Take my wife. No, seriously.
Could former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s next act be stand-up comedy?
Pvnew has learned that the politico was planning to do a set at Upper West Side comedy club Stand Up NY to help celebrate its reopening following COVID in April 2021, but backed out for unknown reasons.
Owner Dani Zoldan tells Pvnew that once de Blasio had signed on, he set the former mayor up with a professional. In the end, the pol couldn’t do the performance for reasons that aren’t clear.
But we hear the pol had a recent chat with Zoldan and said he is intrigued by the idea of yukking it up on stage and is considering giving it another shot.
Maddie Smith of MTV’s “Wild’n Out” wrote the 2021 comedy set de Blasio was supposed to give, seen by Pvnew.
The routine opened, “A lot of you know who I am, but for those who don’t, I’m not Bill de Blasio. In fact, if this goes terribly, I’m Andrew Cuomo.”
It added: “I’m actually really afraid to drop the mic in case it’s a groundhog.”
De Blasio dropped poor Charlotte, the late Staten Island groundhog, during a gruesome Groundhog Day ceremony in 2014. The marmot later died from internal injuries.
De Blasio has since said he regrets the incident.
“I’m like, ‘Don’t make me hold a f–king groundhog.’ I mean, what the hell?,” he told New York Magazine. “It was idiocy. Why would you want an elected official to hold a groundhog? I don’t know anything about holding groundhogs. So the whole thing is just insane. There’s an original sin here. Don’t hand someone a groundhog, right?”
He also asked, “Do you squeeze it really tight? I mean, what do you do?”
The de Blasio comedy club appearance that never happened also had several shout-outs to the New York Post.
“I’m really happy to be here — I actually just ate breakfast since, according to the New York Post, I woke up two hours ago,” was one joke written by Smith, who presumably expected the performance to happen in the evening.
“The New York Post hates me so much, you’d think I was Joe Biden,” was another (not especially inspired) crack.
It’s not the first time de Blasio has said he is interested in getting behind the mic.
During a press conference in 2021 announcing the return of the New York Comedy Festival, the former mayor said, “I just want to volunteer, I have an incredible new act where I just eat food live. … It’s kind of like modern art and comedy together.” (Presumably this was a reference to the notorious incident in which he ate pizza with a knife and fork.)
Zoldan says he’s asked de Blasio to finally get on stage and that he’s “taking the offer seriously.” The club owner has offered to once again set him up with a professional standup to put together a tight five.
We were unable to get in touch with the former mayor for comment.
