Brooklyn-born comedian John Mulrooney is dead at age 67.
The funnyman died suddenly at his home in Coxsackie, N.Y. on Dec. 29, according to the Times Union. His cause of death wasn’t immediately reported.
Mulrooney began his comedy career in the 1980s at the now-defunct Pips club in Sheepshead Bay, per an online obituary. The venue is also known for fueling the careers of Woody Allen, Rodney Dangerfield, Robert Klein, Lenny Bruce and Andrew “Dice” Clay.
After performing at legendary venues like The Improv, The Comedy Store, The Comic Strip and The Laugh Factory, Mulrooney later made his mark on TV by hosting an episode of “The Late Show” in place of Joan Rivers and appearing on “The Pat Sajak Show.”
Many New Yorkers who never saw Mulrooney’s act knew his voice from the radio shows he hosted on WPYX in Albany and WPDH in Poughkeepsie. In 2014, he launched “Mulrooney in the Morning” for iHeartRadio.
He also added law enforcement to his resume by joining the Coxsackie Police Department as a 52-year-old rookie in 2010. He became a “sought-after performer for police and fire department fundraisers across the country, using comedy to support first responders and the communities they protect,” his obituary said.
Mulrooney told the Times Union in 2010 that he enjoyed working a crowd.
“I look at the audience as a spice rack,” he said. “I know I’m gonna make a great meal; I’m just not sure of the ingredients yet.”
Clay honored his former Pips colleague on Instagram, remembering him as a comic who made his audience part of every show.
“Crowd work was his thing long before it became a thing,” the raunchy comic recalled. “He was the last comedian to come out of that club that everybody thought would become a really really big star.”
Mulrooney is remembered as a loving son, a devoted sibling to two brothers and two sisters, and an uncle to numerous nieces and nephews.
A 2 p.m. visitation will be held on Sunday at the Casey Funeral Home on Staten Island, followed by a Monday morning funeral service at the nearby Church of the Holy Family.
