Welcome to Richie Gold

Richie’s career in comedy began in 1976, performing in the NYC  nightclubs of Greenwich Village and the upper Manhattan. His entrée’ into this world of show business happened just about the time of the new wave, “young comedians”, and the birth of the “comedy club” phenomenon. 

Growing up in Richie’s environment, laughter was an ever present ingredient. The idea of becoming a comedian occurred to Richie while still a teenager, where Richie, “the class clown”, began to figured out that an easy way to make people laugh, was when you make fun of yourself, or others, or, act like your slightly whacked!

Richie also realized early on, especially during his public school years, that girls really liked guy’s who were off-beat and funny. The ladies favorable response to Richie’s outrageous personality and sense of humor, proved to be the catalyst and stimulus that energized young Richie to continue in developing his emerging talents as a stand-up comedian.

As a teenager, this magnetic idea that a career in show business could provide him the with the opportunity to make a good living by performing for audiences in nightclubs and TV, with the added luxury of sleeping late everyday, was too great of a premise to let go by. But that all had to wait. Further formal education was in order.

College entered the picture, where Richie took courses in stage production, creative writing and sociology. Richie reflects, on his “Animal House” period,  “I had so much fun in college. My freshman year, best four years of my life"!

Upon graduation, with his college degree in hand, and not many interesting  job prospects presenting themselves at that time, Richie thought,  “Hey, if I’m going to struggle to make a living, why not struggle in a profession I enjoy doing, something that comes natural to me. Suddenly,  an epiphany happened (again): Comedy: making money, making people laugh. What a concept!

 Reveling in the excitement of living his dream, being a professional comedian, Richie was befriended by the revered masters of comedy, Rodney Dangerfield and Jackie Mason, who acted as comedy gurus. (In fact, (December, 2017) Richie was given the opportunity for a reunion to work with comedy icon Jackie Mason at B.B. King's nightclub, N.Y.C.).

With a laser-like focus on continually developing his comedic talents, and love of comedy, the 1980‘s proved exceptionally rewarding  for Richie. At this juncture in his career, Richie was afforded the opportunity to be the house comedian for Dangerfield’s. During his tenure there Richie had the opportunity to work with some of the comedy greats of show business including Rodney, Redd Foxx, and  Jackie Mason. This was a decade where Richie earned national exposure on many TV shows along with personal appearances, including opening for Frankie Valli & The Four Seasons, Suzanne Somers, and Ray Charles. Richie’s many TV credits include performances on CBS, ABC, NBC and HBO.

During the time of the stand-up comedy explosion, Richie began moving up to the, “A” list of comedians coming out of the NY/LA comedy club circuit. And without missing a beat, Richie kept his grand focus on polishing and performing his material for the television audience. Performing at clubs across the country, from NY to LA, played a major part in helping Richie develop his material for a wide demographic range of mainstream America.

Making a move to Hollywood, was a ritual followed by every performer with aspirations of getting a "break" in the TV and film industry. Richie followed that path, with hopes of realizing his dreams.

"When I moved to Hollywood, the first agent I met said to me, "So Richie, tell me something about yourself.  I said,  " well I'm from New York, I'm married with children, I have no tattoos  and don't do drugs". He said, "Hey, you've got everything working against you. To make it in Hollywood you gotta' be a far left, schizophrenic anarchist,  multi-times divorced, substance abusing, space alien".

Richie gives credit for his big break, to Rodney Dangerfield and Dangerfield's comedy club co-owner, Tony Bevaqua, when they asked Richie to perform on Rodney's first HBO Special. What a gift!  Receiving excellent reviews for his performance, Richie continued making TV appearances and live performances, which  all contributed to his garnering many accolades, with an embrace from the entertainment industry for his likability and sense of humor.

(Clicking on the Videos tab on top of this page, will provide a link to videos containing some of Richie’s TV, radio and nightclub performances, or go to, YouTube: Richie Gold Comedy

email: comedy@richiegold.com