Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Masser and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. It's been a
Speaker 1: pretty heavy day, to say the least, certainly tracking all
Speaker 1: the news out of Afghanistan. So we thought maybe a
Speaker 1: little bit of a shift in our tone just to
Speaker 1: wrap up this Monday and our next guest we talked
Speaker 1: to roughly two years ago, and that was before her world,
Speaker 1: like ours, was rocked by the pandemic and shut down.
Speaker 1: We are so delighted to have back with us, Caroline Hers.
Speaker 1: She's founder and owner of the legendary Carolines on Broadway.
Speaker 1: On this day where she and her team announcing that
Speaker 1: the New York Comedy Festival it is back, and Caroline
Speaker 1: joins us on the phone in New York City, how
Speaker 1: are you. I'm good, good afternoon. Yes, we're back, and
Speaker 1: we're happy to be back after we took a break
Speaker 1: last year and coming back stronger than than ever. We
Speaker 1: announced some of our line up this morning, which was
Speaker 1: seventeen headliner shows, which then will be followed with over
Speaker 1: you know, two comedians performing in festival with a hundred
Speaker 1: shows which will be announced later on in September. That's
Speaker 1: a lot really happy. And it's gonna be happening in November, correct,
Speaker 1: a week long, November eighth through fourteenth, So it starts
Speaker 1: Monday night, November eight through Sunday night fourteen. And we're
Speaker 1: really happy and excited and to get back into business
Speaker 1: and to have some more laughs in New York City,
Speaker 1: Oh my god, bring it on. Hey, Caroline, let me
Speaker 1: ask you. Let me just take a step back, if
Speaker 1: I may, the past year for comedians, I mean, what
Speaker 1: has it been like? What have you heard from that
Speaker 1: community about what it's been like. We know that the
Speaker 1: higher profile comics are hosts, you know, who are on broadcast.
Speaker 1: They were able to pivot, but that's not always the
Speaker 1: case for every comedian. No, lots of the emerging talent
Speaker 1: that we deal with, you know, they weren't working, but
Speaker 1: a lot of them, um are now so happy. They
Speaker 1: are related. They're all over the place. I mean that
Speaker 1: we're working in the streets. They were work and wherever
Speaker 1: they could be heard. Um, they tried to get a
Speaker 1: job to do that. But now we're everybody's kind of
Speaker 1: back in business. Ups who are allowed to open beginning
Speaker 1: of April. So we're we've been Caroline has been open. Um,
Speaker 1: we've had you know, like Michael Chaseman there every Tuesday
Speaker 1: night at the club doing a residency, and you know,
Speaker 1: he was telling jokes about you know, during COVID. He said,
Speaker 1: I had all of this material tent up in me.
Speaker 1: He said, I get on the subway and I'd just
Speaker 1: be talking to people and you know, telling them jokes
Speaker 1: on the subway, which maybe probably appreciate it. We all
Speaker 1: could use a good laugh, that's no doubt about it. UM,
Speaker 1: tell us to you about remind us what's going on
Speaker 1: in clubs. We've been doing a lot of stories here
Speaker 1: at Bloomberg, certainly as restaurants have opened, as venues have
Speaker 1: opened that yes you can come in, but you've got
Speaker 1: to be vaccinated and people are checking. So that will
Speaker 1: go into effect. I believe in September that get goes.
Speaker 1: We're doing vaccinated shows, so we're we're protecting the public.
Speaker 1: We want to protect our staff, UM, and we are
Speaker 1: that we're starting now all vaccinated shows, and that's just
Speaker 1: we'll be Look. Look, the clubs and the small venues
Speaker 1: around the United States really suffered. They were shut down,
Speaker 1: they and mandated to close and this year during the festival,
Speaker 1: we really want to highlight a lot of the smaller
Speaker 1: clubs around the city. So we're going out of our
Speaker 1: way to make sure that everybody participates this year on
Speaker 1: the festival. So who's going to be there? Can you
Speaker 1: tell us about some of the headliners? Oh, some of
Speaker 1: the headlinists well, Kim Dylan, Michelle Wolf, Nor McDonald, Ronnie Chang,
Speaker 1: Mark Marin, Brian Reagan, Gary Goldman, Bill Morra will be back,
Speaker 1: Michelle Batteau, Andrew Santino's a new face for us. So
Speaker 1: we have lots and lots of great talent um appearing
Speaker 1: at you know, everywhere from Town Hall to the theater
Speaker 1: at Madison Square Garden. And we're also this year we're
Speaker 1: doing something with City Bank it City Presents Comedy Included,
Speaker 1: and we're doing this to bring attention to hear diverse
Speaker 1: voices in the industry, in the comedy industry. So we'll
Speaker 1: have a two day panels going on in Carolines all
Speaker 1: about what's going on in the business. Well, and I
Speaker 1: do think about We've had so many different conversations with
Speaker 1: leaders and heads of companies that it's hard not to
Speaker 1: you know, there's no going back to quote unquote normal. You.
