Jeff Ross, comedian, actor writer: In the early days, you could see shawarma spinning in the window. I’d stand on my corner and watch the comics go in and out. The Cellar was this place where all the cool comics performed and hung out.
for the Boston Comedy Club, which was around the corner from the Cellar. Sarah Silverman, comedian, actress, writer: I first got to know the Cellar when I was 19 and working by passing out fliers every night from 4 p.m. It’s a dark basement with not much of a stage, so you’re eye-to-eye with the crowd. It was quiet, especially during the week.Ĭolin Quinn, comedian, actor, writer: When I first walked in, I thought, “This is the New York comedy scene that I pictured.” Everybody was smoking (and it’s owned by Israelis, so even more smoking than usual). I got onstage at the Bitter End but with an eye at trying to hang out at the Comedy Cellar. I still have my Panchitos apron with the three pockets and stains. Jon Stewart, comedian, actor, writer: I was living down on Grand Street in 1986 and working at a restaurant down the block, Panchitos. FIRST IMPRESSIONS: “You felt like you were part of something, a strange family of miscreants that lived in a basement on a urine-soaked street in Greenwich Village.” Spike Lee with Manny Dworman, The Comedy Cellar’s co-founder.
You’ll hear stories from the first time they stepped into the Cellar to their most memorable night onstage to that one night at the comedian’s table they’ll never forget.
Comedy cellar movie#
“No matter who you are, even if you’re an incredible movie star, they all come back.”īelow is an oral history of the club from the people who know it best: the performers, the booker, the owner, and the people who elect to spend several nights a week in a basement for years on end. “It’s like going home to your parents on the holidays,” comedian Judy Gold says later that night. Others arrive and take their seats for dinner, some stopping to say hello to Estee and give her a kiss on the cheek. In the span of a couple of hours, some get up to do their sets and leave. As we talk to Estee upstairs, Cellar regulars Keith Robinson, Michelle Wolf, and Todd Barry are seen taking seats at the infamous comedian’s table in the far right corner of the Olive Tree-the one that inspired Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn and serves as the family table for comedians of all levels.
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