Ritch Shydner

Stand-Up Comic, Actor, Comedy Writer, and Comedy Historian

“Nothing Makes Me Happier Than Making People Laugh!” -- Ritch Shydner

Ritch was given this award by the University of Dayton's Erma Bombeck writers' workshop.

"Ritch Shydner, author of the newly released Kicking Through the Ashes: My Life as a Stand-up in the 1980s Comedy Boom, has been described as “an incredibly funny observational comedian.”

 “The 1980’s comedy boom both in the USA and Canada really had it seeds in the 1970’s comedy culture developed in New York City, Los Angles, and Toronto.”

 -- David Reuben 

Recently I was lucky enough to have an almost two-hour phone conversation with Mr. Ritch Shydner. He is a busy man these days, touring with both his stand-up act, The History Of Comedy Show, numerous writing projects, and his History Of Comedy YouTube Channel.( https://www.youtube.com/@historyofstandup )

For such a busy man, I was curious as to what Shydner does when he’s not working. “Well…I could lie and tell you I have all these great hobbies, but I just love to create.”  As creative as Rich is, it’s a good thing to know that he still manages to take the family dog out for its daily walk.  

I first met Ritch Shydner back in 1980 when he came through Toronto to perform at the original Yuk Yuk’s on Bay St. At that time, he had been doing stand-up for only three years. This was also when he met a man who would become his life-long friend and partner in crime, Canadian Comedy Legend, Mike MacDonald. It was also around this time that he changed the spelling of his last name to “Shydner” from Scheidner or Schiedner. Both MC’s and posters were having trouble with the spelling and pronunciation. Hopefully, this has solved the problem.

Images from https://www.ritchshydner.com/

Images from https://www.ritchshydner.com/

Ritch was born in the small town of Pennsville Township, New Jersey, and attended Pennsville Memorial High School. Shydner described his home town to be a “marshy and below sea level” borough.  Ritch remembers his Dad as a successful insurance salesman who had great wit, clearly loving humour. “My Dad loved comedians like Moms Mabley, and during the years between 1958 &1959, he saw comics like Don Rickles and Redd Foxx.”  Shydner recalls a more recent special moment, “Back in 2019, I got tickets from Jeff Foxworthy and took my Dad to Jeff’s show in Tampa, Florida. During the show, Foxworthy told the audience that I was in the crowd and had me stand up. My Dad had tears in his eyes. After the show, I took Dad back stage to meet Jeff.”  To be noted, the familial comedy trait didn’t begin and end with his Shydner’s dad, though. “My Mom had a keen dry sense of humor, too”. Guess it ran in the family.

After high school, Ritch studied business and sociology at Gettysburg College. Once he graduated, Shydner kept busy juggling between a few jobs as a substitute teacher, a bartender and managing a band. “I had no plan. I was living with my parents, showing up at school, hung over and teaching my friends younger siblings.”

In 1976 after a stint working for a congressman, Shydner decided to go to law school at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia. During his second year of law school Ritch decided to give stand-up comedy a try. His friend, classmate and so-called manager, Howard Vine, took Rich to a coffeehouse open mic. “I got one tiny laugh towards the end of my set and I was l hooked.” The comedy bug bit big time.

The second gig Howard Vine booked Ritch for in 1977 was at a local bar. But not just any bar. What Howard didn’t realise was that it was a Gay Bar and on top of that it was ladies’ night. After not getting any reactions from the audience, one patron had enough, walked on stage and mercifully walked the young aspiring comic out the door.  

There were no real comedy clubs in the Virgina/ Washington DC area in 1977, so to get the much-needed stage time, Ritch started opening for bands around the area. He was also able to get a bartending job at Rocky Raccoons in Washington DC. This was a Bluegrass bar and at first Shydner tried his material on patrons. This led to doing comedy material while hosting the talent night, as well as introducing the bands.

By the spring of 1979, Ritch had completed law school and had his diploma sent to his parent’s home. He decided not to write the bar exam and put all of his time and energy into stand-up comedy. He needed stage time and wanted to try the stages of New York City.

One of the first professional comics to take Ritch Shyner under his wing was Uncle Dirty Rich remembers, “Uncle Dirty" was older, experienced, funny, and cool. I wanted his approval.”

Ritch made the move to New York City in 1979 and started working at all the showcase clubs. Shydner recalls, “The path for comics in the late 1970’s and 1980’s was to get a set on TV talk shows, become an opening act for an established comic, and the ultimate goal was to be in a sitcom.” One of Ritch’s first day jobs in New York were cleaning out vacant apartments in dilapidated buildings. He went the first day and the other workers were all morning drinking and there were no cleaning supplies. “The job was to kick out homeless people living in the buildings. These buildings were sold back to the city for $1 and brought up to code. I was making $5 a day and my rent was $60 per month.”

Eventually making his living as a touring comic and leaving the cleaning job behind, Shydner set his sights on Los Angeles. For comics of the late 1970’ s and early 1980’s the question was always; “When are you moving to Los Angeles”?  In 1981 and 1982 while on tour in Pittsburgh and Phoenix, Rich dipped his toe into the Los Angles comedy mecca of “The Improv” and “The Comedy Store”.

