Barry Katz is an American television producer, film producer and talent manager. He was the owner and founder of the Boston Comedy Club in New York City and helped launch the careers of many successful comedians, including Bill Burr,

Dane Cook Dane Jeffrey Cook (born March 18, 1972) is an American stand-up comedian and film actor. He is known for his use of observational comedy, observational, often blue comedy, vulgar, and sometimes black comedy, dark comedy. He released six comedy ...

, Louis C.K., Kevin Brennan, Bert Kreischer,

Wanda Sykes Wanda Yvette Sykes (born March 7, 1964) is an American stand-up comedian, actress, and writer. She was first recognized for her work as a writer on ''The Chris Rock Show'', for which she won a Primetime Emmy Award in 1999. In 2004, ''Entertainme ...

Dave Chappelle David Khari Webber Chappelle ( ; born August 24, 1973) is an American stand-up comedy, stand-up comedian and actor. He starred in and co-created the satirical comedy sketch series ''Chappelle's Show'' (2003–2006) before quitting in the middle ...

Whitney Cummings Whitney Cummings (born September 4, 1982) is an American actress, stand-up comedian, writer, producer, director, and podcaster. After graduating from the University of Pennsylvania in 2004, Cummings moved to Los Angeles. She appeared in the lo ...

, as well as ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL'') is an American Late night television in the United States, late-night live television, live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC. The ...

'' alumni Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer,

Darrell Hammond Darrell Clayton Hammond (born October 8, 1955) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist, and announcer. He was a regular cast member on the NBC sketch comedy series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1995 to 2009, and has been its announcer sinc ...

and

Tracy Morgan Tracy Jamal Morgan (born November 10, 1968) is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He was a cast member on the NBC sketch comedy television series ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1996 to 2003, and played Tracy Jordan in the NBC sitcom ''30 Ro ...

. Katz was an executive producer of the

Emmy The Emmy Awards, or Emmys, are an extensive range of awards for artistic and technical merit for the television industry. A number of annual Emmy Award ceremonies are held throughout the year, each with their own set of rules and award catego ...

-nominated talent competition series ''

Last Comic Standing ''Last Comic Standing'' is an American reality television talent competition show on NBC that aired from June 1, 2003, to August 9, 2010, and again in 2014 and 2015. Each season a comedian from an initially large group of hopefuls was picked as ...

''. He also produced Mohr's

Grammy The Grammy Awards, stylized as GRAMMY, and often referred to as The Grammys, are awards presented by The Recording Academy of the United States to recognize outstanding achievements in music. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious a ...

-nominated comedy album, ''Happy. And A Lot''.

Career

Barry Katz started performing stand-up comedy in Boston in the 1980s, but left the stage to work as a booking agent for other comedians, eventually managing several performance venues throughout

New England New England is a region consisting of six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the ...

. Katz preferred the level of control that his new businesses provided, in contrast to the unpredictable paycheck of a stand-up performer. Following his wife's death at the age of 23, Katz decided to relocate to New York City. Katz opened a small office in the

Hard Rock Cafe Hard Rock Cafe, Inc. is a chain of theme restaurant, theme bar-restaurants, memorabilia shops, casinos, hotels and museums founded in 1971 by Isaac Tigrett and Peter Morton in London. In 1979, the cafe began covering its walls with rock and roll ...

building on Broadway and started a talent agency and Louis C.K. became his first client. Katz's friend,

Eddie Brill Eddie Brill is an American comedian, writer, and actor who started his career in Boston, Massachusetts. He was previously the warm-up comedian and comedy talent coordinator of ''Late Show with David Letterman''. Brill tours frequently, performi ...

was running a comedy club in

Greenwich Village Greenwich Village, or simply the Village, is a neighborhood on the west side of Lower Manhattan in New York City, bounded by 14th Street (Manhattan), 14th Street to the north, Broadway (Manhattan), Broadway to the east, Houston Street to the s ...

called Paper Moon, and had plans to move to Los Angeles. Brill agreed to hand over the club to Katz. Katz rebranded it as The Boston Comedy Club and the club ran from 1988 to 2005. Many of Katz's clients were still teenagers when they started with his agency, including

, Jay Mohr, Jim Breuer,

Jeff Ross Jeffrey Ross Lifschultz (born September 13, 1965) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, director and producer. Nicknamed the "Roastmaster General" for his insult comedy, his multiple appearances at celebrity Roast (comedy), roasts held by the ...

and

. Several of clients also became cast-members of ''

'', including Mohr, Breuer, Morgan and

. Katz sold his talent agency to New Wave Entertainment in 2003 and remained in the position of president of talent management until he left the company in 2011. Katz has produced several comedy albums, including all of

’s albums and Jay Mohr's album ''Happy. And A Lot'', which was nominated for the

Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album The Grammy Award for Best Comedy Album is presented by the The Recording Academy, National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences of the United States to "honor artistic achievement in comedy." The award was awarded yearly from 1959 to 1993 and t ...

at the 58th Annual Grammy Awards. He also acted as a film producer on Cook's films '' Employee of the Month'', '' Good Luck Chuck'' and '' My Best Friend's Girl'', as well as the TV documentary ''I Killed JFK'' that was released in 2017. Katz has served as an

executive producer Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the production of media. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights or royalties). In film ...

on several television shows, including the sitcom '' Whitney'' and the talent competition series '' The Next Best Thing'' and ''

'', the latter of which was nominated for an

in 2004. In 2012 he appeared on

Jerry Seinfeld Jerome Allen Seinfeld ( ; born April 29, 1954) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, writer, and producer. As a stand-up comedian, Seinfeld specializes in observational comedy. Seinfeld gained stardom playing a semi-fictionalized version ...

's web series ''

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'' in the episode featuring

Michael Richards Michael Anthony Richards (born July 24, 1949) is an American actor and former stand-up comedian. He achieved global recognition for starring as Cosmo Kramer on the NBC television sitcom ''Seinfeld'' from 1989 to 1998. He began his career as a ...

. The following year he launched his weekly podcast ''Industry Standard'' featuring interviews with influential people working in the entertainment industry. Guests have included

Norman Lear Norman Milton Lear (July 27, 1922December 5, 2023) was an American screenwriter and producer who produced, wrote, created, or developed over 100 shows. Lear created and produced numerous popular 1970s sitcoms, including ''All in the Family'' (1 ...

Garry Marshall Garry Kent Marshall (November 13, 1934 – July 19, 2016) was an American screenwriter, director, producer and actor. Marshall began his career in the 1960s as a writer for ''The Lucy Show'' and ''The Dick Van Dyke Show'' until he developed the T ...

Judd Apatow Judd Apatow (; born December 6, 1967) is an American director, producer, screenwriter, and comedian known for his work in comedy films. Apatow is the founder of Apatow Productions, through which he wrote, produced, and directed his films ''The 4 ...

and television executives Doug Herzog and

Warren Littlefield Warren W. Littlefield (born May 11, 1952) is an American television executive. Born in Montclair, New Jersey, Littlefield attended Montclair High School and graduated from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York, where he was awar ...

. In 2018 Katz recorded a live episode of his podcast at the Just For Laughs festival in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Katz, Barry Living people Film producers from New York City American record producers American talent agents American television producers Talent managers Year of birth missing (living people)