Remembering a Comedy Icon: Richie Tienken, Owner and Founder of NYC’s The Comic Strip
When the phone rings either very early in the morning or very late at night it’s usually not good news. Such was the case this morning when I was awakened by a call from Tom E-Latsch the longtime manager of the legendary comedy club The Comic Strip.
He said he was calling on behalf of Jeannie Tienken to tell me that my long time friend and co-collaborator Richie Tienken, the owner and founder of The Strip had passed away.
She was kind enough to think that she didn’t want me to find out by reading it someplace because she knew how close Richie and I were. The Comic Strip was like home for me, and Richie was like family. I was really in shock. For some reason I had been thinking about him hard for the last few days but like many of us do sometimes, I didn’t pick up the phone. Tommy and I spoke for about half an hour and then I spent an hour on the phone with Jeannie reminiscing and talking about how we thought he’d be here forever.
Richie Tienken was not only an icon in the comedy world, but he was an extraordinary man. I know first hand.
He had such a unique story. He left home at 13 years old, which is unimaginable in today’s world, and went to Boston. He wound up owning six bars in The Bronx and ran the biggest Bingo club also in the Bronx, and then somehow went on to manage one of the biggest stars in the world Eddie Murphy. He often couldn’t believe it himself!
Even after he survived a terrible battle with throat cancer, he came back to the club and was there every night. Besides his family, which was so important to him, his two sons Jonathan and Richie who he idolized, and his three daughters, grandchildren and great grandchildren, the club was his life. I accompanied him a couple of times for his radiation treatment when he had to wear this scary looking iron mask to protect his face and he acted like it was nothing. He never complained. They were able to save two of his vocal chords, but he was left with a voice that was like a loud whisper and so very often when we did press, which we did often over the years, I became his voice. I learned all his stories so I could tell them, and he would chime in and fill in the details.I actually kept an old style phone with a keyboard for longer than I should have just so I could text easier with Richie.
He honored me in many ways but three stand out in particular. He chose me to write the book on the club. There had never been a book on a comedy club before. I remember the day I suggested it to him. It was June 15, 2008. I was at the club with Gilbert Gottfried and we were coaching Ann Curry on how to do stand up for some story she was working on. I had been in the club for years but that day it struck me looking at all the photos, how many huge stars had come out of that club.
He told me that several people had suggested he do a book but he never felt comfortable with any of them. He suggested we discuss it and when he came to my home he said I had more photos on the walls of my apartment than he had at the club, and he said he thought I was the guy who could do the book.
The photo of us in my lobby was taken on 7/11/08 when he agreed to do the book. He was holding a copy of my first book “Filthy, Funny and Totally Offensive” a compilation of celebs favorite nasty jokes, based on my writings for the Friars Roasts.
Our first book was a HUGE project that took four years. “Make ‘Em Laugh-35 Years of The Comic Strip, the Greatest Comedy Club of All Time” came out in 2012, and then 4 years later the publisher did an updated version called “Laughing Legends- How The Comic Strip Changed The Face of Comedy” because young stars that I wrote about in 2012 had gone on to do great things like Colin Jost, Jordan Rock and Pete Davidson.
The second thing he honored me with was when he asked me and Jordan Rock to host “Late Night At The Strip.” Late night was the show after the last official show when new comics who were passed could get on stage and do their thing. They had never had co-hosts before but Richie believed in me, and let me host on Sunday and Monday nights with Jordan hosting Tuesday and Wednesday nights.
Lastly just before Covid hit in February of 2020, he offered me the club to do a podcast. He felt I should be doing one. I asked for permission to do it from the iconic stage to make it something different and he agreed. He was my first guest and it’s on my Comedy Matters TV You Tube channel. I’m so glad I got to spend that time with him.
For four years from 2008 until 2012 we sat together almost every night in his small office going over what would be that first book. I’d come into the club, and we’d disappear into that little private office of his, and monitor the comics on stage and share stories till the club closed for the evening.
I spent countless hours with the man, enjoying all the stories he told me about his time managing Eddie Murphy, discovering Chris Rock, managing Adam Sandler and Colin Quinn, and making sure that Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David had enough to eat. He loved telling stories and I loved to listen.
The first three interviews for the book were with Larry Miller, George Wallace and Paul Provenza which I did up at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal. All the others were done at the club except for Billy Crystal and Gilbert Gottfried who insisted we took him out to a fancy place downtown for lunch.Then when we got there and ordered our very pricey food during the interview Gilbert did a “Gilbert” and insisted he had never been in the club, but had heard it had great electricity, and a special chair for the comics to sit in. He claimed he stood outside the location for years waiting for it to be built. Richie was dying because he was paying for everything, but I finally got Gilbert to admit he was there and to talk about the club. It was one of my most fun interviews.
Richie and I sat together in the club interviewing Jerry Seinfeld, Chris Rock, Ray Romano, Lewis Black, Paul Reiser, George Wallace, Colin Quinn, Jeffrey Ross, Lisa Lampanelli, Judah Friedlander, Susie Essman and all the others because we felt that being in that environment would help to bring back memories, and it did.
Jerry remembered the story of what started his yearly New Year’s Day brunches with Paul Reiser, Larry Miller and Mark Schiff, at the River Café in Brooklyn, and Ray Romano remembered how he started out performing under the name Jackie Roberts until he got to The Strip.
One special moment was when I brought in Rick Newman, the founder of Catch A Rising Star to be interviewed for the book, and Richie got to tell him that Rick was his idol and his inspiration in opening up his club.
Some time later when the book finally came out and Richie and I went up to Montreal’s Just for Laughs Festival to promote it, Budd Friedman who founded The Improv laughingly threw the book on the floor of the red carpet because it said The Strip was the greatest comedy club of all time, and he had other thoughts on the matter. Richie and I also went up to Montreal to debut a documentary film on the club that we both co-produced called “Eat, Drink and Laugh” which was the original logo of the club when George Wallace sold them advertising back in 1976 and it was on the back of every bus on 1st and 2nd avenues.
Friendship was very important to Richie, as was loyalty, and that’s one of the many things we bonded over. When I was sick in the hospital with Covid Double Pneumonia he called me every day starting when I was in the hospital and too weak to answer him. When they discharged me he called and asked if he could pick me up and drive me home. I wouldn’t think of letting him be exposed and I let the ambulance take me home. For the two months it took me to recover he literally checked in with me every day to ask how I was doing and if there was anything he could do for me.
So when Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler were set to do their most recent Netflix specials they did them at The Strip because people don’t forget where they started. And Netflix came in and returned the club to the way it looked back in 1976 when Jerry first started. They moved the stage back to where it was in those days, and got the original red and white checked tablecloths. I stood there against the wall watching the show with Jerry’s best friend George Wallace. They met at the club and formed a lifetime friendship.
Richie nurtured the careers of so many comedians who went on to be big stars. On opening night Billy Crystal was the first to hit the stage, which is why I went to his office in Beverly Hills to interview him for the book.
Richie always came up with ideas which is why he told me his nickname was “Thinkin’ Tienken”! About a month or so ago, he called me to say he had an idea and “maybe we could make some money out of it.” He has video archives of all the comedians who ever stepped on that stage. Eddie Murphy as a teenager, Robin Williams doing improv, Chris Rock as a beginner and on and on. I told him I’d see what I could do. Now who knows?
He once told me the story of how he knew that his longtime manager Lucien Hold had passed away when he heard his phone ring late at night, and that’s exactly how I felt when I heard my phone ringing early this morning, and saw it was from Tom E-Latsch.
It’s hard for me to believe he’s gone. R.I.P Richie you will be sorely missed.
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