Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, Podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: You thought we were going to get away from politics
Speaker 2: by talking comedy, but I gotta tell you I have
Speaker 2: bad news. They go ahead an you couldn't You couldn't
Speaker 2: be more wrong, because comedy has played a big part
Speaker 2: in this election, especially in recent weeks, from Tony Henricliffe's
Speaker 2: floating Island of Garbage comment at Donald Trump's Madison Square
Speaker 2: Garden rally to Kamala Harris's appearance on Saturday Night Live
Speaker 2: on Saturday. Not to mention, whoever wins the election, Carol
Speaker 2: will most likely be Can I say this is the
Speaker 2: butt of many jokes over the next four years.
Speaker 1: It's a given, It's a given right and we look
Speaker 1: forward to what you sign up for, equal right, no
Speaker 1: political divide on that. We like, appreciate the humor that
Speaker 1: comes in. Our next guest is a perfect one to
Speaker 1: wrap up our special edition of Bloomberg Business Week. We've
Speaker 1: really been focusing on the elections today. Caroline Hirst is
Speaker 1: the founder of course of Caroline's on Broadway, operated from
Speaker 1: nineteen eighty one to twenty twenty two. Also founded and
Speaker 1: produces the annual New York Comedy Festival, which he launch
Speaker 1: back in two thousand and four, kicks off this week.
Speaker 1: Includes names such as Jedd Apatow.
Speaker 2: David l Is going to be there, yeah, britt Miggs.
Speaker 1: Brittany Brave, Bill Maher, Tracy Morgan, and a lot more.
Speaker 3: That's quite a line up.
Speaker 2: It's quite a lot up. And that's just like I
Speaker 2: was looking at the website. That's like a tiny fraction
Speaker 2: of who's going to be there. Carolyn Hirsch joins us
Speaker 2: here in the Bloomberg Interactive Brokers studio. Welcome back, Thank you.
Speaker 2: It's like a nice tradition to have you in. But
Speaker 2: one thing that's thinking about this here is that it's
Speaker 2: you know, election day tomorrow, so.
Speaker 3: Well we purposely had the festival after the election.
Speaker 2: Did you really have something?
Speaker 3: Oh yeah, you can't get in the middle of that
Speaker 3: makes sense, right, Yeah.
Speaker 2: Talk a little bit about that though. I mean a
Speaker 2: lot of the comedians you have that who Caroly and
Speaker 2: I just mentioned politics front and center for them, and
Speaker 2: I think a guy like Bill Maher, I mean, he's
Speaker 2: all over it.
Speaker 3: Can't wait to see Bill.
Speaker 2: I think I think he gave a little promo last
Speaker 2: week on his show about the New York comedy fings
Speaker 2: did he did.
Speaker 3: He's been. You know, he's Bill's kind of like a fixture.
Speaker 3: Last year he took a year off, but you know,
Speaker 3: he's back again and he's been in the festival for
Speaker 3: a number of years now and we always usually have it,
Speaker 3: like actually one year we didn't have. We had it
Speaker 3: before and I think it was before Donald Trump got
Speaker 3: into office, and he had some words to say about that.
Speaker 3: So but you know, Bill's been. I have to say,
Speaker 3: you know, Bill's been this guy that is really center.
Speaker 3: He call sings out the way he sees them, and
Speaker 3: I think he's very honest. I mean, I love watching him,
Speaker 3: and I think Bill's got a bigger career now than
Speaker 3: he's ever had.
Speaker 2: Well, Okay, so that's so interesting to say that, because
Speaker 2: one thing that's different now that he's doing is this
Speaker 2: Club Random podcast, which is so different than his normal show. Right,
Speaker 2: it's a weekly show on HBO is what he's known for,
Speaker 2: but he has this podcast that he like just sits
Speaker 2: down with people and does these long interviews. Like seems
Speaker 2: like everybody's doing this now.
Speaker 3: I think, Yeah. Listen podcast is is the talk radio
Speaker 3: of today. So they're very interesting, interesting people. We have
Speaker 3: lots of podcasts in the festival that kind of like,
Speaker 3: you know, so how did he get made? You know,
Speaker 3: which is great, which is a group of people that
Speaker 3: got together one night at a Paul party and said, hey,
Speaker 3: how did that ever get made for TV? And they
Speaker 3: created a pod?
Speaker 1: People love that. Well wait, so wait, so when you
Speaker 1: think about what you want to do with the festival
Speaker 1: and you've been doing for such a long time, and
Speaker 1: I'm sure there's evolution and there's obviously you know, the
Speaker 1: iconic comedians you want. I'm sure our new voices tell
Speaker 1: us how you think about it every year?
