Prague-born Kurt Robitschek spent his early years working as a freelance journalist before moving into comedy in the early 1920s.

In 1924 he founded the Kabarett der Komiker (Cabaret of Comedians) along with Paul Morgan and Max Hansen and was the day-to-day manager and director of the venue over the next nine years. He emigrated to Vienna in 1933 then onto Paris and London before settling in New York in 1938.

He unsuccessfully tried to re-establish the KadeKo in New York, under the name Ken Robey, but went on to find considerable success as a promoter touring vaudeville shows across the US.