Comedy Central really had a lasting impact on kids in the early 2000s.

Case in point, look at comedian Mary Houlihan.

20 years before she became a touring act, daring comedy journalist and popular podcaster, she spent her middle school afternoons watching “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn.”

“He would have macho, blue collar comedians debating through jokes with lefty anti-war comedians and I watched it as a comfort show,” Houlihan told The Post in an exclusive interview.

And, now, she’s reimagining Quinn’s roundtable for the 2020s.

Houlihan’s “Rough Crowd” — which she jokingly calls a shameless rip-off of “Tough Crowd with Colin Quinn” — brings together comics from both sides of the aisle to hash things out in today’s fraught political climate.

“In the current state of politics, I think, ‘oh my God, we need something like this’‘ because comedians are getting so separate from one another. If someone has different politics than me but can be funny and kind in expressing their point of view, that’s great and a recipe for comedy. If you liked the comedians on ‘Opie and Anthony’ in the early 2000s, you’re going to like what we’re doing.”

Next up, Houlihan is bringing her fresh series to NYC’s Caveat on Sunday, Aug. 30 with some of the City’s funniest comedians and bringing a club crowd sensibility to an alternative space.

“Dina Hashem is great, Houlihan noted. “She’s from New Jersey, she’s Muslim, does jokes about both political parties, says harsh truths and isn’t afraid of people being like ‘how can you say that about the Democrats?’ I think that’s cool.”

“Sean Donnelly, he’s an Irish-American bloke from the New York metro area. Much like myself, so I love people like that,” Houlihan smiled. “And he just looks like a regular white guy. He looks like he could work for Long Island Railroad and I think a conservative person would probably go up to him and say ‘Hey, buddy, you and I agree on this. What do you think about blah, blah?’”

“Kunal Arora is Indian-American. He’s from Queens. He makes fun of things like Palantir and shady government corruption stuff and isn’t afraid of people being like ‘oh, you can’t say that.’“

“Finally, Jeremy Kaplowitz is a Brooklyn-based Jewish comedian who has a hilarious X/Twitter and podcast called Quorators, where he and his co-hosts comb Quora to answer questions from the most unhinged people on the planet.”

All of that because Houlihan watched a show that aired on a network that also put out “South Park” and “Crank Yankers” at the same time.

For more about “Rough Crowd,” Houlihan’s career and her infamous interview with Martin Shkreli, keep reading.

We’ve got the scoop below.

What are you planning on discussing in your Aug. 30th show at Caveat?

In the last show, I said “in topical news, here’s a thing that happened a month ago, let’s talk about it.” So, this time, I was thinking of bringing up Hunter Biden interviewing Nick Fuentes and posing the question to the panelists “do you think we should never platform people like Nick Fuentes or do you think the conversation is productive?” and then people can argue and disagree with each other.

Where do you see “Rough Crowd” in five years?

Touring and YouTube. Because the show is about topical subjects, I won’t be doing it every single week, but I would love to do it once a month in different cities and highlight local comedians, people who are the best in this scene but haven’t broken through yet, that type of thing.

Who are you dream guests?

I would love to get Colin Quinn. I emailed him. We’ll see!

Jim Norton would be good.

It’s tough because the funniest people from the show died. Greg Giraldo and Patrice O’Neal.

D.L. Hughley was on “Tough Crowd” a number of times. I would love to have him on the show. Plus, Laurie Kilmartin and Maria Bamford were on the show a bunch. I don’t know if people remember.

Settle the score. What’s the difference between the L.A. and New York City comedy scene?

Oh, my God.

They’re basically similar. In New York, there are more touring stand-ups who use the City as their home base because you can get so many sets in throughout the week and build out your hour quickly. In LA, stuff is spread out and you have to drive so it’s harder to write comedy as fast and test it…but the clubs are fun.

When I lived in New York, I was mostly in the Littlefield and Union Hall “back room of a bar” type venues and it felt very segregated, like macho stand-ups versus everyone else.

