Jerry Seinfeld Surprise Set at Gotham, Michael Che, Nate Bargatze’s Star Studded Comedy Central Taping, and How Michael Kaufman Feels About Bob Zmuda’s New Book

JUMPING AROUND WITH JGURIAN

Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York who loves to Jump Around. Follow his regular column, right here, to find out what’s happening in comedy, and who Jeffrey Gurian ran into this week in and around New York. In today’s column, find out where Jerry Seinfeld did a surprise set, what Andy Kaufman’s brother thinks about Bob Zmuda’s new book, who was at Nate Bargatze’s Comedy Central taping and Lisa Lampanelli’s ephiphany! Visit Jeffrey’s website at comedymatterstv.com, where you can watch his interviews with everyone in comedy who matters!


First Jump! The Andy Kaufman Awards

This week was the 10th annual Andy Kaufman Awards and I was honored to be a judge at at the request of Andy’s brother Michael. The other judges were Sean McCarthy of The Comic’s Comic, Adam Radler an agent from The Gersh Agency, and Harry Terjanian, co-host of the podcast called The Beige Phillip Show, and last year’s winner. Harry was was also the host for the evening. The award was started back in 2004 by Andy’s Dad Stanley Kaufman, and Andy’s manager the legendary George Shapiro who also managed Jerry Seinfeld and still does to this day. The competition rewards creativity, spirit and commitment all of which were embodied by Andy who’s been gone for 30 years now.

The winner this year was a performer named Dru Johnston who came out as a turkey to prove his theory that man evolved not from apes but from turkeys. It was his committment to the absurdity of the piece and the effort he put into creating the technical aspects of his act that won him the prize. Amir Gollan was another stand out who I predict you will be hearing a lot about.

TJ Miller AK AwardsWhile the judges were coming to their conclusion the audience was treated to a performance by special guest T.J. Miller who is the embodiment of the Andy Kaufman Award and does it effortlessly, which to me, is the essence of Andy Kaufman. Many comedians get up there just trying to be as crazy and outlandish as they can. T.J. Miller is just brilliant. During part of his set, he actually juggled with previous Andy Kaufman winner Marcus Monroe, and another previous winner Nick Vatterott came up and smacked in him the face.  After the show T.J. told me right now he was in a writing hole with a new script he’s working on. Past winner Nick Vatterott also came up to perform, and the judges were tempted to give him the award again as a joke, but we decided against it.

I told Michael Kaufman that I had been with Andy’s ex-partner and writer Bob Zmuda during the week. Bob was in town promoting his new book Andy Kaufman: The Truth, Finally in which he contends that Andy faked his death and will be back this year as planned, after 30 years in hiding. Michael could hardly contain himself from distancing himself from the book. Both Michael and Bob will  be in London starting Oct. 16th at an event called FRIEZE LONDON 2014, where a man named Jonathan Berger will reassemble fragments from Andy Kaufman’s personal life and career, and re-stage a forgotten piece of music from Andy’s legendary performance at Carnegie Hall.  Michael made it very clear they weren’t going together.

Out and About with Lisa Lampanelli and Friends!

Lisa Lampanelli, “The Loveable Queen of Mean” has turned her life around, and is dedicated to putting out positive energy and living her life according to Spiritual principles. This week she treated two tables of her friends, about 20 people, to come and see her ex-husband Jimmy’s girlfriend Jenna Esposito perform at Birdland. I was there and it was a spectacular show.

lisa lampanelli with jenna espositoJenna is very talented and sang in English and Italian while Lisa and the entire room cheered her on. When I asked her to explain she said, “Why would I even hesitate to help someone who makes my friend Jimmy so happy.” Lisa lost her Dad not too long ago and they were very close. Just talking about him brings tears to her eyes. She told me this touching story. Her Dad’s favorite flowers were Hydrangeas. Before Jenna’s show Lisa stopped off to buy her flowers and when she walked into the store the first thing she saw were three huge buckets of Hydrangeas right up front. Lisa said, “If that isn’t a sign, I don’t know what is.”

