Ritch Shydner
Comedian
In the 1980’s, Ritch Shydner made numerous appearances on TV, including “Late Night with David Letterman” and “The Tonight Show” with both Johnny Carson and Jay Leno. He also did an HBO half-hour special, “One Night Stand.” He played Al Bundy’s co-worker on “Married with Children”, and made guest appearances on many other TV shows, such as “Designing Women” and “Roseanne.”
Ritch was able to translate his modest success on TV into an obscure film career, appearing in Steve Martin’s, “Roxanne,” and Eddie Murphy’s, “Beverly Hills Cop II,” before moving on to minor roles on smaller pictures. He wrote for sitcoms such as “Roseanne”, “The Jeff Foxworthy Show,” and HBO’s “The Mind of the Married Man.” Ritch wrote material for Jeff Foxworthy’s Grammy nominated comedy albums, “Totally Committed,” and “Big Fun.” He also wrote for Ron White and Jay Leno. In 2006 he was co-author of a book on stand-up, “I Killed”. In 2010 Ritch produced and performed in an award-winning documentary on the world of stand-up comedy, “I Am Comic.” In 2016 he wrote a movie adaptation for HBO of Bill Maher’s book, “True Story”. In 2017 his book, “Kicking Through the Ashes – My Life as a Stand-up in the 1980’s Comedy Boom” was published.
Ritch is currently performing, “America’s Reflection in the Funhouse Mirror, A History of Stand-up Comedy.” Ritch continues to work hard at avoiding work. He has given up any dreams of stardom for the satisfaction of not being an aging Uber Driver.
Jay Leno: “And remember, Shydner, don’t tell anyone you wrote those jokes for me.” Jerry Seinfeld: “Ritch Shydner is a terrific comedy writer and definitely one of the good guys.” Jeff Foxworthy: “Ritch helped me write two albums, both of which were nominated for Grammys. I’ve always thought that he was one of the best stand-ups ever.” Bill Maher: “Back in the day, in the dingy ratskellers in which we learned our craft, Ritch Shydner was always the comic the other comics came into the room to watch, because he was the funniest. That hasn’t changed, and I’m afraid neither have the ratskellers.”