Speaker 1: You know, we've been changed by the pandemic, We've been
Speaker 1: changed by George Floyd, We've been changed by so much. Um,
Speaker 1: comedy always feels that interesting spot that for a while
Speaker 1: we can't talk about things, and then we can. I
Speaker 1: think about after nine eleven, right, it was really quiet
Speaker 1: and then we needed humor to come back to help
Speaker 1: us all find our way back. So how has the
Speaker 1: past year and a half on so many different levels,
Speaker 1: I mean and tough things like COVID, like George Floyd,
Speaker 1: like inequities, like diversity inclusions, so many different issues. How
Speaker 1: has that been incorporated into the festival that's coming up
Speaker 1: in November. Well, we like, like I I said to you,
Speaker 1: we're doing this two day event with City Presents Comedy Included,
Speaker 1: and we'll have panel discussions, special performances. We'll hear from
Speaker 1: industry leaders about you know, bringing attention to to hearing
Speaker 1: everybody's voice in comedy, which you know, comedy is really
Speaker 1: pretty diverse, I have to say that, and Carolines has
Speaker 1: always been on top out of that, whether it be female,
Speaker 1: whether it be you know, um, gay comedy, whatever it was,
Speaker 1: it was urban comedy with women. I tried to I
Speaker 1: really tried to highlight all this early early on. So
Speaker 1: we're going to do our best to even make it better.
Speaker 1: Will you do a great job? And we always, you know,
Speaker 1: whenever you're coming on with us, we talked about you're
Speaker 1: very successful, have done so well in a in a
Speaker 1: world that is very much dominated by men. How do
Speaker 1: you do it? And what is the what are some
Speaker 1: of the interactions that you've had with you say that?
Speaker 1: What is it like? Um? You know, for years, I
Speaker 1: just kind of just said, that's just the way it is.
Speaker 1: But I look back now and I have to say,
Speaker 1: you know, I think if I had stood up a
Speaker 1: little more way back, you know, twenty years ago, I think,
Speaker 1: you know, things would have been a changed a little bit.
Speaker 1: I mean things that I just took for granted, like
Speaker 1: being a woman. Oh that's all right. You know, it
Speaker 1: was really kind of a man's world. It really was.
Speaker 1: The whole you know, entertainment business was was kind of
Speaker 1: like that. But I'm lucky now that things are changing,
Speaker 1: and I'm happy for young women that are now on
Speaker 1: the field. There are so many more female comedians around
Speaker 1: right now. I mean, they've really taken it by storm, Well,
Speaker 1: how do you manage kind of all the egos and
Speaker 1: then you know, at the same time cultivating younger talent
Speaker 1: where it can be probably tough to kind of find
Speaker 1: your place. Um, we try hard. We try to see
Speaker 1: a lot of people, you know, we do we do
Speaker 1: something in the festival. We do a lot of different
Speaker 1: kinds of shows and the festivals so we're able to
Speaker 1: see talent and present new talent. Um. I mean, we
Speaker 1: really do go out of a way to see people.
Speaker 1: We have a new Talent Night at Carolines. UM. But
Speaker 1: the year has been um challenging. Yeah, it's been stressful.
Speaker 1: I just feel like I'm hedging all the time, you
Speaker 1: know what I mean. Okay, you take two two feet
Speaker 1: forward and then three backward. I totally feel that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think we all keep saying we just want to
Speaker 1: feel lighter. You know, it's it's really you know, it's
Speaker 1: really taking its toll and now with you know, talking
Speaker 1: about you know, everybody being vaccinated and worrying about a
Speaker 1: new variant coming through. So it's been a challenge. Well,
Speaker 1: we're we're going to be there, the festival's going on,
Speaker 1: and everybody will come out and everybody protected everybody needs
Speaker 1: to get vaccinated so they can all go out and
Speaker 1: see all the great shows. Everybody needs a good laugh.
Speaker 1: The New York Comedy Festival a week long event November
Speaker 1: eight to November fourteenth. Caroline, Thank you. Caroline Hurst, founder
Speaker 1: and owner of Caroline's on Broadway, joining us on the
Speaker 1: phone in New York City.