Ep 3 – Hollywood Manager Barry Katz

Barry Katz has one goal in life: to make dreams come true, and he’s been doing it for decades. Featured in Jerry Seinfeld’s documentary ‘Comedian’, Barry has been instrumental in the stand up comedy careers of people like Dane Cook, Whitney Cummings, Louie CK, Dave Chapelle and more. You may already be familiar with his podcast ‘Industry Standard’, in which case you’ll already know that he has one of the most distinct voices in the business and is possibly the most impersonated person in Hollywood who’s not an actor. This recording took place at Barry’s offices in Century City and he opens up about his own experiences in stand-up, the infamous $50 million deal that Dave Chapelle walked away from, and how what you DON’T think about can help you succeed.

You can listen to this episode of The Gray Escape with Natalie Gray below, download it from the link beneath the player, or listen and Subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.

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Below, Barry Katz and Natalie taping the podcast in Barry’s Century City office. The spectac view from Barry’s office, and memorabilia including an original cue card from The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson and a signed album from Bob Newhart.

Courtesy of BarryKatz.com:

A graduate of Boston University with a degree specializing in working with the disabled, Barry Katz originally started his career with aspirations of being a stand-up comedian in Beantown, and it was there that he performed with such established artists as Denis Leary, Bob Goldthwait, and Steven Wright; while also managing various comedy clubs in New England for over a decade.

In the late 80’s and early 90′s, he decided to quit performing and move to New York City, opening up the Boston Comedy Club in the heart of Greenwich Village. Simultaneously, he started his own management company and immediately landed 4 clients on “Saturday Night Live”. This gave him the confidence to expand his operation to Los Angeles where he soon after signed a 4-year overall executive producer deal with Disney to develop tv shows.

After 15 successful years at the helm of his own company, in 2003 Barry Katz merged his business with New Wave Entertainment and over the next 8 years, helped build it into a respected full service talent management, digital distribution, and TV/film production company with over 25 managers, producers, and development execs. IN 2011, Katz left NWE to go back to running his own company again, this time under the banner of Barry Katz Entertainment.

Katz is universally known for helping launch the careers of some of the most extraordinary comedy artists in the business—including Dave Chappelle, Anthony Clark, Nick Swardson, Tracy Morgan, Bill Burr, Darrell Hammond, Whitney Cummings, Jay Mohr, Dane Cook, and Louie CK.  Additionally, he has brokered an unprecedented 100 TV development deals during his career while creating 3 television shows of his own (ABC’s “The Next Best Thing,” NESN’S “Comedy All-Stars,” AND FOX ‘S sketch pilot “Naked But Funny”).

Overall, Barry Katz has executive produced over 50 different TV stand-up specials, documentaries, reality & scripted series including NBC’S “Whitney,” Fox’s “Action,” HBO’s “Tourgasm,” History Channel’s “Houdini: Unlocking the Mystery,” Comedy Central’s “Christopher Titus: Neverlution,” TBS’s “Frank TV,” Showtime’s “Nick Cannon: Mr. Showbiz,” the syndicated Bill Bellamy/Tim Meadows/Jon Lovitz/Vivica Fox sitcom “Mr. Box Office,” and 7 seasons of the Emmy nominated NBC series “Last Comic Standing.”

Barry started his involvement in the film business when he helped Chappelle and Neal Brennan (who eventually went on to create “Chappelle Show”) sell “Half Baked” to Universal Studios in 1997 and went on to produce several films including “Employee of the Month” (Starring Jessica Simpson), “Good Luck Chuck” (starring Jessica Alba), and “My Best Friend’s Girl” (Starring Kate Hudson). He has also produced multiple comedy albums, including all of Cook’s library which have gone gold, platinum, and double platinum, while becoming the only artist to debut a comedy album in the top 5 of Billboards national charts–twice.

Most recently, Barry Katz’ newest venture, Industry Standard, premiering # 3 in the world on ITunes, is a one-of-a-kind weekly inspirational podcast that features an insiders look at Hollywood from a totally different perspective, featuring behind-the-scenes A-list players who candidly reveal the risky decisions they made that led to the most groundbreaking internet, television, radio, music, and film content in the world. Barry’s guests have included Doug Herzog (President of Comedy Central, TV Land, and Spike), Eric Tannenbaum (former President of Columbia-Tri-Star TV and executive producer of “Two and a Half Men”), Ted Harbert (Chairman of NBC), DICK GLOVER and Mike Farah (ceo & President of Production for Funny or Die), Steve Koonin (President of TNT and TBS), Kevin Reilly (President of Fox Broadcasting Company), Chris Albrecht (former CEO of HBO and current CEO of Starz), & reggie hudlin (former president of bet and producer of “django unchained”), and Dr Phil (# 1 daytime talk show host in syndication).

To learn more about Barry Katz visit BarryKatz.com.