Speaker 3: Well, we we think about it like the day after
Speaker 3: we like, you know, the middle of this November coming up,
Speaker 3: we'll think about next year. But it takes about a
Speaker 3: year to get everybody kind of in line and between
Speaker 3: the schedules and this and that. So you know, we
Speaker 3: have close to three hundred shows around New York City
Speaker 3: with you know, two hundred or more comedians that are around,
Speaker 3: so you know, we have something for everyone. I mean,
Speaker 3: you know, we're at the greatest venues of the world,
Speaker 3: you know, the Beacon Theater, Town Hall, Carnegie Hall, and
Speaker 3: it's an array of great comedians and we have. We're
Speaker 3: kicking it off on Thursday night with a tribute to
Speaker 3: Joan Rivers. This is something her daughter Melissa put together
Speaker 3: and it's called Dead Funny and it's all star tribute
Speaker 3: to Joan and it benefits God's love. We deliver And
Speaker 3: there are plenty of comedians on there like Nicki, Glasier,
Speaker 3: Mattato Lane, Randy Rainbow, Michelle Batteaux, Rachel Branahan who played
Speaker 3: Marvelous Missus Mayzell, which is kind of a you know, look,
Speaker 3: there are two hit shows on TV today. They were
Speaker 3: The Marvelous Missus Mazell and Hacks and they both kind
Speaker 3: of centered around the life of Dry Wavers. Right, So
Speaker 3: here you go, ca.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is really good. Well, but it's also a combination.
Speaker 1: You've got a lot of musician Bruce Springsteen.
Speaker 3: We have Bruce, but Bruce is part of our big
Speaker 3: event because why stand up for Heroes love it. It's
Speaker 3: something that Bruce.
Speaker 1: I mean, I never questioned Bruce being anywhere, but.
Speaker 3: He's been on the show for it's our eighteenth year
Speaker 3: of doing Stand Up for Heroes. He's been on the
Speaker 3: show for seventeen years. He took one year off when
Speaker 3: he was doing his Broadway show, and he's been a
Speaker 3: constant there and he's very involved with that issue and
Speaker 3: raising these funds. And we have a stellar lineup this
Speaker 3: year and.
Speaker 1: It is It is the twentieth annual New York Comedy Festival,
Speaker 1: and the Stand Up for Here, like.
Speaker 3: Stand Up for Here is eighteen years, eighteen years, and
Speaker 3: it's you know, over this time, we've raised over one
Speaker 3: hundred million dollars the veteran causes. And I just went over.
Speaker 3: I'm on the board of the Woodard's Foundation. I just
Speaker 3: went over a number of grants. We get ten million
Speaker 3: dollars in grants. This year. When there was a hurricane
Speaker 3: in Tampa, we were there helping out the vents. So
Speaker 3: we're like action packed, vetted the best way you could
Speaker 3: possibly be. And this money is well spent with the veterans.
Speaker 1: I get to say, with veterans, I mean nothing funny
Speaker 1: about it that, you know, we have individuals in our
Speaker 1: country who go over and fight and fight for freedom
Speaker 1: and to protect other countries, to protect Americans and American assets,
Speaker 1: and come home and then it's like they're forgotten, and
Speaker 1: it's you know, I'm not going to get political, but
Speaker 1: it is great to see the efforts that you do
Speaker 1: and others to help them out.
Speaker 3: Thank you.
Speaker 2: You mentioned Bruce Springsteen, but Jim Gaffagan, Nora Jones, Questlove,
Speaker 2: Jerry Seinfeld, Jon Stewart, Mark Norman, Yeah, Mark NORMANTERI.
Speaker 3: Yeah, it's a great line up. It's gonna be What
Speaker 3: are you looking forward to?
Speaker 1: You said, you said, yeah.
Speaker 3: I go to you know, get to see Bill. You know,
Speaker 3: Bill started with me in my first club on eighth Avenue,
Speaker 3: so we've known each other for years. I always excited
Speaker 3: to see him, to hear what he has to say.
Speaker 3: I'm excited for.
Speaker 1: Like, did you know Bill was going to do well
Speaker 1: or did you think, like what do you like? What
Speaker 1: is it when you see somebody or you know this
Speaker 1: this person's gonna be Bill.