After the show, Lisa sat down with me privately, and told me some really cool stuff. She feels that her new calling is helping poor people win money because she just taped three episodes of Craig Ferguson’s new show on the CW called Celebrity Name Game where she helped someone win over $20,000. and she said it was like the happiest day of her life. She wants to find a way to continue doing that. She also said that when she retires, which may be in a few years, she may go into management because she knows some very talented people, and would like to help people get the recognition they deserve. She is really looking forward to doing the Wendy Williams show on Thanksgiving and then on Dec. 12th she’ll be at The Grand Theatre at Foxwoods which seats like 3-4,000 people. And she told me that her Broadway Show is ready to go, but she’s in no hurry because she’s just waiting for the right offer.

Nate Bargatze’s Big Comedy Central Taping!

Also this week, I jumped over to Webster Hall to catch Michelle Slonim’s new comedy show, Meet, Drink, and Laugh, which is a little too close to the name of Letterbox Entertainment’s recent doc on The Comic Strip, Eat, Drink, and Laugh on which I was a co-producer. I ran into Joe List, a regular on Robert Kelly’s podcast You Know What Dude, and Joe also does a podcast called Tuesdays with Stories with Mark Normand, (who opens for Amy Schumer). When I asked Joe how it felt doing comedy in a side room of Webster Hall he said that comics will perform anywhere, even in the men’s room of a gas station, if need be!

nate bargatze luis j gomezLater, I headed over to The Gramercy Theatre on 23rd and Lex for a taping of Nate Bargatze’s one hour Comedy Central special. Nate is a unique talent. He’s from Tennessee and just a nice, polite guy with a very direct, and different way of telling his jokes. He has a unique, very unassuming stage presence and besides being a great writer, is also extremely likable. I took my seat right behind my buddy Yannis Pappas who just moved back from Miami, “to get back into the swing of things in the NY comedy scene.” He told me he opted out of the 2nd year of his contract with ABC’s Fusion Live, the show he was co-hosting on the Fusion Network, even though the show was doing well. He said they were not happy he was leaving, but he felt he had to do it. He said he sacrificed money for comfort.

Luis J. Gomez from MTV2’s Guy Code, opened for Nate, and Luis is also really funny and was a great choice to open cause he got the audience pumped! He’s also into Mixed Martial Arts and does a podcast on Robert Kelly’s RiotCast Network called Hammerfisting. The audience where I was sitting was packed with comics there to support Nate, like Louis Katz, Dan Soder, Gary Vider, Sheng Wang, Mike Vecchione, and Joe List who ran over from Webster Hall like I did. It was fun for me to watch what Mike Vecchione was laughing at because Mike is such a great writer himself, and he was laughing out loud at Nate’s material.

Louis Katz told me he’s working on material for his 2nd album. His first, If These Balls Could Talk, did very well. This one is gonna be XXX rated and the working title is The Grimy Hymie! And he’ll be taping it at The Comedy Underground in Seattle.

Dan Soder told me he’s looking for a new home for the show he’s been doing with Big Jay Oakerson called The Soder Show. It was on Sirius XM’s Comedy Central Radio and they did six episodes. In the new show, Jay would prefer to have his name in the title as well. Dan said the show is just Jay and Dan hanging out. The old show was an hour but the new one could be as much as 2-3 hours long. He’s fielding offers, and hopes to re-sign somewhere in the next two weeks.

Jerry Seinfeld Does a Surprise Set at Gotham

I jumped on over to the charity event at Gotham Comedy Club for TicTopStop founded by CBS Sports Personality Craig Carton who also hosted the show. I got there a few minutes late and when I came in Paul Virzi was absolutely killing it on stage. Paul — who opened for Bill Burr at Carnegie Hall — is a really strong performer. He’s recording his debut album at Morty’s Comedy Joint in Indiana, from Oct. 30th-Nov. 2nd. He’s mulling over a couple of offers from different labels and hasn’t made a decision yet. TicTopStop btw, is a non-profit organization founded by Craig Carton which commissioned a pilot study to develop an oral appliance, (which is right up my alley), designed to reposition the lower jaw to alleviate the tics associated with Tourette’s Syndrome and Chronic Tic Disorder.artie lang joe piscopo michael cheI walked into the glassed in area at the back of Gotham’s main room to take some photos and I heard someone say “Hey Jeff.” I turned around to see my pal Joe Piscopo who had opened the show with Craig Carton, looking fantastic in a great suit and tie. Classy way to perform. That’s why he does Sinatra so well. He epitomizes that old show biz class that you don’t see too much anymore. Joe and I went outside so we could catch up and I could find out what he’s been up to since I saw him last. Joe is going to be the MC at Raleigh’s Gold Glove Awards on Nov. 7th at The Plaza Hotel, and he kept looking at his watch, cause he said he had to leave early to get up and do his Piscopo In the Morning radio show on AM970, The Answer. But he said he wanted to at least stay “till Jerry came”, and that’s when I realized that Jerry Seinfeld would be making an unannounced appearance. Jerry loves Gotham and is very close to owner Chris Mazzilli, plus he’s also a friend of Craig Carton.

