Piotr Redlinski for The New York Times 
 
 Eddie Brill, a longtime gatekeeper for rising stand-ups at “Late Show With David Letterman,” will no longer be the comedy booker at that CBS late-night series, ending the tenure of a respected and contentious figure in the stand-up comedy world. 
 
 A spokeswoman for CBS declined to comment on Tuesday. But a person with direct knowledge of operations at “Late Show” said the program was reverting to a system used before Mr. Brill was given wider latitude to choose stand-up performers. Under the restored system, a “Late Show” staffer will scout comedians at clubs and other performance spaces and invite them to perform in showcases for a group of senior producers. These producers will then decide which comedians to book on future broadcasts. The person briefed on these plans spoke on condition of anonymity because CBS and “Late Show” were not commenting on personnel matters. 
 
 Mr. Brill, who is expected to remain at “Late Show” as a warm-up comedian for its studio audience, recently stoked controversy with remarks he made in an interview with The New York Times. Asked why he booked more male performers than female comedians, he responded: “There are a lot less female comics who are authentic. I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men.” 
 
 His interview remarks were widely criticized by female comedians like Elayne Boosler, who wrote on her Facebook page that “Sexism, racism, closed doors & ignorance in ANY field in 2012 are unacceptable.” She added that Mr. Brill was someone who “blocks access to the show & keeps the quality level down to boost himself.” 
 
 But news about the changes in Mr. Brill’s duties was not universally applauded by female comics. Lisa Lampanelli, a comedian who has appeared as a “Late Show” interview guest, said in a telephone interview that Mr. Brill “was always a gentleman to me” and that she would be disappointed if it turned out he lost his booking role “over an opinion that’s pretty benign.” 
 
 “Everybody’s a baby,” said Ms. Lampanelli, who credited earlier bookings on Howard Stern and Jay Leno’s shows with helping her get onto Mr. Letterman’s program. “If the show doesn’t like you, move on, who cares? You’ll always get on the show you’re meant to get on.” 
 
 She added: “Tell these women to stop being wahhhh. By the way, for your fact checker, that’s spelled w-a-h-h-h-h.” 
 
 Mr. Brill’s position was already an awkward one at “Late Show”: In addition to booking comedians, he teaches comedy workshops and programs the Great American Comedy Festival, endeavors that were perceived as conflicts of interest. Other comedians had expressed concern that he could favor performers who paid to take his classes. 
 
 In addition, the arrangement at “Late Show” was unusual among late-night talk shows for the amount of decision-making power it consolidated in a single person. By comparison, TBS’s “Conan” employs a comedy booker, J.P. Buck, who scouts talent but also works with other bookers, the show’s executive producer and its host, Conan O’Brien, to set its stand-up lineup. On ABC, “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has multiple scouts and bookers who bring comedians as well as other celebrities and human-interest guests to the show. 
 
 Mr. Brill posted comments at the Web site of Mirth Magazine over the weekend, saying, “It is time for me to accept the consequences of my printed words … and to learn from this. I apologize to all who have been affected by this.” 
 
 Mr. Brill did not immediately reply to e-mail and phone messages seeking comment on Tuesday morning. 

 Besides picking and working with “Late Show” comics (and warming up the studio audience for Mr. Letterman) Mr. Brill teaches comedy workshops, programs the Great American Comedy Festival and occasionally judges stand-up contests. Many see him as a mentor. One young comic, Chanelle Futrell, calls him “a comedy philosopher.” 
 
 But there are also questions about conflicts of interest, particularly since only 22 comics, including Bill Cosby, Jerry Seinfeld and less famous performers, were lucky enough to get segments last year, and comedians presumably take his classes hoping for an edge in getting on the show. “He trades on the name of the show,” the young comic Anthony Jeselnik said. “He has workshops, a festival. He has the market cornered. I can’t believe Letterman lets him do it.” 
 
 Mr. Brill said that some criticized him for booking friends, but that he found the comics who were best for the show, regardless of connections or friendship. And Mr. Letterman insisted recently that Mr. Brill perform every year, Mr. Brill said. He describes his job as finding comics Mr. Letterman will like, adding that Mr. Letterman doesn’t do the booking: “I book the comics, and 99 percent of the time he enjoys it.” So to understand comedy today, this question matters: What makes Eddie Brill laugh? 
 
