The Boogie Down Bronx is known as the birthplace of hip-hop. However, one Bronxite is trying his best to put it on the map for comedy.
In November 2022, Claremont resident Ishmael Gaynor helped bring the NYC Comedy Festival to the Bronx for the first time in 18 years. Gaynor, along with Stephon Hightower, started Top Borough Comedy four years ago at the Bronx Brewery in Port Morris and hold shows throughout the spring and summer.
“I enjoy making people laugh and enjoy having people come up to me after a show saying they had a horrible week and seeing them leave the show with a smiling face shows how I’m positively impacting the borough and the city,” Gaynor told the Bronx Times.
Gaynor, 31, was born in Yonkers and raised in the Washington, D.C. area. His love for jokes started as a child when he watched Chris Rock’s “Bring the Pain” and Eddie Murphy’s “Raw” with his mom.
“Chris Rock was her favorite comedian, so she would take us to watch those live performances,” Gaynor said.
Those legends, among others, inspired Gaynor to follow in their footsteps. In high school he did theater and was always cast in the funny guy roles, he said.
“People would tell me all the time you should do comedy,” he said.
Around age 20, he moved back to Yonkers, where he lived with his dad for a few years. His love for comedy grew when his aunt took him to shows in Manhattan.
Gaynor realized starting out as a standup comic in NYC was quite difficult, so he returned to the DMV area at 22 years old and set out on beginning his career.
“Everybody knew I was funny, but I had never done a whole set before,” he said.
Gaynor told the Times his first open mic was at a bar near Howard University in Washington, D.C., where the microphone broke and he was forced to speak loudly throughout the set. But once he overcame the mechanical glitch, he felt great and the audience loved him.
“They were all around my age, so it was easy to make them laugh,” he said.
At first people did not know Gaynor was doing comedy, but word quickly spread in the Maryland and D.C. areas. While he was improving his craft, it was not time for the NYC comedy scene yet, he said.
He did shows in Richmond and Newport News, Virginia, and even ventured further south to West Virginia. Some of the best advice he received was from comedian Russell Brand, who said comics should not judge themselves until they do 200 performances.
“When you first start in comedy you really don’t know if you’re funny or not,” Gaynor said. “You’re really just trying stuff.”
Gaynor loves comedy, but it does not pay the bills. So, in D.C. he managed a pizza shop to make ends meet.
Once he had a footing in the comedy realm, Gaynor was ready for the big stage and relocated back up north. He did not become famous overnight, so he continued managing a pizza shop and did some acting on Broadway, all while doing standup at night.
“It’s like every great comedian from every place comes here,” he said.
At 25, he decided to focus solely on comedy and quit the other jobs. Being in the number one place for comedy in the world, Gaynor knew making it here was not going to be as easy as Washington, D.C.
A fellow comedian once told him to be successful in NYC, a comedian must run a comedy show. So, he began hosting shows in Harlem five years ago and learned clubs really respect people who have their own thing, he said. Then four years ago, Gaynor brought laughter to the borough with Top Borough Comedy.
People describe him as a conversationalist comedian who talks about himself and family, and some even compare him to Hannibal Buress.
“I wasn’t really trying to model myself after anybody,” Gaynor said. “When I started, I was just trying to be as authentic as possible.”
Along the way Gaynor has met many famous comedians, including Chris Redd and Lisa Knowles. While they all impacted him, no one influenced him more than his family.
Not only did his aunt and mom introduce him to comedy, his grandfather was hysterical, Gaynor said.
“He used to look just like Bill Cosby, so people used to think he was Bill Cosby,” he said.
And everything changed when the COVD-19 pandemic arrived. He did numerous outdoor shows and more importantly, helped bring the NYC Comedy Festival to the Bronx.
“Allowing people to see the Boogie Down can be home for comics was a special feeling,” he said. “Comedy wise, the Bronx is underserved. We wanted this for the Bronx. We wanted to have the area represented.”
Reach Jason Cohen at jasoncohen306@gmail.com or (646) 899-8058. For more coverage, follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram @bronxtimes
