New York Comedy Festival Will Feature 200 Comedians This Year

Prepare yourself for a lot of amazing laughs in New York City.

Carolines on Broadway is a comedy club and New York institution that first opened its doors 40 years ago.

Its namesake is founder and owner Caroline Hirsch, who runs the annual New York Comedy Festival.

The comedy festival will return Monday November 7th-Sunday November 13th.

During a recent interview with New York’s News All Day, Hirsch share details on what we can expect at this year’s event, as there will be over 150 shows with more than 200 comics, that will be performing in venues around the city from Nov. 7-13.

Video: Caroline Hirsch Interview w/ News All Day

Hirsch says she first opened her club with friends after her job in retail disappeared when the department store closed.

She says one of the biggest changes she’s seen in the industry is the number of women that are now in comedy.

The New York Comedy Festival started 18 years ago and continues to book incredible talent like Wanda Sykes, Bill Maher, Conan O’Brien, Jo Koy, and more.

Hirsch says to keep an eye out for up-and-coming talent like Jordan Jensen and Alex English.

Caroline’s On Broadway: Located in the heart of Times Square, Carolines on Broadway presents the very best live comedy entertainment seven nights a week. Just steps from many of Broadway’s most well-known theaters, Carolines on Broadway provides the same quality entertainment that is customary on New York’s legendary Great White Way.

Carolines first opened as a small cabaret club in the New York’s Chelsea neighborhood in 1982. Owner Caroline Hirsch, a lifelong comedy fan, soon began booking comedians in her room. The comedy acts – which included now legendary performers like Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Billy Crystal, Rosie O’Donnell and Jay Leno – were a tremendous success, and it wasn’t long before Carolines became a full-fledged comedy club. As the popularity of stand-up surged throughout the 1980s, so did the popularity of Carolines, which was becoming THE place to see live comedy in New York City.

The great demand for comedy brought standing-room-only crowds to Carolines, which moved to a larger space at New York’s historic South Street Seaport to accommodate the ever-growing audiences. There, business continued to thrive, and the club quickly established itself as the city’s top comedy venue. It also became home to the A&E Network’s highly successful series, “Caroline’s Comedy Hour,” which would eventually garner the prestigious Cable ACE Award for “Best Comedy Series.” In 1992, Hirsch once again relocated her club, this time to its grand setting on Broadway in Times Square, where the club continues to present the country’s biggest and best comedians in a sophisticated, state-of-the-art nightclub, bringing the live comedy experience to new heights.

Today, Carolines on Broadway continues to hold center stage in Times Square as one of New York City’s most popular and enduring hotspots and as the city’s only genuine nightclub. The club is a New York institution and was one of the cornerstones in the revitalization of the vibrant and bustling Times Square district. The 300-seat venue, designed by Paul and Barbara Haigh of HAIGHArchitects received critical acclaim when it received the  American Institute of Architects : National Honor Award for Interiors and a United States Institute of Theatre Technology : Merit Award for Best Club Design, it also featured on the cover of Interior Design Magazine.

In addition to presenting such top headlining comedians, the club also features emerging talent, live podcasts, and improve and sketch comedy, as well as playing host to countless large-scale fund-raising events and high profile benefits. Hirsch, a long-time Ms. Foundation board member, created an annual fundraiser for The Foundation that has continued to grow each year. Now in its fourteenth year, “The Ms. Foundation’s Women of Comedy” special recently aired on the Lifetime Television Network to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Ms. Foundation. Additionally, Carolines hosts a highly successful annual fundraiser for the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, which honors the late Madeline Kahn. In 2003, the club celebrated 20 years of laughter with a gala comedy event at Carnegie Hall that featured performances by long-time club favorites Joy Behar, Richard Belzer, Lewis Black, David Alan Grier, Gilbert Gottfried, and Colin Quinn.

Carolines on Broadway also produces the highly successful New York Comedy Festival, a weeklong comedy festival that presents comedy’s biggest stars in New York’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Town Hall, the Beacon Theatre, Madison Square Garden, and the Hulu Theater at Madison Square Garden, to name a few. The Festival has featured such stars as Bill Burr, Dane Cook, Kathy Griffin, Kevin Hart, Denis Leary, Bill Maher, Ricky Gervais, Howie Mandel, Sarah Silverman, and Robin Williams, over the past fifteen years. In 2007, The Festival launched Stand-Up for Heroes, a very special benefit for The Bob Woodruff Foundation that has featured appearances by John Oliver, Robin Williams, Conan O’Brien, Jon Stewart, Jerry Seinfeld, Tony Bennett and Bruce Springsteen. The eighteenth annual New York Comedy Festival will take place in November 2022.

Forty years after it first opened as a small cabaret club in Chelsea, Carolines on Broadway has grown into the one of the country’s top comedy brands and leading destinations for live entertainment for New Yorkers and countless visitors from across the country and the world, affirming its position as “The First Name in Comedy.”

2022 New York Comedy Festival Shows/Events: HERE

New York Comedy Festival: The New York Comedy Festival takes place at venues including the Beacon Theatre, BMCC Tribeca Performing Arts Center, Carolines on Broadway, Hulu Theater at MSG, Madison Square Garden and Town Hall throughout the five boroughs of New York City and at the UBS Arena at Belmont Park in Elmont, New York.

For tickets, go to NYComedyFesitval.com.