 He doesn’t like when comics open by asking the audience how they’re doing. He prefers punch lines to character-based comedy. For the show broad physical humor is not encouraged. Nor is mixing music with comedy. Brian Regan, who has been on “Late Show” 24 times, said he was dissuaded from telling a joke about Hitler. Steven Wright said the only suggested cut was a joke at someone’s expense. “It’s a humanity thing,” Mr. Wright said. 
 
 Bill Burr, a popular comic with several successful “Late Show” sets under his belt, credits Mr. Brill with helping him translate stand-up to television. “It’s not like a club,” Mr. Burr said. “The pacing is much slower. You can’t move side to side or you look nervous.” 
 
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 In conversations with a dozen comics as well as Mr. Brill about what he’s broadly looking for, two things come up repeatedly: honesty and vulnerability. About honesty Mr. Brill said: “If you have your base in reality, then you can have fantasy and be silly. But if your base is fantasy, then it’s really hard to have a reality.” 
 
 That’s why he would not book a comic like Tig Notaro, whose deadpan stand-up on “Conan” sometimes gives way to the kind of button-pushing stunt reminiscent of Andy Kaufman routines. Ms. Notaro is funny, Mr. Brill said, but not right for “Letterman.” Mr. Brill also called Kaufman one of his favorites, but not “in a stand-up scenario.” 
 
 Among some comics “Late Show” has a reputation for favoring a certain profile. “The types they seem to like are middle-aged white men from the Midwest,” the comic Amy Schumer said. Only one woman (Karen Rontowski) was booked in 2011. “There are a lot less female comics who are authentic,” Mr. Brill said. “I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men.” 
 
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 Jessica Kirson, a comic who has performed on “The Tonight Show” several times but not on “Late Show,” responded: “What does that mean?” She added, “I like Eddie but the only way to make it as a female comic is to have strength and be assertive and confident.” 
 
 What Mr. Brill seems most passionate about is the comic importance of vulnerability, the thread he says that ties together the greatest stand-ups. He encourages comics not only to attack the audience, but also to reveal their own foibles. It’s a lesson he learned from his comedy hero, George Carlin, who told him to try to mock himself along with everyone else. 
 
 Mr. Brill has frequently given this note. And while revealing weakness is a hallmark of so much great comedy, this position does make you wonder about counterexamples. Is Jerry Seinfeld vulnerable? “He’s an everyman,” Mr. Brill said. “He talks about being addicted to his cellphone and makes us all relate to him.” 
 
 What about Steven Wright? “There’s a sensitivity there.” Eddie Murphy from “Raw” and “Delirious”? “I never thought of him as a great stand-up comedian,” Mr. Brill said. “He’s a great comedy actor, like Bob Hope, but I never thought Bob Hope was a great stand-up comedian.” 
 
 Mr. Wright said he saw Mr. Brill’s point but added, “There’s no absolutes.” Mr. Jeselnik is more skeptical: “Who cares how vulnerable you are?” he said. “It’s about whether you’re funny.” 
 
 Mr. Brill is the first to admit that there are many very funny comics who aren’t right for the show. (He told Mr. Jeselnik as much, unsolicited.) But he doesn’t break the scene into old-fashioned or cutting edge, club and alt. Comedy, he said, is universal. “Mark Twain was as brilliant as Ricky Gervais,” he said. “People try to give labels and change what it is. But comedy has always been the same.”
– The Late Show's comedy booker has been fired following an uproar over his comments regarding women in comedy, the New York Observer reports. Last week, a New York Times profile quoted Eddie Brill as saying that "there are a lot less female comics who are authentic. I see a lot of female comics who to please an audience will act like men." He's been sacked for "speaking to the press without authorization," says the editor of comedy magazine Mirth. The magazine's criticism of Brill's comments sparked a war in its comments section. Brill fired back with a lengthy post saying his words had been taken out of context; that prompted disagreement from the author of the original Times piece. Later, Brill offered an apology, the New York Times notes, pointing out that Brill had already faced some controversy over conflicts of interest booking talent. Brill will stay on to warm up audiences at the Late Show, Mirth reports.