Adrianne Tolsch

Adrianne Tolsch (October 31, 1938 – December 7, 2016) was an American comedian. She was long associated with the Catch a Rising Star comedy club in New York City, as a performer, club manager and the club's first woman emcee. She also performed on Broadway and in cabaret shows and was a graphic artist. She was married to fellow comedian and writer Bill Scheft.

Tolsch grew up an only child in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn. She attended Erasmus Hall High School, and got an arts degree from Brooklyn College. Her family was Jewish. From a young age she idolized Lenny Bruce, so her father once snuck her into a Bruce show in the Village by claiming she was a midget.

Tolsch's first career was as a graphic artist, doing architectural renderings among other work. She eventually left this work after starting comedy in 1976. She began performing improv with The Original Cast troupe before starting in stand-up comedy. Performing had an allure for her. "The first time I ever got a standing ovation, you could have taken me right to comic heaven. It was such an affirmation. It's attention, love, it's everything but food and rent."

At that time, there were few women working in standup comedy, and fewer still could earn a full-time living at it. When Tolsch herself first started in comedy, she kept her day job as a commercial graphic artist while performing at night. During this time, the women comics in New York would often congregate on Sundays at Tolsch's West Side apartment. "There are so few of us that we need to get together. The camaraderie is essential and we are so all over the lot that we don't get to talk together all that much."

She eventually became a success in the New York City comedy club circuit, and became the first woman emcee at Catch a Rising Star. She also managed the club for years, and served as a mentor for young comics. She considered comedian Richard Belzer to be her mentor, as he had helped her get her start at Catch a Rising Star. In 1981 she was the only woman emcee in any of the New York clubs, in part because she was adept at dealing with hecklers.

My name is Tolsch. Tolsch is Russian for 'the yogurt has spoiled.' Where you from? New Jersey? You here for the water? Must be your first time, you ordered the food. We had a nice nonsectarian Christmas at our house. My mother let me hang my earrings from her fern.

— Adrianne Tolsch

She toured as a comedian, appearing in comedy clubs throughout all over the United States and in England and Australia. In her career she opened for such acts as Jay Leno, The Pointer Sisters, Bobby Vinton, Pat Cooper and Billy Crystal.

Tolsch also appeared on Broadway in the comedy review 3 From Brooklyn in 1992 at the Helen Hayes Theatre. She also co-hosted a weekly syndicated radio show called The Better Sex.

Her last project was the documentary film Take My Nose...Please: Women, Comedy and Plastic Surgery which she and Scheft executive produced together. The film was directed by journalist Joan Kron and examines the pressure on women to be attractive, via comedy.

She won Outstanding Female Stand-Up Comic at New York City's MAC Awards in 1990, 1991 and 1994. Her one-woman shows Trucks, Guns and Mayonnaise (2004) (which was about her life on the road as a comic} and None of Your Damn Business (2006) both won cabaret awards. The documentary Take My Nose...Please won the audience awards at the Miami Film Festival and the Berkshire International Film Festival.

Tolsch was married to comedian and writer Bill Scheft, who she met when he (at first unsuccessfully) auditioned for her at Catch a Rising Star in December 1980. They moved in together in 1984 and married in June 1990. She was an avid crossworder along with Scheft.

She died of esophogeal cancer on December 7, 2016.Aside from Scheft, she was survived by a son and a grandson from one of her two previous marriages.