Caroline Hirsch is insisting on a two-drink minimum for this interview. Okay, that’s not true. But after running Caroline’s On Broadway from 1981 to 2022, comedy is in her blood. From her Water Mill home (she also has residences in Manhattan and Palm Beach), she is frank and funny about her beginnings, the current state of comedy, and whether Kamala Harris or Donald Trump is better for punchlines. Spoiler Alert: Her answer is political. But we begin with her Hamptons history.
When did you start coming out here?
When I was 16, I was staying with girlfriends and their older sisters in a share house somewhere off Peconic Bay. We would go out barhopping because the legal age was 18, but everyone ran around out here with their phony proof.
Caroline Hirsch, who would later own and run nightclubs, had a fake ID?
(Laughs) Yes. Then, coming out here and having a place of my own started in the late ’70s. First, Sagaponack and then Water Mill. So, the Hamptons have really been a big part of my life. We all know how fabulous it all is. I mean, I can’t drive from Westhampton to East Hampton anymore in 35 minutes. (Laughs) I was coming out here before they built the 27 Bypass. Where 27 turns before Southampton. You used to have to drive through that town and take the old Montauk Highway. We would go to the old beach clubs and go to Martell’s in East Hampton.
And I did lots of comedy out here at Guild Hall starting in the late ’90s. I brought Bill Burr out here, Lewis Black, John Pinnette, and Jeff Ross. The audiences are the same people as New York City.
So, give me a short history lesson now that this is the 20th New York Comedy Festival.
Well, it was probably eight big shows and some little shows in the beginning. We took time to get up to where we are now, which is around 300 shows over the two weeks. We have 21 big theater shows and more to be announced before it starts.
Johnny Carson used to say he always wanted Cary Grant as a guest, and he could never get him. You’ve had some of the biggest names in the business for this festival. Is there anyone you haven’t been able to snag?
Eventually, they all give in. We don’t get everyone we want every year because of their touring calendars. But we’ll say, “Okay, how about next year?” and that’s how we get them. We start the next year the day after the current year and sometimes before. Comics all want to work. And it’s uptown, downtown. I can’t see everything, but I do a lot of walking. I see two or three shows a night.
Do you laugh?
Of course I laugh. (And then she does.)
You know why I ask that. Most comics see it just as a business. They stand in the back while someone else is on and go “That’s funny, that’s good, that’s stolen, that’s hacky,” that sort of thing.
Yes, but listen, I once watched Chris Rock and Robin Williams in the audience while Patton Oswalt was on stage, and they were dying. Standing up, cheering him on.
Let’s talk about Bill Maher, who is coming this year. When you put him up at Caroline’s 40 years ago, would you have imagined he would be a political commentator with a weekly HBO show?
I didn’t, but I did. Meaning I sat in the audience and watched him, and he was very smart. Observational, not political, but terrific at what he did. And as people get better and better, they can hone in on that thing they love. But when I started all this, nobody knew comedy was going to be this big. Did we think Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David would have this iconic sitcom? I mean, Bill did “Politically Incorrect,” but did we think he’d grow it and grow it? I see him once a year, and we just look at each other and say, “Could you imagine?” From that little stage in a corner on 8th Avenue to all this. Today, there are just more comedians around that the kids like.
What about the way comics “launch” now as opposed to paying their dues in little clubs at 2 in the morning? Now, there’s YouTube and TikTok. Are you a fan?
I think a lot of people get early recognition now, but they don’t have the “moxy.” They’re like “one video wonders.” But it takes hard work to hone a craft. We would sometimes have someone who had a great set at the club. So we’d book them back again, and they didn’t have good material. And then if we booked them a third time, people wouldn’t come back. It happens even on the David Letterman show. Emo Phillips did a joke about necrophilia. Something like “I loved her from head to the tag on her toe.” And it was cut. And that was Letterman on NBC at 12:30. Emo was one of my first club performers. I gave Michael Patrick King of “Sex and the City” his first writing job for “Caroline’s Comedy Hour.” He and Jon Stewart did something called “Clown Psychology.” And that show was where comedians built a following. And the more they were out there, the more people would come to see them. And that’s the same thing that happens today. But it’s not just HBO and Showtime like then. Now everything is streaming.
I was never a fan of Dane Cook, but he was the first to use social media to build an audience, right?
He was. And we worked with him. Remember MySpace? He was the first one to collect emails and do all of his own marketing. And you’re wrong because his stand-up was strong. He changed over the years, but he would sell out Caroline’s two shows on Super Bowl night, and his contemporaries loved him. Then we produced him at Madison Square Garden on a Sunday afternoon, two shows, 19,000 seats each show. I will say a lot of comedians were very jealous of him.
“Stand Up For Heroes” opens the festival every year.
It benefits the Bob Woodruff Foundation and service men and women from the Iraqi and Afghanistan war. Before that, we did things for the Food Bank and Scleroderma Foundation which Bob Saget got involved with. And last year, I was honored with the first Bob Saget Award.
Did you tell an incredibly filthy joke in his honor?
(Laughs) No, I should have. But the funny thing is I had started that foundation with two of the chefs from the Seaport club. So they did a show in Los Angeles in the beginning. But then we left the Seaport and moved uptown and got bigger and bigger. And the festival grew obviously, too. Jon Stewart is back this year. And J.B. Smoove, Judd Apatow, Tracy Morgan, Gabriel Iglesias, Jaboukie Young-White from “The Daily Show.” I’m constantly watching social and videos. And the big talent agencies pitch us all the time. They all want their clients in our festival.
Caroline’s closed in 2022. You were pretty vocal about how Times Square had changed. Do you miss the club?
I miss seeing people’s reactions to people. But I don’t miss the daily/nightly thing like that. Times Square has changed. I went in there to change it. I was there. And then it changed. And then I got outta there.
And in addition to the festival, you started producing documentaries.
Three docs. One was “Ask For Jane” in 2018 about the “Janes” in Chicago who helped their classmates get safe abortions. It was less a doc then a film made about the Janes. And it’s living on Amazon somewhere. Another was “Call Your Mother,” about comedians and their moms, released during the pandemic on Mother’s Day. And the movie I just did in 2022 was called “The Conspiracy,” about anti-semitism with Mayim Bialik, Liev Schrieber, Lake Bell, and Jason Alexander. It’s in a beautifully drawn animation, and that’s currently looking for a distributor. We screened it last year out of competition at the Hamptons International Film Festival. Anne Chaisson was very helpful. It’s very special. But these movies are all before their time.
And now we may have a female President. But isn’t Trump better for comedians?
Oh yes. But they’ll find something with Kamala to skewer. Believe me, they’re all working on it right now. But you have to be so good at your craft these days. You can’t get away with crap. Ali Wong once said in an interview about “crossing the line” on a joke it’s better to just get to the line and not cross it. And you go, “Wow,” she got the point across, but she didn’t cross that line. Comedy just got smarter, that’s what happened. And Caroline’s was responsible for a lot of where we got to today.
The 20th New York Comedy Festival runs from November 8 to 17, 2024. Tickets are available at NewYorkComedyFestival.com. And if you look carefully, the woman laughing at the back of the room might be Caroline Hirsch. She’s a laugher.