The Comedy Cellar is a comedy club

Comedy club

A comedy club is a venue, typically a nightclub, bar, or restaurant where people watch or listen to performances, including stand-up comedians, improvisational comedians, impersonators, magicians, ventriloquists and other comedy acts...

 in Manhattan

Manhattan

Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...

, where many top New York comedians perform. It was founded in 1982 by then standup comedian, and current television writer/producer Bill Grundfest

Bill Grundfest

Bill Grundfest is a US television writer and producer. He has won a Golden Globe Award, and has been nominated for an Emmy Award three times.-Writer and Producer:His work as a writer and producer includes:...

. It is located in the heart of Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village

Greenwich Village, , , , .in New York often simply called "the Village", is a largely residential neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City. A large majority of the district is home to upper middle class families...

 on 117 Macdougal Street

MacDougal Street

MacDougal Street is a one way street in Greenwich Village in the New York City borough of Manhattan. The approximate six-block street is bound by Prince Street and West 8th Street. It has been the subject of many songs, poems, and other forms of artistic expression. MacDougal Street has been...

 between West 3rd Street and Minetta Lane.

The Comedy Cellar, like The Comedy Store

The Comedy Store

The Comedy Store is a comedy club located in West Hollywood, California, at 8433 Sunset Boulevard on the Sunset Strip. It has a sister comedy club in La Jolla, San Diego, California.-History:...

, uses a showcase format, as opposed to a headline format like most clubs. A show will consist of between five and seven comics performing sets of roughly 20 minutes each.

Regular performers there include Colin Quinn

Colin Quinn

Colin Edward Quinn is an American stand-up comedian and writer best known for his five years in the cast of Saturday Night Live, as the sidekick/announcer of MTV's late 1980s gameshow Remote Control and as host of Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn on Comedy Central from 2002–2004.-Early years:Quinn was...

, Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony

Opie and Anthony are the hosts of The Opie & Anthony Show, a talk radio program airing in the United States and Canada on XM Satellite Radio and Sirius Satellite Radio. Since the merger of the two satellite companies, this is now called Sirius/XM...

 co-host Jim Norton

Jim Norton (comedian)

James Joseph "Jim" Norton, Jr. is an American stand-up comedian, radio personality, author, and actor. He is an on-air personality, often dubbed the 'third mic' on The Opie and Anthony Show, which airs on Sirius XM Radio...

, Mitch Fatel

Mitch Fatel

Mitch Fatel is a stand-up comedian in New York. He was raised in Yonkers, New York and began doing stand-up at the age of 15. In 1988 Fatel attended NYU/Tisch School of the Arts and majored in Film and Acting Studies. Around this time Mitch was an intern on the Howard Stern show...

, SNL

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live is a live American late-night television sketch comedy and variety show developed by Lorne Michaels and Dick Ebersol. The show premiered on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title of NBC's Saturday Night.The show's sketches often parody contemporary American culture...

 star Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond

Darrell Hammond is an American actor, stand-up comedian and impressionist. He was a regular on Saturday Night Live from 1995 until 2009, the longest tenure of any cast member. Upon his departure, Hammond, at age 53, was the oldest cast member in the show's history...

, Dave Attell

Dave Attell

Dave Attell is an American stand-up comedian and the host of Comedy Central's Insomniac with Dave Attell and The Gong Show with Dave Attell.-Stand-up beginning:...

, Louis C.K.

Louis C.K.

Louis Szekely , known professionally as Louis C.K., is a stand-up comedian, television and film writer, actor, producer, and director...

, Nick DiPaolo

Nick DiPaolo

Nicholas Rocco "Nick" DiPaolo is an American stand-up comedian, writer, actor and radio host formerly on 92.3 Free FM in New York City until May 24, 2007, when the station changed formats. He is also a frequent guest on the Opie and Anthony and Howard Stern radio shows...

, Rich Vos

Rich Vos

Richard Ira "Rich" Vos is an American comedian. Originally from Plainfield, New Jersey, Vos has been a working stand-up for decades. Colin Quinn described Vos in his early days as a "Jersey Hack"....

, and radio host Marc Maron

Marc Maron

Marc Maron is an American stand-up comedian and podcast host.He has been host of The Marc Maron Show, and co-host of both Morning Sedition, and Breakroom Live, all politically-oriented shows, produced under the auspices of Air America Media. He was also the host of Comedy Central's Short Attention...

. Also, some rising stars in comedy frequently perform, including Dov Davidoff

Dov Davidoff

Dov Davidoff is an American comedian. Dov Davidoff is originally from Englishtown, NJ. In addition to performing regularly in clubs and colleges throughout the country, Davidoff has been seen as an actor in the hit movie Invincible with Mark Wahlberg, and on any number of TV shows, most notably...

, Robert Kelly

Robert Kelly (comedian)

Robert Kelly is an Irish-American stand-up comedian from Boston, Massachusetts. He frequently performs at the Comedy Cellar...

, Sherrod Small

Sherrod Small

-Early life:Small was born and raised in the Bedford-Stuyvesant section of Brooklyn, New York by his mother and two sisters. He is the cousin of comedians Chris Rock and Tony Rock.-Career:...

, Keith Robinson, Gregg Rogell

Gregg Rogell

Gregg Rogell is a professional comedian who resides in New York City. He has appeared on The Tonight Show, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, and The Nanny. He has had his own half hour special on Comedy Central, and was a featured performer in the movie The Aristocrats...

, and Ben Bailey

Ben Bailey

Benjamin Ray "Ben" Bailey is an American comedian, licensed taxi cab driver, and game show host and executive producer for Discovery Channel's Cash Cab in New York City.-Early life:...

.

Each week consists of two shows a night on Sunday through Thursday, three shows each Friday, and four shows on Saturday. The Cellar is located under and connected to the Olive Tree Cafe, where many of the comedians hang out after performing.

The New York Post

New York Post

The New York Post is the 13th-oldest newspaper published in the United States and is generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continuously as a daily, although – as is the case with most other papers – its publication has been periodically interrupted by labor actions...

regularly rates the Cellar as the best comedy club in New York. Musician John Mayer

John Mayer

John Clayton Mayer is an American pop rock and blues rock musician, singer-songwriter, recording artist, and music producer. Born in Bridgeport, Connecticut and raised in Fairfield, Connecticut, he attended Berklee College of Music in Boston. He moved to Atlanta in 1997, where he refined his...

 can also be seen dabbling in stand-up here occasionally.

Much of Jerry Seinfeld's 2002 documentary Comedian

Comedian (film)

Comedian is a 2002 documentary focusing on Jerry Seinfeld that explores the other side of stand-up comedy; that is, the preparation, politics, nerves, creativity, and so on. The film also features an up-and-coming comic named Orny Adams as he struggles to make it in show business...

was filmed at the club, and it also can be seen in a 2006 Pepsi

Pepsi

Pepsi is a carbonated soft drink that is produced and manufactured by PepsiCo...

 commercial starring SNL star Jimmy Fallon

Jimmy Fallon

James Thomas "Jimmy" Fallon, Jr. is an American actor, comedian, singer, musician and television host. He currently hosts Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, a late-night talk show that airs Monday through Friday on NBC...

.

The beginning sequence of Louis CK's television show on FX Network, Louie, shows Louis CK walking into the Comedy Cellar.

External links

• ComedyCellar.com