Craig Glazer, comedy club owner who ‘lived his life with his hair on fire,’ dies

Craig Glazer, comedy club impressario and all-around colorful character, died late Wednesday or early Thursday at Research Medical Center.

Longtime friend Ted McKnight confirmed Thursday that Glazer, thought to be in his mid-60s, had been battling several health issues, including leukemia.

“Craig lived his life with his hair on fire,” McKnight said Thursday. “He was a very colorful guy. He would very seldom bite his tongue in the sense of how he would say things.

“I think everybody should have a friend like that, that’s going to tell you the truth as opposed to sugar-coating things,” McKnight continued, “and Craig was like that.”

Glazer most recently was comedy promoter for Stanford’s Comedy Club in downtown Kansas City. It was the latest stint in a career spent owning or managing comedy venues — in Westport, the Legends and elsewhere — along with his father, Stanford Glazer, and late brothers, Jeff Glazer and Jack Glazer.

“We are one of the oldest family-owned comedy clubs in the United States,” Craig Glazer told The Star in 2014. “My father, brother and I had the idea of doing comedy shows featuring David Naster on Sunday nights.

“We booked a lot of young comedians who couldn’t get jobs elsewhere, such as Sinbad and Louie Anderson,” Glazer continued in the story. “We then became a hub ... for young comedians like Sam Kinison, Gabe Kaplan and Jerry Seinfeld, who weren’t ready for the handful of clubs on the West Coast.”

Craig Glazer was preceded in death by his two brothers. Jeff Glazer died April 29 of complications from a brain tumor. Jack Glazer died in an automobile accident in 2011. Stanford Glazer currently lives in Arizona.

The brothers and their father were at odds at times. Stanford Glazer lost a lawsuit against Craig and Jeff Glazer in 2000. He had claimed they had broken an oral contract to pay him $5,000 a month as a royalty for transferring the comedy club to the sons.

Craig Glazer attended Shawnee Mission East High School. He later developed relationships with both Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier, producing the boxing documentary “Champions Forever.”

Glazer wrote a memoir about his experiences in the 1970s posing as an undercover drug officer, setting up deals and then making off with the money and the drugs.

In 2001, Glazer said he planned to run for mayor of Kansas City to raise the city’s profile.

Listing his qualifications to a Star columnist, Glazer said: “I’ve been in jail. I’ve been in a gunfight. I’ve hung out with movie stars. I’ve built a business up from the ashes. I’ve lived life.”

Months later he was indicted by a federal grand jury for conspiracy to distribute cocaine. He pleaded guilty and was sentenced to three years on probation and fined $5,000. Prosecutors said Glazer’s role had been buying small amounts of cocaine to offer performers and others at his comedy club. He’d had previous cocaine convictions in 1975 and 1985.

Glazer told Judge Nanette K. Laughrey that he had matured and apologized for breaking the law. Laughrey had sentenced other drug offenders to prison but she told Glazer, “I think we benefit in Kansas City by having you here in the community and making a contribution to it.”

McKnight said he was given charge of Glazer’s cellphone when he went into the intensive care unit at the hospital. McKnight said he had to turn it off because so many people from across the country were calling when they heard Glazer was ill.

Glazer’s beloved dachshund, Junior, also had recently died.

“Now they’re back together again,” McKnight said.

This story was originally published August 16, 2018 at 6:00 PM.