Jerry Seinfeld and Attell Do Surprise Sets, Bobby Lee Gives a Lapdance and More News From NY Clubs

JUMPING AROUND WITH JGURIAN

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, Jerry Seinfeld and Dave Attell do unannounced sets in New York City, Bobby Lee takes a lot of clothes off on stage, and more!


jerry seinfeldMy dear friend Larry Miller was in town this week. I’ve known him for a very long time, and in fact, he was the first comedian that I interviewed for my book, Make Em Laugh, about The Comic Strip. Larry was my guest on SiriusXM’s Ron and Fez Show this week, and was hosting AXS TV’s Gotham Comedy Live. He also happens to be Jerry Seinfeld‘s best friend, so I asked him if Jerry was in town, and if he was going to go up on stage that night. Larry said that he was in town, but was very evasive about whether he would perform. Well, sure enough, Jerry Seinfeld showed up to open the show for Larry and it was amazing. The audience went insane and gave standing ovations before he even said a word.

Also on the show, was Steven Scott (Marvin Scott the newsman’s son) who is incredible at sound effects. He did a great set. Gina Yashere, who is an English comedian who is also Nigerian performed. She’s so great, people really love her. She confided in me that she’s been very sick for the last two days and really wanted to cancel, but realized how hard it would be for them to get a replacement at the last minute, so she showed up and did her set– that’s what a trooper she is! I wish she had told me she was sick before I gave her a big hug and kiss!

At the after party, I saw Rick Newman.  He’s the founder of Catch a Rising Star, and a dear friend for over 30 years. He’s currently bringing amazing comedy entertainment into his new Stage 72 at the Triad Theatre on West 72nd Street! I also saw Jon Fisch who just got back from Skaneateles, where he was performing with Dan Naturman.

So many LA comics were in town this week, including my friend Bobby Lee. I hadn’t seen him for awhile, so I went down to Gotham where he was headlining, and I ran into another good LA friend, Cort McCown. He’s one of the Playboy comics from the Playboy mansion and he’s got a podcast called Insensitivity Training on Bill Burr’s All Things Comedy network. Cort just got back from Edinburgh, Amsterdam and London, and he is very open about his sobriety, and he shared with me that he is celebrating being sober 13 years. He said that 13 years ago, he almost OD’ed in the Chelsea Hotel, which is right next door to Gotham Comedy Club. As a gift of his sobriety, 13 years later, he performs at Gotham.  Very meaningful.

BOBBYLEENow, back to Bobby Lee.  Bobby does the craziest comedy act. Angelo Lozada was the host of the show. He’s one of the best hosts around in New York and he’s been voted one of the top 50 Latino comics in the country. As he was introducing Bobby, Bobby walks up and starts insisting that Angelo include that he did a beefy jerky commercial in 1999 and Angelo doesn’t want to do it, so he starts screaming at him that it’s his show and Angelo has to do what he tells him to.  Then on stage, Bobby was pulling up his shirt, showing his belly, playing a game called gay chicken (you can use your imagination) and even ended up giving a lap dance on stage– to a guy– where he takes off all of his clothes.  He may just be the craziest act on the entire scene.

Bobby’s got a cartoon coming up called The Awesomes, which is a Hulu original. He plays Tim, a little Asian guy who turns into a sumo wrestler. Seth Meyers is the executive producer, and one of the performers, and Rachel Dratch is in it too. Bobby said he is also filming with The League on FX in two weeks. He told me he will be playing a Chinese guy with Down syndrome and he said he didn’t have to change his clothes and they didn’t have to put make up on him. They think he looks like a Chinese guy with Down syndrome already.

I ran into Tony Woods at The Stand that same night. Tony told me he wrote a children’s book! It’s called The Profound Pussy Book and contrary to what it sounds like, its all about pussycats. He wrote it for his sons, because when one of his sons was in the 5th grade, he didn’t know how to treat little girls. So Tony wrote this book as a kind of like a metaphor for how to treat little girls, by how to treat pussy cats. Tony was celebrating his 51st birthday, and had a spot down at The Cellar so after he had a few drinks at The Stand, I drove him down to the Comedy Cellar. His set was awesome even though he was kind of buzzed.

Dave Attell came in and did a surprise set and that was amazing. Marina Franklin was the host, and Attell got her to admit from the stage that she likes porn and she even admitted she digs interracial porn. She’s black and most of her boyfriends are white, so it makes perfect sense.  We love Marina.  She used to be known by the name “The Sexy Fairy!”

SheckyGreene_Jeffrey_4_21_14Also this week, my iPhone rang and it was Shecky Greene calling from his home in Palm Springs to talk about Joan Rivers, Robin Williams, Jerry Seinfeld, Mel Brooks, Sinatra, etc.   He told me so many great stories, and I can’t share them all, but I will share one great funny story he told me about Mel Brooks.  He ran into Mel recently at the Delmar racetrack.  He said they both like to bet on the horses.  Mel says he sees Carl Reiner – who is 92-  almost every day.  Mel jokingly said, “Carl would like to see you too but are we still friends?”  meaning him and Shecky.

Now when he sees Mel, Mel asks him to stop telling that story!

The backstory to this is, that back when Mel was making History of the World, Shecky was playing the head of the Roman army.  Shecky called Caesar’s Palace on Mel’s behalf, and got Mel 30 free rooms for the people doing the film.  Mel wasn’t able to make it happen, but Shecky was king of Las Vegas and got it done.  Years later when Mel was on Broadway  in The Producers, Shecky called Mel’s office for two tickets, expecting them to be comps, but instead they asked him for his credit card number!  He was shocked, but paid for the tickets anyway.  He said he and his wife Marie never even got to enjoy the show because the people sitting in front of them were so tall, they blocked out the whole show.  He says he asked them if they forgot to bring their basketball!  Now when he sees Mel, Mel asks him to stop telling that story!
That’s it for this week!  Come back next week when I’ll be jumping around more clubs and bringing you more club news.

Jeffrey Gurian is a writer and comedian in New York.  Visit his website at comedymatterstv.com.
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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.