Dangerfield's Upper East Side Comedy Club Reclaimed By 'Poochy Credit'

UPPER EAST SIDE, NY — An Upper East Side comedy club once run by the respected comedian who could "get no respect" might be coming back from the dead.

A new lease has been signed at the shuttered Dangerfield's Comedy Club on First Avenue and East 61st Street, giving new hope for the venue's second lease on life, city records show.

A liquor license application notice filed in July with Community Board 8 lists the business name as "Poochy Credit LLC" and, according to the applicant's attorney, a lease has been signed with owners Solil.

The venue, according to the application, will again be a comedy club.

The principal is Mark Yosef, who launched a Kickstarter with further detail about plans for the shuttered spot, to be renamed "The Miracle Comedy Club Bar and Restaurant."

"This project was the result of over a year of hard work bringing together the greatest minds to renovate and revitalize this historic comedy club," the cancelled Kickstarter states. "This is the location where many careers were launched including Sam Kinison and Jim Carrey!"

The online fundraiser — canceled in May — brought in $3,266 out of a $40,000 goal.

Yosef did not return requests for comment.

This isn't the first foray for Yosef — a lawyer who grew up in Brooklyn and attended NYU and a St. Louis law school — into the Upper East Side comedy scene.

Yosef represented The Comic Strip Live in its 2022 defamation lawsuit against City Council Member Julie Menin, Upper East Site and Patch, two news outlets that reported on the club's social media posts that raised concerns of antisemitism.

A judge eventually dismissed the suit in April and declared that permitting the case to proceed would be "a violation of the First Amendment."

The city's Conflict of Interest Board also found Yosef in violation of the City Charter for representing a client in litigation against New York City while he was a city employee.

At the time, Yosef worked for the city's Department of Consumer and Worker Protection.

"This was always a frivolous case," Menin, former commissioner of Yosef's department, told the Daily News at the time. "Instead of clowning around, he should take practicing law seriously."

Last spring, another comedy fan applied for a liquor license during his bid to revive the club — and the Dangerfield name — prior to inking a lease, only for the deal to fizzle out in the end, the applicant told Patch.

Dangerfield opened his eponymous club in 1969, providing the neighborhood with 50 years of laughs from stars such as Jerry Seinfeld, Robin Williams, Roseanne and Chris Rock.

Iconic scenes from the 2019 film "Joker" were also shot in the groundbreaking club.

But the laughter stopped in October 2020, when pandemic restrictions forced the club to permanently close.