World’s highest paid comedian nets $69m

Comedian Jerry Seinfeld

By Joshua Olomu

American comedian Jerry Seinfeld has emerged world’s highest- paid comedian by earning 69 million dollars in one year.

The 63-year-old stand-up comedian and actor topped the list of 10 highest paid comedians released by Forbes Magazine on Friday.

According to Forbes, the rating is based on the Hart’s total earning between June 2016 and June 2017.

The magazine reported that a huge Netflix stand-up deal boosted Seinfeld’s bottom line to the whopping 69.0 million dollars.

Seinfeld’s pal Chris Rock is second on the list with a 57 million dollars, followed by Louis CK, who earned 52 million dollars.

Dave Chappelle and Amy Schumer round out the top five with 47 million dollars and 37.5 million dollars, respectively, while Sebastian Maniscalco is at the bottom of the list earning 15 million dollars.

Surprisingly, Kevin Hart, who was named the highest paid comedian in 2016, moved down to the sixth position with a 32.5 million dollars earning.
Forbes noted that massive deals for TV comedy specials, like 20 million dollars per-special contracts, that Rock and Seinfeld scored, are what bolstered the incomes of most of the top comedians.

Forbes added that it created its list based on revenue from touring, television and film projects and business and endorsement deals.

It calculated the figures on the comedians’ pretax income from June 1, 2016, through June 1, 2017.

Jerry Seinfeld, known by fans as “insurmountable King of Comedy” has maintain the lead on the highest earners list since 2006,except in 2016 when he was displaced to second position by Kelvin Hart.

He is an actor, director and stand-up comedian ‘observational comedy’, often ranting about relationships and embarrassing social situations.

In 2005, Comedy Central named him as “12th Greatest Stand-up Comedian of All Time”.(NAN)