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Meet

Harry Freedman

“The Nation’s Misleading Expert” Lying For Laughs for over 25 years
  • Customized Comedy Put-ons and Emcee
  • Actor and writer for the hit CBS sitcom Everybody Loves Raymond
Speaker Fee:
$10,000 - $15,000
Virtual Fee:
Please inquire
Travels From:
New York
Harry Freedman
Book Harry Freedman
Speaker Fee: $10,000 - $15,000
Virtual Fee: Please inquire

Harry Freedman Speaker Biography

About a year into Harry Freedman’s comedy career, a then unknown but very well-respected Jerry Seinfeld approached Harry and said, “You’re a good writer,” and added, “I don’t just say that to anyone.”

About the same time, Joan Rivers also caught Harry’s act and invited him to hang out in her dressing room before her shows at the Diplomat Hotel in South Florida.

Over the years, Harry has toured the country, opening for comics like Jerry Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Dennis Leary, Andrew Dice Clay, Paul Reiser, Pat Paulson, Drew Carey (who actually opened for Harry) and many more.

He became friends with Ray Romano and Richard Jeni and opened for both in numerous theaters and clubs across the country, including Carolines in New York City.

In the late 80’s and early 90’s, Harry was featured on VH1 Stand-up Spotlight with Rosie O’Donnell, Comedy on the Road with John Byner, Carolines Comedy Hour on A&E with Richard Jeni, (which Harry also wrote for) and was a prize winner on America’s Funniest People.

He was also a regular at New York’s top comedy clubs including The Improvisation, The Comic Strip, and The Comedy Cellar. In addition, Bill Maher became a big fan of Harry’s, and used to put him on at Catch a Rising Star.

But all of that was merely a prelude to Harry’s next move.

When a friend asked Harry to help in preparing for a corporate comedy put-on, Harry wrote much of the material and knew immediately this was something he also wanted to do. After that friend gave his blessing, a then unknown Ray Romano, also a friend, got offered a put-on for a hospital, which he passed on to Harry.

The video from that speech got Harry 10 more put-ons in the next 6 months. He soon began entertaining some of the biggest companies and associations in the world including Dell Computer, The American Bankers Association, Cox Radio, IBM, and many more.

Harry has always been funny. In high school he was elected to the student government after making a hilarious speech about school policies that got his 600 fellow classmates rolling with laughter, while the school vice principal looked on with an expression of shock.

During his senior year at SUNY Binghamton, Harry was one of only a handful out of 2000 elite New England students, including Ivy Leaguers, to win an award as outstanding delegate at the Harvard Model United Nations. He had become a sharp debater.

After attending 3 semesters of law school in Miami Florida, Harry realized his father’s wishes for him to follow in HIS footsteps as a lawyer and judge were not his own. He did however learn to explore both sides of every issue in depth, which became invaluable for joke writing and he also excelled at Moot Court.

Over the next few years, Harry worked as a managing editor for a humor magazine and feature writer for a Miami Beach Newsweekly. Then he decided to go after his own dream – standup comedy.

When South Florida’s first comedy club opened in Hollywood Florida, on opening night, Harry “killed” for a crowd of 250 people, receiving 5 ovations in 12 minutes. That show changed his life.

He moved back to New York and the rest is history.

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Harry Freedman – Customized Corporate Comedy
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Harry Freedman Customized Corporate Comedy**
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Harry Freedman – demo
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Tailored for your Audience
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Speech Topics

WHAT IS A CORPORATE COMEDY PUT-ON?

Harry is introduced as an industry expert and gets everyone laughing, even as they believe he’s for real. Clients rave about Harry’s customization, so the audience goes in expecting a serious presentation and comes out relaxed and glowing.

BACKGROUND

As a Corporate Put-on Comedian and emcee, Harry has performed for hundreds of Fortune 1000 companies, and is frequently rated ‘best speaker’ at their conferences.

As a stand-up comedian, Harry is a regular opening act for Ray Romano; and as an actor, he has appeared on “Everybody Loves Raymond” (CBS) and “Men Of a Certain Age.” (TNT)

CLIENT BENEFITS OF USING HARRY

  1. Reenergize Your Attendees
  2. Bonding And Teambuilding 
  3. Increased Productivity, Performance And Attitude 
  4. Improves Trust And Customer Relations 
  5. Helps Distinguish Fake Vs Real – Gives First Hand Experience Of Making Fake Content Seem Credible
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“Having you as the closing act for New Jersey’s MPI’s April meeting on event production was just what the doctor ordered. Not too many people could get a laugh out of a group that had spent an entire day working and the entire evening networking and sitting still. But you came through with plenty of laughs for all. It was perfect.”

CSEPNJ-MPI Education Committee

This year’s Holiday party was outstanding. You came to our small town of McCook, Nebraska, and made a statement with your performance. Your wrapped our industry’s issues and the personal characteristics of our business and our staff into your routine perfectly. This was a refreshing act to witness.

It was hilarious, professional, and clean. I have heard nothing but praise for our choice in entertainment this year. It is clear that you do your research and must put a lot of effort into preparing for your events.

VP Finance, Community Hospital, McCook, Nebraska

Thank you for the wonderful job you did at our annual awards dinner this year. I received terrific feedback as people came up to me and said how much they enjoyed your “speech”. And the crowd was obviously enjoying themselves at the event – you had them laughing for over half an hour. Some of the audience were still waiting for you to get to the serious expert material even near the end of your speech, which just made the whole thing funnier, and a continued conversation topic.

Since the event, the positive feedback has continued to flow from the members, both informally, and through our post event satisfaction surveys. I also want to thank you for the obvious effort and time you put in to preparing for the event. It was clear that you had put in many hours of work tailoring a keynote that would resonate with our audience. And it did.

I also was very appreciative of the professional manner in which you conducted yourself getting ready for the event. You were always very courteous, prompt with responses, and helpful and accommodating with respect to logistics. It was a pleasure working with an experienced speaker who takes the time to develop a targeted presentation, and who knows how to fit in to different types of events. Again thanks for making our annual awards a success.

President & CEO, FRPO

Great job! You had everyone believing you were a real envoy of the President to India and China, even as you got belly laughs at 9:00 in the morning. You had our alumni group rolling and you did it with clean, classy, and extremely clever material.
It was particularly enjoyable to hear your hilarious answers in the fireside chat with our real Indo-China expert, the award-winning author, Robyn Meredith.
I know this is one speech that our fellow alumni will remember for a long time.

IIT Alumni/President of Technograph

“Harry Freedman was a fantastic addition and to our annual client meeting. Our guests were amazed by his ability to incorporate many intricate details about our industry and our company into his comedy routine. His “put-on” format was the perfect way to add some spice and a bit of levity to our program. His performance kept everyone who attended on their toes and engaged for the rest of the day.”

BMGI – Customized Corporate Comedy Put-0n.

The laughter in the room and the atmosphere you created greatly helped our networking and collaboration mission. Your presentation was a great way to build team morale, break down social barriers, and have a few laughs after a long day.

KPMG: US Partner in Charge, Forensic

Everyone was pretty strained, as we were unde r serious licensing deadlines. You got everyone laughing so hard, we may have coaxed an extra week of overtime from our workers .

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