Caroline Hirsch
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Caroline Hirsch | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1952 (age 73–74) |
| Occupation | Comedy club owner |
Caroline Hirsch is the founder and was the owner of the New York comedy club Carolines on Broadway. She is also the founder and owner of the New York Comedy Festival.
Hirsch was born in 1952, and grew up in Flatbush, Brooklyn.[1] She says the first standup act she ever saw was when she snuck into a 1967 George Carlin gig at The Bitter End in Greenwich Village.[2] After living in Brooklyn, she later moved to Manhattan.[3] She attended City College and the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT). After school, she went to work at Gimbels until she became unemployed.[3]
Career
While Hirsch was collecting unemployment, [3] a few friends approached her about opening up a cabaret, an offer which she eventually accepted.[4] The club opened in 1982, but she realized that the cabaret theme was not working and decided to turn it into a comedy club instead, which brought in a younger clientele that was more profitable.[4] In the late '80s, the A&E network asked her to produce a comedy special, which became Caroline's Comedy Hour, produced by her production company, Pinky Ring Productions.[5] The show won a CableACE Award for Best Stand-Up Comedy Series.[5]
In November 2004, with Jarrod Moses,[6], Hirsch launched the New York Comedy Festival (NYCF), a weeklong event that features the industry's biggest stars performing in New York’s most prestigious venues, including Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, the Apollo Theater, Madison Square Garden, The Town Hall, and Carolines on Broadway.[2]