Veteran New York club owner Richie Tienken dies at 75
Co-Founder of the Comic Strip
Richie Tienken, who co-founded one of New York’s oldest comedy clubs, The Comic Strip, has died at the age of 75.
He was already a bar owner when he set up the venue in 1975 having seen one of his bartenders, an aspiring comic, perform at the Catch A Rising Star club.
Billy Crystal was the opening act on the first night, Chris Rock used to stack chairs to get stage time there, and Colin Quinn worked behind the bar,
Jerry Seinfeld said the venue ‘gave me my start in comedy,’ and he returned to the club to record his 2017 Netflix special, Jerry Before Seinfeld. Adam Sandler also shot part of his 2018 special 100% Fresh there.
Review of tonight s Radio 2 Festival Of Funny pilots
Kiri Pritchard-McLean: Secret Desires (
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The BBC are going all-in on Kiri Pritchard-McLean as a star of the future, as well they might, since she’s a fine comic.
Less than two months after her Radio 4 special Egg-sistential Crisis, about the low birth rate among millennials, comes this Radio 2 pilot, as part of the Festival Of Funny season. And that’s not counting her Radio Wales show, her appearance on Funny Festival Live on BBC Two this Tuesday, her hosting of Radio 4’s Newsjack, and various guest appearances.
The risk of being one of the hardest-working women in comedy, of course, is breadth over depth: becoming one of those comics who’s booked absolutely everywhere as a safely witty pair of hands, without ever getting the chance to create something truly memorable.
Honour shared between Jerry Seinfeld and Michelle Buteau
Jerry Seinfeld and Michelle Buteau tied for the award for best comedy special at the Critics’ Choice Award last night.
Buteau scored the same honour for her very first full-length special as 45-year comedy veteran Seinfeld.
Her show, Welcome To Buteaupia, was released on Netflix in September and described by one reviewer as ‘bold, brash, proud, amusing and captivating’.
In an excited acceptance speech, she said: ‘I just want to say, If you want to do something in your life, anything anything, you do it because you are enough. You are always enough! Yes! The Critics Choice Awards!