Venue: Comedy Cellar
Town: Manhattan, US

The Comedy Cellar is a comedy club in Manhattan where stand-up comics perform; it is sometimes referred to as the "Harvard of comedy clubs". It was founded in 1981 by then-stand-up comedian, and current television writer and producer Bill Grundfest. It is located in Greenwich Village on 117 MacDougal Street between West Third Street and Minetta Lane. The club is owned by Noam Dworman, who inherited it from his late father, Manny, in 2003. It is being booked by Estee Adoram, who has developed the club's talent for nearly four decades. Above the club is a restaurant called The Olive Tree Cafe to which it is connected, where many of the comedians hang out after performing. The businesses share the same menu, kitchen, and staff as the Olive Tree Cafe. The Comedy Cellar, like The Comedy Store, uses a showcase format, as opposed to a headline format like most clubs. A show will consist of between five and seven comics performing sets of roughly ten to fifteen minutes each. Each week consists of three to six shows a night on Sunday through Thursday and ten shows each Friday and Saturday, between both the original room and the larger Village Underground around the corner. Notable comedians who started with stage time at the Comedy Cellar include Louis C.K., Dave Chappelle, Amy Schumer, Ali Wong, Dave Attell, Andrew Schulz, Todd Barry, Judah Friedlander, Colin Quinn, Kevin Hart, Jim Norton, Jeff Ross, Jon Stewart, Ray Romano, Darrell Hammond, Michael Mittermeier, Rich Vos, Nick Di Paolo, Artie Lange, Greer Barnes, and Marc Maron. Popular established comedians frequently perform at the Comedy Cellar, including Dov Davidoff, Mark Normand, Ryan Hamilton, Robert Kelly, Harrison Greenbaum, Sherrod Small, Keith Robinson, Eric Neumann, Gregg Rogell, Nikki Glaser, Ben Bailey and Andrew Schulz. Celebrity comedians Aziz Ansari and Jon Stewart started their comedy careers at the Comedy Cellar, and both continue to perform there occasionally. Other celebrity comics who have performed at