Joe went on to tell me that he’s developing a movie with Queen Latifah who’s co-producing, and which could become a limited TV series. It’s called Bloomfield Avenue, and he said he’d tell me more as soon as he was allowed. It was fun seeing him bond with Michael Che, who is now co-anchoring Saturday Night Live’s Weekend Update with Colin Jost. Che reminisced about a sketch that Joe was in with Eddie Murphy — probably before Michael was even born — called “Solomon and Pudge”  about two down and out guys in a bar. Joe said it had to have been done between 1981-1984.

Michael Che said he’s having a blast on SNL, and it’s like a dream come true. How many people get The Daily Show and SNL within the same year? Crazy! Next thing I know Artie Lange comes over and is hanging out with me and Joe, and we’re just having the best time, until Artie has to run in and do his set. Audiences LOVE Artie Lange. He did so well that the guy after him was reluctant to go on. He was like, “How do you follow Artie Lange?”

Jerry Seinfeld came in wearing a baseball cap down low over his face– as usual. Jerry doesn’t mingle. He hung out towards the entrance of the club with Chris and Steve Mazzilli until it was time to go on. Craig Carton introduced him as a surprise guest but as soon as he mentioned Cars and Coffee the audience erupted in a frenzy of applause so loud you couldn’t hear him say Jerry Seinfeld. Onstage Jerry is very gracious, and friendly, and even tolerated a heckler sitting right up front who felt it was within his right to engage Jerry in conversation while he was performing. Club security is very strict at Gotham, but Jerry signaled it was ok for the guy to stay, and kept engaging him in conversation, using him as the butt of many jokes. The guy didn’t even mind, and just kept asking for a photo while Jerry was on stage. But Jerry stays calm no matter what. Even when his mic went out during his set, he just waited calmly for a moment while they brought him a new one. And when his set was over, the club owners met him again and escorted him out.

Michael Che closed the show, because he’s strong enough to do that. And the crowd loved him. He is very accessible to his fans, and he stays for photos and to chat. What an incredible night of comedy!

Keith and the Girl Meets Danny Aiello

keith chandra danny jeffreyAt SiriusXM this week, I brought the phenomenon known as Keith and The Girl up to The Ron and Fez Show. I refer to them as a phenomenon because they were one of the very first podcasters,starting out in 2005, and have loyal fans from literally all over the world. At their yearly week long celebration of comedy shows, I met fans from Australia, Europe, and Asia, who traveled in just to be with them for the week. And while we were sitting waiting to go on air my old pal Danny Aiello came along with his new book I Only Know Who I Am When I Am Somebody Else and they were so thrilled to meet him. He gave me a copy of his book, signed it for me by saying “To Jeffrey, you are one great guy! My friend forever! Danny.”

Pauly Shore Whispered in My Ear

On another night at Gotham Comedy Club this week I watched Harry Anderson from Night Court host AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live. I was sitting with comic Mike Young who’s in town casting his new movie Killer Set as a follow up to his 2014 film My Man Man’s A Loser harry andersonstarring John Stamos, Michael Rapaport, comic Bryan Callen, and Tika Sumpter. Suddenly, someone comes over and whispers in my ear,”Comedy Matters” and who is is but Pauly Shore, who tells me he’s in town to promote his new documentary Pauly Shore Stands Alone. The documentary will have its East Coast premiere this weekend at the Woodstock Comedy Festival and will also be repeated over the weekend at the Rosendale Theatre, with Pauly performing stand-up that night at The Colony Cafe in Woodstock. Pauly seemed excited and I told him I’d definitely watch it. We reminisced about his 2003 film Pauly Shore is Dead, a comedy mockumentary in which he faked his death to help his film career and which had cameos from more Hollywood people than I’ve ever seen before. It was good to see him again. He told me his doc hits Showtime on Dec. 4th.

