Amy Schumer Leaves $30,000 Tip at the Manhattan Comedy Club Where She Got Her Start
It’s part of “The Great American Tip-Off.”
Celebrities leaving big tips is nothing new—but this holiday season, the tips they’re leaving are bigger than ever. That is, when they’re doing it as part of The Great American Tip-Off. The latest celebrity to make a huge impact on tipped workers? Amy Schumer, who visited the Manhattan comedy club where she got her start and left the servers there an enormous gratuity: $30,000, to be exact.
“This is my home club,” Schumer told the staff at the Comedy Cellar, a West Village comedy club that has given many famous comics their start. “This place changed my life.”
For a recent episode of The Great American Tip-Off, Schumer joined Marcus Lemonis to visit the club.
Lemonis, star of The Profit on CNBC and The Renovator on HGTV, has been leading the tipping initiative this year. “Marcus Lemonis is pledging $1 million to give BIG TIPS to those in the service industry,” according to the YouTube channel for The Great American Tip-Off. “He is encouraging you to join the movement this holiday season, and award those who give great service with a great tip.”
On the videos, stars like Kristen Bell and Jason Biggs visit restaurants, car washes, florists — anywhere that people earn a portion of their income through tipping — and leave the workers significant tips.
“You guys work your asses off every day, and it’s underappreciated,” Lemonis told the staff at the Comedy Cellar when he and Schumer visited. “We want you to know that there are a lot of people that appreciate it.”
He went on to explain why they pair was leaving such a large sum for the club’s employees to split, including servers and kitchen staff. “We’re both super blessed — she’s more blessed than I am,” Lemonis said.
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“Physically!” Schumer quipped.
“We wanted to share our blessings with you guys,” Lemonis added.
Schumer has a long history with the Comedy Cellar. It’s the club where she got her start as a comic, but it’s also a place she revisits often. The comedian performed a set at the club just two weeks after giving birth in 2019, and she went back in April of this year to help reopen the Comedy Cellar after its pandemic closure. Other comedy superstars like Chris Rock and Ray Romano also performed during the Comedy Cellar’s opening days.
“We’re going to cheers everybody. Everybody who works here come on up,” Lemonis said. “To the service industry. We love you guys.”
Julie Tremaine is an award-winning food and travel writer who’s road tripping — and tasting — her way across the country. Her work appears in outlets like Vulture, Travel + Leisure, CNN Travel and Glamour, and she’s the Disneyland editor for SFGate. Read her work at Travel-Sip-Repeat.com.