Carolines on Broadway Turns 40: How the Legendary Comedy Club Survived a Sleazy Times Square, Changing Tastes and COVID

At Carolines on Broadway, the legendary comedy club in Times Square, taking the main stage can be a death-­defying propo­sition — and not just because the audience, likely several drinks in by the time the head­liner grabs the mic, expects to laugh uproariously and often.

More than the crowd, it’s the very layout of the space that gets comedians’ pulses racing: There’s a curious gap between the dais and the wall, meaning one wrong step and…

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“The first thing they said to me,” says comedian Jo Koy, “was ‘If you back up, just remember, you’re going to fall.'”

And yet, many have risked­ taking the plunge, because it’s the venue that gave countless stand­up comics — Jerry Sein­feld, Rosie O’Donnell and Kevin Hart among them — their start.

“Everything’s weirdly but perfectly placed,” Koy says. “You’re not going to get that anywhere else in the world.”

The anything­-can-­happen ethos at Carolines, which cel­ebrates its 40th anniversary this year, is part of its charm. Of course, the club’s co-­founder, Caroline Hirsch, could have eventually renovated the stage, but that would destroy the point: Performing in the Big Apple has never been for the faint of heart.

“It’s the hardest place to do comedy,” Hirsch says. “You never know who is sitting in the audience; you have to bring your A­-game.”

If anyone knows the ins and outs of New York’s comedy scene, it’s Hirsch. A mainstay for decades, the 70-­year­-old is known for her ability to not only spot talent but nurture and ele­vate it. So Carolines is the prime venue for up-­and­-comers, as well as comedy lovers who want to ­see the next big thing before it becomes the next big thing.

Still, Hirsch was worried at one point that Carolines wouldn’t survive the pandemic. The tough times have forced her to make concessions, like keeping doors open five days a week instead of the usual seven. Even then, ticket sales have been 70% of what they once were.

“Tourism is still off. It’s a give and take,” says Hirsh. “Some weeks, we’re making a lot of money; some weeks, we’re not.”

But Hirsch knows that people need to get out of the house and laugh. That’s been true even during New York’s darkest days. “After 9/11,” she remembers, “Mario Cantone did a whole funny bit about the constant state of anx­iety. You have to be really good at getting the point across with­ out offending.”

Lately, the consequences of people taking offense have been on stark display. Take Will Smith slapping Chris Rock at the Oscars, or, just a few weeks later, Dave Chappelle getting tackled while performing at the Hollywood bowl. At her own venue, Hirsh says she’s not worried about copycats; she considered those to be rare instances rather than recurring trends.

“What happened to Chris Rock, that felt like a narcissistic person in Will Smith getting up to try to up-stage someone else,” she says. “The thing with Dave Chappelle was even more dangerous. I don’t know how he got through security. Thank god that’s never happened here… not even a twinge of it.”

Times Square may be com­paratively less populated these days on account of COVID, but its Disneyfied front is a far cry from the sex shops and peep shows that made up much of the area when Carolines moved uptown from Chelsea in 1992. “It was the sleaziest place in the world,” Hirsch recalls.

Today, Times Square may be unrecognizable, with towering billboards replacing the lit-up neon signs. But inside the basement at Carolines on Broadway, little has changed; not the large colorful booths or the harlequin-patterned logo. In fact, the only indication that anything has been updated in four decades is the framed photos of current comic stars like Leslie Jones and John Mulaney.

Hirsch takes pride, as evi­denced by her near­-encyclope­dic memory of everyone who has ever walked through her doors, in her knack for spotting rising talent.

“I sat in a room for so many years seeing what works. I know what works; I know what doesn’t work,” she says. “It’s like being a witch.”

Hirsch’s influence may not seem revolutionary today, but she got her start in a male­-dom­inated industry. It took years (and years) to get people comfortable with the idea that women can make people laugh.

“I could count them on one hand,” she says of the female comics around when she was just starting out. “Rita Rudner, Carol Leifer, Sandra Bernhard, Elayne Boosler, Joy Behar. Now we’re making up for it.”

Hirsch’s razor-­sharp instincts serve her well inside the club, where she’s booked podcasters and TikTokers on the nights without stand-­ups on the calen­dar, as well as outside the store, where she founded the New York Comedy Festival.

She’s also been building film credits, as a producer on 2018’s “Ask for Jane,” a true story about an underground abortion network; and the upcoming documen­tary “The Conspiracy,” which traces the history of anti­-Semi­tism.

All the while, she’s reviving “Caroline’s Comedy Hour,” the stand­up comedy showcase se­ries that ran on A&E in the late ’80s and early ’90s, and helped bring the club to prominence. So it may be obvious that retirement isn’t a word she cares to entertain. “Those kinds of things drive me,” Hirsh says.

Proving people wrong about strong women is half the fun, and Hirsch has been doing that her entire career.

“Who invests in a comedy club in Times Square?” Koy asks. “As a female, it’s even more gangster.”

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