Upper West Side Comedy Club Sues Cuomo Over Reopening Rules

UPPER WEST SIDE, NY — An Upper West Side comedy club with the help of a man who calls himself the "Anti-Shutdown Lawyer," and the 2018 Libertarian Party candidate for NY Governor Larry Sharpe, recently filed a suit against Gov. Andrew Cuomo calling for the state to allow comedy joints to reopen in the same way restaurants and bars have.

Sharpe convinced Dani Zoldan, the owner of the Stand Up NYC comedy club on 236 West 78th Street, to sue Cuomo after he saw Zoldan's efforts to revitalize the comedy industry by holding outdoor pop-up shows during the pandemic, according to a news release from the club.

"When I heard that Stand Up NY, a wonderful venue that my campaign used often in 2018, felt victim to Governor Cuomo's stranglehold on small business, I knew that I had to help," said Larry Sharpe, in a news release.

Zoldan emphasized he simply wants the UWS comedy club that has been open for 35 years to have the same chance as other industries to reopen.

"It’s unfair that basically every other industry has received reopening guidelines except the arts. I believe that it’s reasonable to ask that performance spaces be allowed to abide by the same rules as other businesses,” said Zoldan, in the news release.

The lawyer leading the charge on the suit — James Mermigis — is not new to the fight for reopening.

Mermigis has earned his "Anti-Shutdown Lawyer" nickname by filing over half-a-dozen lawsuits against Cuomo and Mayor Bill De Blasio on behalf of businesses trying to reopen amid COVID-19 restrictions.

The trio is also asking for people to sign a supporting petition of the suit at LegalizeComedy.NYC.

The news website ILoveTheUpperWestSide was the first to report on the suit.