Rick Newman Dies: Founder Of Influential Catch A Rising Star Comedy Club Was 81
deadline.comRick Newman, the founder of New York City’s hugely influential Catch a Rising Star comedy club that provided a training ground for the stand-up comics who would change the landscape of entertainment in the 1970s, died Feb.
20 at his home in Los Angeles. He was 81. His wife Krysi Newman told The Washington Post that he died of pancreatic cancer. Among the comics who began or developed their careers on the Rising Star’s Upper East Side stage are Jerry Seineld, Billy Crystal, Robin Williams, Richard Lewis, Andy Kaufman, Freddie Prinze, Robert Klein, Chris Rock, Eddie Murphy, Adam Sandler.
Larry David, Elayne Boosler, Rodney Dangerfield, Jay Leno, Joy Behar and Ray Romano. One of the performers most associated with Catch a Rising Star was Richard Belzer, the longtime host of the club who died Feb.
19, just a day before Newman. Newman, tweeted Billy Crystal, “gave me and so many our starts as stand ups.” Crystal wrote that Newman’s death was “devastating” coming so soon after Belzer’s. “2 pillars of my career gone.” “You made Catch A Rising Star such a great hang while a generation of comedians were learning their craft,” Richard Lewis tweeted. “You were beloved.” Newman opened the club in 1972, signaling the venue’s mission in its name: Catch a Rising Star would welcome the comedy newcomers that might have a tougher time getting booked at the more established Improv club across town.
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