Bob Ayres is an American entertainment industry executive, known among other things as the Founder of the former San Francisco comedy club The Other Café, and for his involvement in

San Francisco Bay Area The San Francisco Bay Area, often referred to as simply the Bay Area, is a populous region surrounding the San Francisco, San Pablo, and Suisun Bay estuaries in Northern California. The Bay Area is defined by the Association of Bay Area Go ...

projects such a
The Other Cafe Comedy Club
The

TED conference TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

, "The Next Twenty Years series", and Comedic Ventures. Bob is now the Licensee/Executive Producer o
TEDxMarin
one of the longest running TEDx's in the country.

Career

Bob began in the entertainment/event business in 1977. He founded, owned, and operated the renowned San Francisco comedy club The Other Cafe, which helped begin the careers of comedians Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Dana Carvey, Ellen DeGeneres, Paula Poundstone, Bob Goldthwait, Rob Schneider, and many others. Ayres wa
interviewed
about the early days of the SF Comedy scene by NPR. In 1981
Bob Ayres
] as Dana's Personal Manager negotiated a development contract for

Dana Carvey Dana Thomas Carvey (born June 2, 1955) is an American stand-up comedian, actor, impressionist, screenwriter, and producer. He is best known for his seven seasons as a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1986 to 1993, which earned him fiv ...

with

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

, which led to his role on ''

Saturday Night Live ''Saturday Night Live'' (often abbreviated to ''SNL'') is an American late-night live television sketch comedy and variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and Peacock. Michaels currently serves a ...

''. In 1983-84, Ayres executive-produced eight episodes of a cable TV series, ''The Other Cafe's Comedy Showcase'' starring Dana Carvey,

Kevin Nealon Kevin Nealon (; born November 18, 1953) is an American comedian and actor. He was a cast member on ''Saturday Night Live'' from 1986 to 1995, acted in several of the Happy Madison films, played Doug Wilson on the Showtime series '' Weeds'', and pr ...

Ellen DeGeneres Ellen Lee DeGeneres ( ; born January 26, 1958) is an American comedian, television host, actress, writer, and producer. She starred in the sitcom ''Ellen'' from 1994 to 1998, which earned her a Primetime Emmy Award for " The Puppy Episode". Sh ...

Carol Leifer Carol Leifer ( ; born July 27, 1956) is an American comedian, writer, producer, and actress whose career as a stand-up comedian started in the 1970s when she was in college. She has written many television scripts including ''The Larry Sanders ...

Kevin Pollak Kevin Elliot Pollak (born October 30, 1957) is an American actor, comedian, impressionist and podcast host. He has appeared in over 80 films; his roles include Sam Weinberg in Rob Reiner's legal film ''A Few Good Men'', Jacob Goldman in '' Grump ...

, Geoff Bolt and

Will Durst Will Durst (born on March 18, 1952) is an American political satirist. He has been called a modern mix of Mort Sahl and Will Rogers. Early life Durst was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He went to 14 different schools before graduating from ...

, which won awards at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. In 1987, Ayres executive-produced a television pilot called ''Two Guys with Amusing Shorts'', which introduced short films by a variety of comedians and directors, including Academy Award winner Bill Couturie. He produced the four-year series ''Eve of Jewish Humor'', presented at

Davies Symphony Hall Louise M. Davies Symphony Hall is the concert hall component of the San Francisco War Memorial and Performing Arts Center in San Francisco, California. The 2,743-seat hall was completed in 1980 at a cost of US$28 million to give the San Francisco ...

in San Francisco, California. Ayres served as a member of the Board of Advisors for the

until 2007 and was the inaugural Director of the TED Prize, first presented in 2004. Ayres has been the Executive Producer of The Next Twenty Years series, a San Francisco-based series of lectures, symposia, industry gatherings and salons that he founded in 1996, devoted to the examination of industry trends and the exchange of ideas that will form and influence future decades. The Next Twenty Years series has been presented in Austin, Boston, Chicago, London, Los Angeles, New York, and San Francisco. He also served for three years on the Board of Directors of the community-based, listener-supported radio station KVMR-FM in Nevada City, California, named community radio station of the year for two of those three years. Ayres launched TwoDegrees in 2008, a social networking salon that cultivates relationships among individuals in the intersecting industries of science, technology, design, eco-investments, film, comedy, alternative health and politics. The name is a reference to

degrees of separation Six degrees of separation is the idea that all people are six or fewer social connections away from each other. As a result, a chain of "friend of a friend" statements can be made to connect any two people in a maximum of six steps. It is also k ...

. Until early 2009, Bob sat on the prestigious board of advisors for th
TED Conference
and served for two years as its inaugural Executive Director of the TED PRIZE, whose winners include among others, Bono and Bill Clinton. In January 2010 Ayres launched Comedic Ventures, a media development company for live, online and broadcas
comedy projects
Its first project was th
30th reunion concert
for The Other Cafe, produced as a benefit for KQED Public Media. In January 2012 Ayres became the Licensee fo
TEDxMarin
Created in the spirit of TED’s mission, “ideas worth spreading,” the TEDx program is designed to give communities, organizations and individuals the opportunity to stimulate dialogue through TED-like experiences at the local level
Marin Magazine
profiled Bob in 2015

References

Specific citations

General references

*http://davidarmstrongontravel.blogspot.com/2010/09/comedic-time-travel.html *http://www.kqed.org/arts/performance/article.jsp?essid=34468 *http://theothercafe.com/reunion-show-review-by-clark-stanton-peterson *http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-09-19/entertainment/24010352_1_comedians-golden-age-comedy-scene *https://web.archive.org/web/20101031061314/http://thestory.org/archive/the_story_1156_Bob_Ayres.mp3/view *http://www.sfbg.com/pixel_vision/2010/09/20/other-kind-sf-comedy-makes-comeback *http://www.thestory.org/stories/2010-10/roots-comedy {{DEFAULTSORT:Ayres, Bob American entertainment industry businesspeople 1953 births Living people Businesspeople from the San Francisco Bay Area