd annoyed me, the clanking annoyed me; everything
annoyed me.”
It was interesting to hear him say it because he got on other side – he also acts but he writes.
He’s an incredible writer. I met him out in Aspen and he’s exactly like he is on the show.
He was in the corner and everyone was scared to death to go up to him. I went up to him
because that’s just my personality. I’m like, “Larry, are you still eating at the Westway Diner?”
That’s where they came up with the idea for Seinfeld. So I started a conversation with him that
way and we just chatted for a couple of minutes.
I take out a little Kodak “instant-matic” and went “Larry, would you mind if we took a picture?”
And he looks around and he’s like, “Do we have to?” And in the back of my mind, I’m like,
“It’s not exactly the paparazzi here. It’s just a Kodak, $12 “instant-matic” and I played reverse
psychology. I said, “Absolutely not.” He's like, “Okay, let’s take a picture.”
How is the NYUCF different from the other festivals like Boston Comedy Festival and the New
York Comedy Festival?
Our festival differs from the other New York competitor – that’s just a straight out consumer
event for people with a lot of money. They thought tourists – nobody did their homework over
there. People don’t fly in for stand-up comedy. People fly in for Broadway, not stand-up because
a comedian will come to your town.
Caroline is a great story. She started Caroline’s, brought it to The Seaport and then brought it
to where it is. She gets props from me. I don’t have an axe to grind with her. When they came
up with The New York Comedy Festival, I wasn’t too pleased but they’re not our competition. They’re doing something completely different. They’re going after a completely different audience. We’re trying to get industry and real people. They’re trying a consumer event.
How do we differ from Boston? Boston is very similar...we added sketch and film. Jim McCue and
I are great friends and allies. He’s in Boston and I’m in New York. He’ll do sets on our show and
I helped run a show up there last year. But how do we differ from them? We have a better
access to getting industry here because we’re already here.
Boston Comedy Festival is wonderful. They’ve done a wonderful job up there. I have nothing but
good things to say about them. They’re also more of a contest than we are. We have over 300
events and where one night is a [New Comic] contest and one night is a Carnival Cruise
Challenge and that’s basically it for the contests. There are more shows. I believe Boston leans
a little heavier on the actual contest.
I guess it’s my way of mixing philanthropy and something I love – comedy. We have shows to
help cancer; shows for MS...We have shows for everything. We are a very charity-oriented
festival; we have everything from free events at the libraries and venues.
Our highest priced ticket last year was $30 dollars. There’s something for everybody. We accept
tape submissions. We have the advisory board and we pick a lot of input from a lot of people
and try to put up the best people we possibly can to be seen by both the industry and consumer.
When did you do stand up?
In 2003, I said, “Okay, my 2003 resolution: I’m going up. So around November, I started
writing and I got up the first time at Stand Up NY. You know how scary it is. I wrote and wrote,
I got up there and they hand me the mic, and it’s just you, a brick wall and a microphone.
You think you know how to do it and you kinda do but it’s so hard…it’s like everything else.
The great ones make it look easy. There’s so much to it and I enjoyed that challenge. I didn’t
get the bug where I had to perform constantly; that’s why it was easy for me to make a decision
to walk away and get on the industry side. I was more like a stressed-out, “I have to perform”
type of guy, not “this is great kind of thing.” I dreaded it actually.
It’s funny because Larry David out in Aspen had similar thoughts when he was like, “I would tell
the host when I got onstage ‘Listen Susie, stay close because if I start going in the tank,
I’m out of here.’” And as Larry himself put it, “When I was up there, things weren’t going my
way, which usually they weren’t, the crowd annoyed me, the clanking annoyed me; everything
annoyed me.”
It was interesting to hear him say it because he got on other side – he also acts but he writes.
He’s an incredible writer. I met him out in Aspen and he’s exactly like he is on the show.
He was in the corner and everyone was scared to death to go up to him. I went up to him
because that’s just my personality. I’m like, “Larry, are you still eating at the Westway Diner?”
That’s where they came up with the idea for Seinfeld. So I started a conversation with him that
way and we just chatted for a couple of minutes.
I take out a little Kodak “instant-matic” and went “Larry, would you mind if we took a picture?”
And he looks around and he’s like, “Do we have to?” And in the back of my mind, I’m like,
“It’s not exactly the paparazzi here. It’s just a Kodak, $12 “instant-matic” and I played reverse
psychology. I said, “Absolutely not.” He's like, “Okay, let’s take a picture.”
How is the NYUCF different from the other festivals like Boston Comedy Festival and the New
York Comedy Festival?
Our festival differs from the other New York competitor – that’s just a straight out consumer
event for people with a lot of money. They thought tourists – nobody did their homework over
there. People don’t fly in for stand-up comedy. People fly in for Broadway, not stand-up because
a comedian will come to your town.
Caroline is a great story. She started Caroline’s, brought it to The Seaport and then brought it
to where it is. She gets props from me. I don’t have an axe to grind with her. When they came
up with The New York Comedy Festival, I wasn’t too pleased but they’re not our competition. They’re doing something completely different. They’re going after a completely different audience. We’re trying to get industry and real people. They’re trying a consumer event.
How do we differ from Boston? Boston is very similar...we added sketch and film. Jim McCue and
I are great friends and allies. He’s in Boston and I’m in New York. He’ll do sets on our show and
I helped run a show up there last year. But how do we differ from them? We have a better
access to getting industry here because we’re already here.
Boston Comedy Festival is wonderful. They’ve done a wonderful job up there. I have nothing but
good things to say about them. They’re also more of a contest than we are. We have over 300
events and where one night is a [New Comic] contest and one night is a Carnival Cruise
Challenge and that’s basically it for the contests. There are more shows. I believe Boston leans
a little heavier on the actual contest.