Speaker 3: Bill had great stand up he did forty years ago, yees,
Speaker 3: so he was he was great at that and stayed
Speaker 3: with it and then politically incorrect got him to where
Speaker 3: he is today. So you know, he just was there
Speaker 3: tenacity and stayed with it and and and did great.
Speaker 3: But we have a lot of people that have worked
Speaker 3: at the club for so many years, like Tracy Morgan, JB. Smooth,
Speaker 3: Miss pat Is at Town Hall. Also, Adam Ray is
Speaker 3: playing Doctor Phil at the Beacon Theater. Jibooki Young White
Speaker 3: is also at the hard Rock. The hard Rock is
Speaker 3: playing a big part in the festival. We have shows
Speaker 3: there practically every night at the Hardrock Hotel. It's great
Speaker 3: venues that that's there. We have a tribute to Gilbert
Speaker 3: Gottfried that's there, So it's it's kind of taken the
Speaker 3: place of the Caroline Space and we're doing all of
Speaker 3: those shows there at the hard Rock.
Speaker 2: We're gonna talk more about Carolines in just a minute,
Speaker 2: but I do want to get you to weigh in
Speaker 2: on the election stuff and just like the way that
Speaker 2: comedy has played in just over the last week. I mean,
Speaker 2: if you think about what happened at Madison Square Garden
Speaker 2: with Tony Hinchcliffe in the way that that comment from
Speaker 2: him just dominated the news cycle. Now there's some polling
Speaker 2: that actually indicates that it caused people potential Trump voters
Speaker 2: to move away from Trump. Did you think we'd be
Speaker 2: talking about like a comic who's known for roasts, no,
Speaker 2: in fact, to the president.
Speaker 3: You know what you call it is like a bad booking,
Speaker 3: you know, just like a bad booking and it shouldn't
Speaker 3: have happened. But then again, you hire Tony, you have
Speaker 3: to know what comes with Tony. It's like, you know,
Speaker 3: there's no filter, so you really can't You really can't
Speaker 3: filter a comedian like that, as you know from the
Speaker 3: Tom Brady roast. I mean, he was really out there,
Speaker 3: so you have to know, you know, so you know,
Speaker 3: the person that booked him on the show.
Speaker 2: Maybe not something you would suggest for a political closing.
Speaker 3: I would if I was in charge of that, but
Speaker 3: the comedians never, I would never put him up there.
Speaker 2: So what type of comedian would you put up?
Speaker 3: Well, you know we had we had we had Jim
Speaker 3: Gaffigan that was at the Al Smith dinner. Yeah, and
Speaker 3: that Yeah, I mean he made points but a little more,
Speaker 3: you know, and he's tasteful. You know, he's a conservative,
Speaker 3: but he made points a different way. So there's a
Speaker 3: way to do it. So you have to know, you know,
Speaker 3: you have to know how to book it. So Tony
Speaker 3: was not the right person to be there at that time.
Speaker 1: So can we assume that the festival, since it'll be
Speaker 1: after the election, that there'll be a lot of politically
Speaker 1: there all?
Speaker 3: Right?
Speaker 2: Close up on Caroline, are you kidding me with this question.
Speaker 3: I mean, well, what.
Speaker 2: Do you make of what I know?
Speaker 1: I know? All right, So I asked the obvious.
Speaker 3: I asked the I mean, I watched the late shows
Speaker 3: at night, and it's not a night that doesn't go by.
Speaker 3: Between Kimball and Colbert. It just doesn't stop. It's like
Speaker 3: I have to walk out of the room until the
Speaker 3: monologues over. It just it doesn't stop. So God knows
Speaker 3: what the next week is going to be.
Speaker 1: Well, and then you have what you're coming off a
Speaker 1: weekend where you know, SNL and Kamala Harris appears in
Speaker 1: a skit and I know political candidates have done that
Speaker 1: in the past, but you just think about how important
Speaker 1: it is in terms of like reaching different photos.
Speaker 3: Oh absolutely absolutely. I mean that's the way to reach
Speaker 3: young people.
Speaker 2: From a comedy. From a comedy perspective, though, Does SNL
Speaker 2: still carry the weight that it once did?
Speaker 3: I think we're all talking about it, so I guess
Speaker 3: it does. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Really, yeah, interesting, because I wasn't expecting you to say that.
Speaker 2: I was expecting you to say, Okay, well, you know,
Speaker 2: maybe podcast, YouTube and you know, these sort of things
Speaker 2: that get people TikTok, even it does. We talked about
Speaker 2: with you in the past.