By 1982 Rich and his first wife moved out to West Hollywood, a section of Los Angeles, to be close to the “The Improv” and “The Comedy Store”. Rich had already been known at The Improv in New York City so that was an easy transition. As for The Comedy Store, Rich remembers, “Sam Kenison helped me get seen by Mitzi Shore, he even sat with her so no other comics would take her attention away from me on stage”. Ritch Shydner became a regular at the club that night.

As a stand-up comedian, Shydner appeared on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, Late Night with David Letterman and The Tonight Show with Jay Leno numerous times. Ritch also had multiple appearances on the successful TV Series ‘An Evening at The Improv’ He performed a HBO half-hour special called One Night Stand, as well as was a guest on Comics Unleashed. Shydner, along with comedian Mark Schiff, compiled stories of comedians on the road in a 2006 book entitled I Killed.

As an actor, Shydner played Al Bundy's co-worker and friend Luke Ventura on Married... with Children and made guest appearances on other TV shows such as Designing Women, Roseanne and Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist. His film roles include Beverly Hills Cop II and Roxanne among others.

The ‘Married with Children’ role was an especially interesting story. Ritch says, “Originally Fox thought of Sam Kinison and Rosanne Barr as the leads, but they went to Ed (O’Neill) and Katey (Sagal). I already knew them and the people at Fox wanted me as Luke, unfortunately one of the producers wanted a friend of his in the role. I was gone before the end of season one.”

In my research, I found out that the character of Luke Ventura has become a cult figure who appeared in four episodes of the seven he was contacted for and that he had the best line of season one “Luke Ventura at your feet.” Rich has no regrets and says, “It was a great role and I had a lot of fun working with the cast and I took my shot.”

A frequent tangent from there is how mercurial emotions can be between a couple, how quickly an argument can flare up: “One minute I’m looking at my girlfriend thinking, ‘I want to spend the rest of my life with you.’ The next minute I’m thinking, ‘How can I fake my death.’”

Despite some of these themes and the gruff, macho voice he often uses to deliver them, he isn’t just talking to men. There’s no undercurrent of misogyny here--he likes women. He doesn’t claim to always understand women, but then he doesn’t claim to always understand men--including himself--either.

Shydner’s former manager, Herb Nanas, a longtime show-biz heavyweight whose clients included Sylvester Stallone, stated, “Ritch has a blue-collar appeal, but male-female--not isolated, not Sam Kinison, not just a comic”. As Shydner’s manager, Nanas isn’t the most objective observer; on the other hand, when it comes to comics, he’s very selective. “He’s only the third comedian in a 25-year career that I’ve worked with,” Nanas said of Shydner, noting that the other two were Albert Brooks and Roseanne Barr.

Like every other stand-up comic, everything was always rosy for Ritch Shydner. In 1985 he was finally able to face and beat his alcohol and drug problems. He was dedicated to stand-up comedy and never drank on stage. “I always wanted to kill on stage. I stopped doing drugs and alcohol when it stole my sense of humor. I have not touched drugs or alcohol since May 11, 1985.”

By 1992, Ritch was getting less stand-up work and did the transition to comedy writing by calling friend Rosanne Barr. “She said you want to be a writer, then show up tomorrow morning. The writers room had about 21 or 22 people in it and most of them were stand-up comics. Norm MacDonald had just left.”

Slowly, as the stand-up work stopped coming Ritch, spent more time writing and by 1997, he stopped acting as well. But the stand-up comedy gods were not finished just yet with Mr. Ritch Shydner.  He was asked to be part of the 2010 documentary I Am Comic, in which he traveled around the country interviewing various comedians, a process that ultimately led to his return to stand-up by going on the stage again in 2012.

“Going back to stand-up comedy made me feel insecure and I had a big depression, but I loved it and realized how much I missed it. I always felt I was a better writer then performer.”

So, Ritch Shydner and I reconnected sometime after he started comedy again after 2012, and I approached him about doing an article for The Comedy Green Room’ dot com. He was not ready at that time. However, we kept in touch on social media and when Mike MacDonald passed away, it was very difficult on both of us.

Luckily, Mr. Shydner was impressed with my article on Mike McDonald and I am thrilled to do this article on Ritch.

These days Ritch lives a quieter life in Asheville, North Carolina with his third wife and the family dog. “My kids are all grown up and I have given them the gift of a sense of humor but not the disease of stand-up comedy.”

Currently, Ritch keeps busy doing stand-up comedy gigs within driving distance of his home and really enjoys his History Of Comedy Shows as well as creating videos for his online platform. ( Ritch Shydner Official Video Channel - YouTube) As a writer, he’s working on a script with comedian Felicia Michaels.

“I am the guy I was meant to be. I am very happy and grateful.”

For more information on Ritch Shydner

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Mention you found out about Judy Croon on The Comedy Green Room dot com

This article was edited by The amazing Marla Lukofsky

Author's Note: All quotations in this article are taken directly from their original sources and accurately reflect the words of those quoted. Some were obtained through direct interviews, while others were drawn from public television/radio interviews or Facebook posts by the individuals themselves.