These days that’s changing because people like Daniel Simonsen and Aaron Chen are crushing in the club and audiences are becoming more open to stuff that’s a little bit off-kilter.

What’s the story behind your Martin Shkreli interview?

In the 2010s, I would do these random talking to people on the street in a news voice thing when I worked at Seriously TV, which was a comedy website associated with Complex.

And Shkreli put his phone number and email on Twitter. So, I reached out.

I emailed him and said:

“Hey, I’m such a fan you’re so funny on Twitter. I’m working at Complex and I want to interview super-fans of Hip-Hop who really know about Hip-Hop history.

I know you’re from New York and you’re a big Hip-Hop head, so we would love for you to come in and and some questions.”

So, for like the first half-hour, I was just playing that and asking questions like “what are your top five albums and favorite rappers?”

Then, once we had him warm, I started asking these very mean but funny questions about “why the hell are you price gouging, AIDS medicine, you f—ing lunatic.”

It was great because he was warmed up and confused and wondering “what’s happening? I thought she was joking with me!” and we hit him in the head with a microphone.

Tell me all about “The Mary Houlihan Show.”

The “Mary Houlihan Show” is a talk show podcast I’ve been doing.

It’s on YouTube. Someone told me it was so smart to call it “The Mary Houlihan Show” because a women’s podcasts never say the their names when naming the show. That definitely wasn’t intentional but I was like “yes, that was smart of me.”

I interview comedians, journalists and people who run for office that don’t take corporate donations.

The idea is to talk about smart stuff but make it funny and not annoying so that people will actually digest it.

What does your stand-up look like these days?

I’m still doing deadpan dense jokes but my material is more political now.

Before I used to have more of a ’70s Steve Martin-like sensibility and do wry one-liners that were silly and random or fictional.

Now I’m making much more of an effort to talk about my personal life, my childhood, politics. I’m trying to be more honest.

What other exciting projects are in the pipeline for you?

I’ve been doing comedy journalism stuff.

I think of my pieces as “Daily Show” field segments but about topics that interest me. It makes me feel useful when the world feels bad sometimes.

What was it like going to Cuba for one of your comedy journalism projects?

Oh, my God. It was great.

That was another thing where I was trying to show there is a fun way to talk about a tough situation. People don’t always pay attention to tragedies even though they should care that people are starving.

To be honest, I had a boatload of fun. I would go up to people and be like “hey, when something that locals like?” and they’d be like “oh, you should come to this place.”

Plus, they have way more nuanced opinions than Americans are told to think.

Where do you see comedy in five years?

Audiences are overwhelmingly saying “I hate the stuff I see on TV. It’s not funny, except for like a few shows. So, they watch YouTube, they watch TikTok, they watch Reels. So, the good thing about that is people who are legitimately funny can break through that way.

I also think people have more of an appetite to see stand-up comedy that’s proven funny to them before they go see the person instead of being like “oh, I saw this person on a podcast” or “I saw a picture of them and they look cool, let me go and see their comedy” and then they end up going and being like “that was mediocre.” So, that’s good.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Huge comedians on tour in 2026

Hoping to catch a few of Mary’s favorite working comedians?

Here are just five Houlihan-approved acts that are on the road these next few months.

• Gianmarco Soresi

• Jay Jurden

• Geoffrey Asmus

• Atsuko Okatsuka

• Gary Gulman

Who else is out and about? Take a look at this list of all the biggest comedians on tour in 2026 to find the show that makes the most sense for you.

This article was written by Matt Levy, New York Post live events reporter. Levy stays up-to-date on all the latest tour announcements from your favorite musical artists and comedians, as well as Broadway openings, sporting events and more live shows – and finds great ticket prices online. Since he started his tenure at the Post in 2022, Levy has reviewed a Bruce Springsteen concert and interviewed Melissa Villaseñor of SNL fame, to name a few. Please note that deals can expire, and all prices are subject to change.