Nick Di Paolo Explains How The Great Comic’s Table at the Cellar Got Its Start

nick dipaolo

Nick DiPaolo is headlining at the beautiful Gramercy Theater in NYC on Saturday October 17th, and the hilariously funny Dan Soder will be opening for him. Here’s how to get tickets.

Nick Di Paolo Started the Iconic Comics Table

Over the past decade, there is a place in New York that has become almost the epicenter of comedy for this part of the country. If you’re an established comic, it’s the place you probably feel most at home. If you’re just getting started, you’ve thought about how someday soon you’ll get the chance to hang out there. It’s the comic’s table at The Comedy Cellar and its already earned a place in New York history.

The Cellar is an important part of comedy in New York, and not just because it appears in the opening of FX’s “Louie.” The Cellar is widely considered one of the best places in New York to see great comedy, and the table is one of the reasons for the Cellar’s success. Even owner Noam Dworman freely admits that as he told Ron Bennington in an interview this summer on SiriusXM’s Raw Dog Comedy Channel. “The heartbeat of the place is that table,” he said.

The table, tucked in a corner just steps above the stage at the Cellar, plays host to the greatest comics in New York every night. Names like Chris Rock, Amy Schumer, Louis C.K., sit at the table when they’re in town. So do the funniest in New York– Artie Lange, Judah Friedlander, Jim Norton, Dave Attell, Keith Robinson, Rich Vos, Bonnie McFarlane, Robert Kelly, Colin Quinn and of course Nick (and the list goes on and on). It’s a comedy scene, and it’s a New York scene, reminiscent of many places that have become iconic in New York’s history in other genres, like Algonquin or Elaine’s or CBGB’s which became institutions to writers, musicians and more.

So how did such an important part of New York comedy get started? Comedian Nick Di Paolo. Di Paolo had been listening to Bennington’s show when Noam Dworman was talking about the importance of the table, and dropped an email to Ron letting him know that not only was he there when the table first formed, he actually was responsible for the table getting started.

A typical night at the table at The Cellar.

A typical night at the table at The Cellar.

This week Di Paolo stopped in to SiriusXM HQ in New York City to sit in on the Bennington show, and he talked about coming up with the idea to start a comic’s table. Like most brilliant ideas that become legacies, the genesis was quite simple.

“I was living in LA, and I came back to do the Comedy Cellar,” Di Paolo said. “You know the LA thing went great, I had two lines on Suddenly Susan,” he said laughing. “Literally my line to Brooke Shields was, we ate all your salami. I was the guy moving furniture in the scene. I did some Grace Under Fires and a News Radio and shit. But I did enough of it to know that I didn’t want to sit in the paddywagon and wait for my two lines.”

Di Paolo said he went to the Cellar, literally with his bags in his hand. “This was when I had the eye of the tiger like a young comic,” he remembered. “I go to the Comedy Cellar that night and I’m waiting to do my set. I’m upstairs, in the Olive Tree Cafe and I’m standing amongst the riff raff at the bar. And Manny comes in. I go Manny, I fucking love you but can’t you reserve a table in the back or something where we can sit and stuff.” Manny was Noam’s father who owned and ran the club at the time. Di Paolo said Manny agreed. “You know…that’s not a bad idea,” he said to Nick. “I come in the next night there’s a reserved sign on the table. You know what I mean? He loved comics and he took it seriously.”

And there has been a crowd of New York’s best sitting there every night ever since. “There’s been a lot of great people that sit at that table,” Di Paolo told Bennington. “That’s where Tough Crowd was born. Colin [Quinn] was smart enough to sit back while we’re all fighting amongst ourselves doing politics and saying hey this would make a good tv.”

You can hear the full hour with Nick on SiriusXM On Demand, by searching for Bennington, and listen to Bennington every weekday from noon to 3pm et.  Follow Nick on twitter @nickdipaolo and follow the Bennington show @Benningtonshow.

Nick Di Paolo is headlining at the beautiful Gramercy Theater in NYC on Saturday October 17th, and the hilariously funny Dan Soder will be opening for him. It will be a great night, and we’ll be there. Come out for a great night of comedy, here’s how to get tickets.

 

Read more comedy news.