Today, we’re in the midst of a new comedy boon for improv comedians, like Tina Fey, Stephen Colbert, Stephen Carrell, Broad City, and Amy Poehler. But the biggest boon in stand up, where comics in blazers and belted, sometimes acid wash, jeans, stood against a brick walls with only a mic to defend themselves emerged in the 1980’s. Stand up clubs, such as Catch a Rising Star and the Improv, served up 2 drink minimums and rapid fire hokes from the likes of Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Paul Reiser, Jerry Seinfeld, Steven Wright, Roseanne, Sam Kinison, and Rosie O’Donnell.

In our interview, Rosie described how she didn’t realize she was supposed to write her own jokes. She quickly learned and started to appear on Star Search. Just a teenager, Rosie O’Donnell went onto establish herself as a stand up. She host her own day time talk show, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, which garnered multiple Emmys and proved that day time talk shows could be funny.

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