Every year, Forbes puts out a list of the world’s highest paid comedians, and Jerry Seinfeld has been #1 in 12 of the past 13 years: the exception of 2016 when Kevin Hart took it over.
Kevin has done it again: he made $59 million over the past year, despite losing his gig as the host of the Oscars, which is not a high-paying gig anyway. Word has it, the Academy only pays $15,000.
Kevin kept his sponsorships with Mountain Dew and Chase, and released a Netflix special. He also did a global stadium tour.
That drops Jerry to #2. He made $41 million, which is down a bit from last year, partially because he didn’t do a Netflix special in this period.
Here’s the Top 10:
1. Kevin Hart – $59 million
2. Jerry Seinfeld – $41 million
3. Jim Gaffigan – $30 million
4. Trevor Noah – $28 million . . . TV hosts don’t usually make this list, but “Forbes” made an exception because he earned the bulk of this money from stand-up.
5. Sebastian Maniscalco – $26 million
6. Gabriel Iglesias – $22 million
7. Amy Schumer – $21 million . . . Her tour made bank, despite her having to cut it short because of a pregnancy-related health issue. According to data from Pollstar, her shows grossed an average of nearly half a million dollars per city.
8. Ventriloquist Terry Fator – $17 million
9. Jeff Dunham – $15 million . . . Yes, there are TWO puppet guys in the Top 10. Where did we go wrong, America?
10. Aziz Ansari – $13 million
The comedians from last year’s Top 10 that dropped out this year are: Dave Chappelle, Chris Rock, and Ricky Gervais.
