Comic Strip Live May Stay Open On UES Thanks To New Lease

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — Call it an open-mic miracle: Comic Strip Live has reopened its doors on the Upper East Side and hopes to sign a new lease for its Second Avenue digs, stamping out speculation that the famed comedy club had closed for good.

Closed for a full year due to the pandemic, the venerated venue was put up for lease by a realty company this winter. Its listing boasted that the club, between East 81st and 82nd streets, was available for the first time in 45 years.

In fact, when Patch reported on the listing last week, Comic Strip's management was hurriedly preparing to reopen on April 2 — the day entertainment venues will be allowed to welcome back customers under new state guidelines, general manager Tommy Latsch told Patch this week.

Reopening may allow Comic Strip to sign a new lease that would let them stay open for another decade, Latsch said Tuesday, standing inside the empty club that would soon ring out with its first laughs since 2020.

"The lease should be ready any day now," Latsch said, adding that the club had agreed to terms last Friday with landlord Eberhart Brothers.

Since last March, Eberhart had allowed Comic Strip to stay shuttered without paying rent. As the months passed, however, that became unsustainable, and the company had no choice but to put the space up for lease.

"We hadn’t received rent payments for about a year," Oren Goldstein, chief operating officer of Eberhart Brothers, told Patch on Thursday. "So at some point, you’ve got to hedge your options."

Eberhart promised to keep the listing "on the down-low" and avoid advertising it, in hopes that Comic Strip would be able to stay, Latsch said.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo's announcement on March 3 that live performances could resume in April was a game-changer — although the 33 percent capacity limit will limit the 200-person venue to only about 44 customers.

"You can’t make a living off of that," Latsch said. "Until they raise it up, it is what it is."

Comic Strip Live opened its doors in 1976, and has helped launch the careers of Eddie Murphy, Jerry Seinfeld and Adam Sandler, among others. Seinfeld returned to the club in 2017 to film a Netflix comedy special.

Now owned by Jean Tienken — whose husband, Richie, co-founded the club and died in February — it has been a mainstay in the city's stand-up scene for nearly a half-century.

Tickets are now on sale for the club's first week of shows, which will begin at 7 p.m. Friday with comedians Chuck Nice, Alli Breen and others. There will be temperature checks at the door, face masks required, and seats will be moved away from the stage to protect both fans and performers.

"I think the comics are just as nervous as the customers," Latsch said.

Comic Strip's new lease would allow the club to begin paying rent at a low figure, increasing the amount as capacity limits are relaxed, Latsch said.

Goldstein, of Eberhart Brothers, cautioned that the lease had not been finalized, but said Comic Strip's reopening made it much likelier that it would stay.

"It’s always easier when the tenants are paying rent," he said.

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