At the after party I ran into Adam Newman, the warm-up comic for Last Week Tonight With John Oliver. Adam was all over the internet this week after a uniformed cop heckled him while he was on stage, because they came in to arrest someone in the audience during his set. I liked him right way cause he said he was a fan of my “Too Much Tuna” sketch with Nick Kroll and John Mulaney!

Rob Stapleton’s Birthday Bash

I finished off my weekend by jumping over to Rob Stapleton’s Birthday Bash Weekend show at Carolines on Broadway and boy was I glad I did. It was almost a three hour show, completely sold out, with an incredible line-up all of whom happened to be friends of mine. Every one of them was a powerhouse of comedy and hysterically funny! It was TuRae who kicked off the show as a surprise guest, T.K. Kirkland who I refer to as a comedy philosopher, and whose catch phrase when teaching both men and women how to act, is ” Who raised you?” He teaches what I’d call “proper hood etiquette” and it’s hysterical.  Also on the show was Jon Laster, who’s really making waves lately on the comedy scene, Smokey Suarez a comedy dynamo out of Harlem, and “the gangster of comedy” Capone as the closing act.

The room was alive with energy, and by the time Capone came onstage he was concerned that they were gonna be too tired to laugh, but that was not the case. He brought down the room in convulsive laughter! I kept running backstage to congratulate each of them as they came off, and I was sorry to see the show end. Big ups to Rob Stapleton for bringing a show like that together. There was a very touching, unexpected moment while Rob was performing, that left him in tears as he stopped for a moment to thank a woman named Josephine for raising him when his own family wasn’t able to be there for him. Josephine was in the audience, and Rob apologized for getting “emotional” but it was obvious that he couldn’t help it.

This past summer Rob worked with Marlon Wayans on the new internet sensation Whatthefunny.com, out of which collaboration came The Rob Stapleton Show which will be part of the NY Comedy Festival next month. Smokey Suarez has been on all the big urban shows, and told me he’s in a new Damon Dash movie which we both had a hard time spelling! It’s called Loisaidas, which he said means “Lower East Side” and it’s all about drug dealers, and should have a theatrical release in the next few months. I’m pretty sure he told me that Jadakiss is in it also.

Here’s some big news– He confided in me that he’s in production on his own show called Mixed Nuts, which he described as a cross between SNL and In Living Color with a couple of my buddies Marshall Brandon and Dean Edwards among others.

And everyone there was excited and gave shot-outs to big-time rapper Murda Mook who hung out backstage, and I was told killed it at the recent BET Hip-Hop Awards, It was a very exciting night, which ended with a big after party at Carolines for Rob’s birthday. I left at 2:30 and it was still going strong.

That’s it for this week. I am outta here, but I’ll be back in a week, to tell you everything that is going on in New York City, because as you know, comedy matters.


Visit Jeffrey’s website at comedymatterstv.com, where you can watch his interviews with everyone in comedy who matters!   Pictured below from left to right  Row 1: Jeffrey with Michael Kaufman (Andy’s brother), Jeffrey with Rob Stapleton, Row 2: Jeffrey with Hammerfist Luis J. Gomez and Nate Bargatze, Jeffrey with Pauly Shore.  Row 3: Jeffrey with Artie Lange, Joe Piscopo and Michael Che.

with Mike kaufman at AK awards RobStapleton_Jeffrey_Carolines_10_18_14_

nate jeffrey and hammerfist luis j gomez pauly shore

with lange che piscopo

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Jeffrey Gurian is a comedy writer, comedian, author, producer, comedy connoisseur, comedy journalist, and an all around bon vivant. You can find him on red carpets, at comedy events across the country and hosting Comedy Matters TV. He’s the author of the book Make ‘Em Laugh with an intro by Chris Rock”. You've seen him on Comedy Central's Kroll Show and he's a regular on SiriusXM's Bennington Show and it's predecessor the Ron and Fez Show. He's also A BIG BELIEVER in Happiness and Love.
Jeffrey Gurian
Jeffrey Gurian
Jeffrey Gurian is a comedy writer, comedian, author, producer, comedy connoisseur, comedy journalist, and an all around bon vivant. You can find him on red carpets, at comedy events across the country and hosting Comedy Matters TV. He’s the author of the book Make ‘Em Laugh with an intro by Chris Rock”. You've seen him on Comedy Central's Kroll Show and he's a regular on SiriusXM's Bennington Show and it's predecessor the Ron and Fez Show. He's also A BIG BELIEVER in Happiness and Love.