Speaker 3: But they repurpose everything from SNL goes onto all of
Speaker 3: those sites the next day, so that's where they connect
Speaker 3: with young people. They really do. I mean, I think
Speaker 3: I just read that SNL did a big deal right
Speaker 3: now with TikTok. There's a lot of stuff from SNL
Speaker 3: on there, so it gets repurposed and then it gets
Speaker 3: seen and it gets everybody just talking about it, so
Speaker 3: that when the news knows that Kamala Harris goes onto that,
Speaker 3: we all talk about it the next day. So it's
Speaker 3: a it's a good booking for her.
Speaker 2: Well go ahead. I was gonna say, what about it
Speaker 2: being a springboard for young comedians in this day and age.
Speaker 2: I mean, he used to be on SNL and that's
Speaker 2: where so many legends got their start. Well, you know, Bill.
Speaker 3: Murr is coming up and hosting this weekend. Bill Burr
Speaker 3: started out of Carolines as an opening act, and we
Speaker 3: were the first people to ever headline him in New
Speaker 3: York City through the New York Comedy Festival, which is.
Speaker 1: Pretty didn't I I thought? I also read that Billy
Speaker 1: Crystal SNL passed on him and then he did you
Speaker 1: did care and that he liked and then ended up on.
Speaker 3: That was probably, I believe in nineteen eighty four eighty five,
Speaker 3: Dick Ebrisol came in Lord Michaels was not producing. Then
Speaker 3: Dick Eprisol came in and put him on, and then
Speaker 3: Billy just exploded again. Yeah, it's just kind of interesting.
Speaker 3: Carolines was like a good luck chure on for a
Speaker 3: lot of people.
Speaker 1: So so how do you think about bringing it back
Speaker 1: in some form?
Speaker 3: Well, I think we want to bring it back in
Speaker 3: a bigger way, more of a big event that might happen.
Speaker 1: Or something or than that.
Speaker 3: Yeah, she looks guilty.
Speaker 2: She looks like she's got something cooking. Said here a
Speaker 2: year ago. You sat here a year ago and said
Speaker 2: you'll have something for us next time you're here. It
Speaker 2: so that we're still working on it.
Speaker 3: It was still working on it.
Speaker 2: When you say bigger, you mean outside of New York too, maybe.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, like you know, Caroline's like as the
Speaker 3: brand taking bigger and just outside of the four Broadway walls,
Speaker 3: it'll be in other people's walls.
Speaker 2: One thing that we've we've talked about at Bloomberg Business
Speaker 2: Week is this idea that Joe Rogan is trying to
Speaker 2: make Austin happen as a center for comedy like it
Speaker 2: happened in LA and New York. Do you buy that?
Speaker 3: I think he's dot a good job of bringing a
Speaker 3: lot of comedians there. I don't know if it'll be
Speaker 3: the centerpiece of comedy, but he's bringing you know, the
Speaker 3: New York the New York comedians, and the LA comedians
Speaker 3: and the Dave Chappelle's to go in there. But you know,
Speaker 3: at New York is where it's at. New York is
Speaker 3: where it's at. New York is bigger than LA for comedy.
Speaker 1: So how do you think about comedy and like the
Speaker 1: evolution of it? I mean, I grew up with a dad.
Speaker 1: I'm trying to think the roasts with like Dean Martin
Speaker 1: and so like just and they still continue. But does
Speaker 1: it really change in terms of what makes people laugh?
Speaker 3: No, I think it's you know, it's it's what makes
Speaker 3: you laugh? Is is the common thread of the joke
Speaker 3: because it happened to you, it happened to me, ha
Speaker 3: ha ha Is that funny? Yeah? So that's really why
Speaker 3: we all love comedy because it brings us to gather
Speaker 3: and way to enjoy something. And that's really why it
Speaker 3: makes you feel good and it's a stress reliever. And
Speaker 3: you know we talk about loving to laugh. With comedy,
Speaker 3: you can take some of the bad news. It could
Speaker 3: be repurposed in another way.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so you're gonna be laughing on Wednesday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'll be laughing Wednesday.
Speaker 2: If it's a day that ends. And why we'll be laughing.
Speaker 3: She real.
Speaker 1: Indeed, good luck, good luck, good luck at the festival
Speaker 1: and we want to check it out. Twentieth Annual New
Speaker 1: York Comedy Festival this November, November ninth, right.
Speaker 3: Yea, oh no, no, no November. It starts on the
Speaker 3: eighth through the seventh through the eighteenth. Got it.