{"id":267458,"date":"2021-06-05T17:15:54","date_gmt":"2021-06-05T14:15:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/how-nycs-comedy-cellar-went-from-icky-basement-to-sensation\/"},"modified":"2021-06-05T17:15:54","modified_gmt":"2021-06-05T14:15:54","slug":"how-nycs-comedy-cellar-went-from-icky-basement-to-sensation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/how-nycs-comedy-cellar-went-from-icky-basement-to-sensation\/","title":{"rendered":"#How NYC’s Comedy Cellar went from \u2018icky\u2019 basement to sensation"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#How NYC’s Comedy Cellar went from \u2018icky\u2019 basement to sensation<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

\n

In the mid-1990s, the Comedy Cellar was in a slump. One night there was just a single person in the audience \u2014 a tourist from the Netherlands who barely spoke English.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Comedia<\/a>n Gregg Rogell was set to go on, but when he saw how empty the room was, he decided to skip telling jokes on stage altogether. Instead, he sat down with the tourist and had a conversation for 20 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That was his set.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Today, the Greenwich Village hot spot is one of the most well-known comedy venues in the world, hosting names such as Kevin Hart and Dave Chapp<\/a>elle and turning away 1,000 people on an average Saturday night before the pandemic. Its history is detailed in the book \u201cDon\u2019t Applaud. Either Laugh or Don\u2019t. (At the Comedy Cellar)<\/a>\u201d (Scribe), out now, by Andrew Hankinson.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was like a long, slow overnight sensation,\u201d the Cellar\u2019s current owner, Noam Dworman, tells The Post.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Located on a MacDougal Street block whose bohemian cool long ago gave way to trashy NYU bong stores and cheap pizza, the dark, subterranean venue certainly doesn\u2019t look like much. It\u2019s also small compared to many other clubs, with a capacity of around just 150.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Comedian
Comedian Jim Norton (left) gave the Comedy Cellar life by plugging it on the radio. Comic Nick DiPaolo (right) came up with the idea for the venue\u2019s legendary \u201ccomedian\u2019s table.\u201d<\/figcaption>
Menachem Dworman (2)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Once a music venue owned by Dworman\u2019s father, Manny, who died in 2004, the Cellar\u2019s comedy roots started in 1981, when a comedian named Bill Grundfest walked in and asked if he could start using the room for his standup act.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI walked past a couple of times because I just kept looking at this dank staircase and, \u2018Oh, it\u2019s just so icky,\u2019 \u201d says Grundfest in the book. \u201cBut then I said to myself, \u2018Places that aren\u2019t icky, you\u2019re not going to be able to get.\u2019\u2009\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Grundfest (who later wrote for the 1992 sitcom \u201cMad About You\u201d) set out to create a \u201cwarm and welcoming\u201d atmosphere for the comedians performing there.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re in the uptown clubs, you had to be on your A game<\/a>. You had to hit it every single time,\u201d Hankinson tells The Post. \u201cAt the Comedy Cellar, comedians had more leeway. They could try jokes that might not succeed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Those who ran the club, and its longtime booker, Estee Adoram, also felt strongly that the comedians should be allowed to say whatever they liked. They didn\u2019t censor the acts \u2014 though that sometimes meant taking heat from offended patrons.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Original
Original Comedy Cellar owner Manny Dworman.<\/figcaption>
Menachem Dworman<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cWe would have to take flak at the door sometimes from customers that weren\u2019t happy with what the comedians said,\u201d Manny Dworman\u2019s widow, Ava Harel, says in the book. \u201cWe\u2019d say nicely, you know, \u2018We understand, but that\u2019s the art of comedy.\u2019 \u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Then in the mid-1990s, interest in stand-up comedy dwindled, and several clubs went bust, including landmark venue Catch A Rising Star. The Cellar hung on, but comedians like Rogell were forced to perform for a single audience member \u2014 if they were lucky.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cOn more than one occasion I had to literally start the show with no audience,\u201d comedian Mike Royce says in the book.\u00a0<\/p>\n

One factor that helped the Cellar rise out of the slump was its MC, Lewis Schaffer, who was adept at standing outside the club and steering passersby into it.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"The
The Comedy Cellar has become the go-to hangout for comedians and celebrities like Chris Rock, Louis C.K. and John Mayer (pictured with current owner Noam Dworman).<\/figcaption>
Menachem Dworman (2)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Then, in the early 1990s, comedian Nick DiPaolo asked Manny if he would set aside a table in the Olive Tree Cafe upstairs (which he also owned) to serve as a greenroom for the comedians. This became known as the famous \u201ccomedians\u2019 table,\u201d where comics could gather, trade views and bust balls.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That table helped establish the Comedy Cellar as a clubhouse for comedians. Comics like Chris Rock and Jerry Seinfeld started dropping by, and regulars like Jim Norton and Bill Burr plugged the club while appearing as guests on radio\u2019s \u201cThe Opie & Anthony Show.\u201d The Cellar was also featured in the 2002 Jerry Seinfeld documentary \u201cComedian.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cellar got yet another boost when it was featured heavily in the 2010 FX series<\/a> \u201cLouie,\u201d starring Louis CK, then one of the world\u2019s most respected comedians.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\"Don't<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cWe saw a lot of people coming in, a lot of people filming themselves doing the same opening that Louis did in his show,\u201d Dworman says in the book. \u201cThe greatest comic in the world had given his stamp of approval for this small club.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Major comedians attracted famous audience members to the club, including Katy Perry, Meryl Streep and Robert De Niro, and suddenly Noam Dworman had money to expand. He now also runs nearby spots Village Underground and Fat Black Pussycat.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Although the Comedy Cellar was hit hard during the pandemic (\u201cWe took a tremendous financial hit,\u201d Dworman says), it survived mainly through Paycheck Protection Program loans.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Also, \u201cMy landlord was very reasonable with me, so we weren\u2019t on the verge of being evicted,\u201d Dworman adds.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Cellar reopened in April, and Chris Rock, Dave Attell, Ray Romano and Amy Schumer have already dropped by.\u00a0<\/p>\n

No surprise, Dworman says that now, \u201cBusiness is at capacity.\u201d\u00a0\n <\/p><\/div>\n

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Source<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“#How NYC’s Comedy Cellar went from \u2018icky\u2019 basement to sensation” In the mid-1990s, the Comedy Cellar was in a slump. One night there was just a single person in the audience \u2014 a tourist from the Netherlands who barely spoke English.\u00a0 Comedian Gregg Rogell was set to go on, but when he saw how empty…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":267459,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/nypost.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2021\/06\/jerry-seinfeld-comedy-cellar.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=1200","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[70897],"tags":[108407,69311,86,72488,108444,83336],"class_list":["post-267458","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-6-5-21","tag-chris-rock","tag-comedy","tag-jerry-seinfeld","tag-louis-c-k","tag-stand-up-comedy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267458","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=267458"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/267458\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/267459"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=267458"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=267458"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=267458"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}