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The Comedy Store

RPM

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Pos rep for posting, I love the history of standup comedy.  My only hope is that the :10 clip of Nikki Glaser is all she gets in the film as well.  And that Pauly Shore is kept far away from this project despite it being his mom's joint.  

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13 minutes ago, Lobo said:

Pos rep for posting, I love the history of standup comedy.  My only hope is that the :10 clip of Nikki Glaser is all she gets in the film as well.  And that Pauly Shore is kept far away from this project despite it being his mom's joint.  

I got good news and bad news. Nikki gets a bit more that :10. Pauly and his brother Peter were Exec Producers and have some small screen time. But the story is about the venue and comedy culture. I didn't realize how accurate Showtime's "I'm Dying Up Here" was.

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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Yeah, that's what I figured.  Still, this looks awesome.  Especially since it looks like they get basically every great standup who is still alive.  The true "inside baseball" comics will tell you that the Comedy Store, the Cellar in NYC were the most critical to what we think of as modern standup now, and that in third place was a tie between Denver and Boston.  And then everybody else way down the list.  You wouldn't think of Denver and Boston as standup hallmarks, but they were/are.  But yeah, the Comedy Store was, and still is, King.  And you made it there, then you got Carson.  You do well on Carson a few times, you get a few specials out of it.  You get a few specials out of it, you get your own show or a residency in Vegas. That's how it worked for 25 years.  Now, there's a 100 ways to skin that cat...but for most of the greats...this was it.  Cool to see they've got some vintage footage of some of the deceased greats.  

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RPM

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3 hours ago, henrygandorf said:

i'm clearly just in here by myself at this point.

No sir, you are not. The Kinison bits were hard, but they reinforced my admiration for "I'm Dying Up Here". That series covered a lot of ground that I thought was fiction, but turned out to be docudrama. I would have liked to party with Mitzi.

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Neonmoon

Neonmoon 38130

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Speaking of comedians 

Why doesn’t the the Comedy Store or whoever do a bubble audience and have comedians film a bunch of specials. Maybe they don’t have the material without practicing? But would it be too much of an investment to rent out a Ramada Inn and just have the same 100 person audience tested over and over again, and let comedians do work? Film specials?

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Guest Lobo

Guest Lobo

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There's a cool app that's doing something like that now.  They're empowering the comic to curate some previous sets at particular venues or festivals, and then give us the "inside baseball" look at how those specials were crafted.  Most fans know the drill...these folks first do pop up stage time in big markets, then they hit the road and test their shit at random spots around the country quietly to see how it plays from Spokane to Hartford.  Then they'll do the massive formal tour with one show at the start or finish being filmed for the streaming special and/or DSP release. 

Comics differ from musicians in that their "rough-cuts" leading up to an album or special aren't owned by the label.  There's no IP to the "master tapes" because there aren't any.  And venues don't typically have any control over them either.  Yeah, every once in awhile you'll have a comic who splices in the "behind the scenes" to a special where he/she shows a few minutes of a set at a smaller venue leading up the big theater.  But that's about it.  Anyway, the manner in which we enjoy B-sides, outtakes, unreleased live shows, demos, behind-the-scenes, etc.  That's coming for standup comedy.  It's coming soon because we need content in that space right now and this is one of the few ways they can broadcast it.  Eventually, things will get back to normal, but junkies like us will stick around with this channel to see the "man behind the curtain" as it were.  

Anywho...feels good to laugh.  

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BBQ2Bayou

BBQ2Bayou 807

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On 10/12/2020 at 10:44 AM, RPM said:

I got good news and bad news. Nikki gets a bit more that :10. Pauly and his brother Peter were Exec Producers and have some small screen time. But the story is about the venue and comedy culture. I didn't realize how accurate Showtime's "I'm Dying Up Here" was.

Is there one that should be watched before the other? 

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Whitewater Horn

Whitewater Horn 968

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Really enjoying this show so far.  Like others have mentioned, I’m a huge fan and consumer of stand up, and have always been fascinated by that scene and the inner workings of that world. There are a number of clubs around the country that could warrant and support this kind of documentary or docu-series. Even casual fans of comedy know The Comedy Store and The Comedy Cellar. Excluding this year of course, I always make sure I get a couple of trips to the Store when I’m in LA, and a night or two at the Cellar when I’m in Manhattan. The lineups and drop ins at those places on any given night (outside of open mics) has reached the point of well known and established killers one after the other. I love shows like Crashing, IDUH, and Marvelous Ms Maisel,  but it’s really cool to have a no bullshit documentary series telling the story of one of the iconic comedy clubs from the point of view of comics for whom the Store was or still is their “gym” to develop and work out their sets. And for whoever doesn’t like the schtick of Pauly Shore or Nikki Glaser, they’re not doing their material in the show, just providing anecdotal testimony about the club and the scene. It’s definitely worth a watch if you’re a fan of comedy beyond just enjoying the finished product of the one hour special. 

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Whitewater Horn

Whitewater Horn 968

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12 minutes ago, Wanker Bob said:

Has the popularity of the comedy store and this documentary all been a result of Rogan and his comedy store buddies talking it up so much on his podcast over the last 10 years?

That may be a contentious matter of opinion. Personally, I don’t think so, but Rogan, along with many others, certainly benefited from an improved climate change within The Comedy Store after he was allowed to return around 6 or 7 years ago. For anyone not familiar with that, Rogan had a falling out with his representation after calling out one of the Store’s biggest stars at the time, Carlos Mencia, as a habitual and unapologetic joke thief, the unforgivable sin of the stand up world. Rogan’s call out and confrontation with Mencia was supported by the working comics, but not by the the club manager, and he wouldn’t be welcome there until years later. On the other hand, I’m sure The Comedy Store has received a lot of positive exposure to more people because of all the different successful podcasts hosted by LA comics who work out of that club. That club has been iconic since way before the likes of Joe Rogan, but having a podcast with that reach surely doesn’t hurt. 
 

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but the thing that interests me about “the Rogan effect” is how or if his move to Austin will affect the comedy scene here. Like you mentioned, him and his buddies, as well as other LA comics/podcasters, talk up The Store with the fondness of it as their local gym. They talk about it being an inclusive environment with a tight not community that encourages and fosters comedians. I don’t see Rogan, and others, coming to Austin without some confidence of being able to create a comparable creative comedy scene that will attract more established and up and coming talent. It will be interesting to follow what happens with comedy in Austin. 

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Nope

Nope 3143

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48 minutes ago, Whitewater Horn said:

That may be a contentious matter of opinion. Personally, I don’t think so, but Rogan, along with many others, certainly benefited from an improved climate change within The Comedy Store after he was allowed to return around 6 or 7 years ago. For anyone not familiar with that, Rogan had a falling out with his representation after calling out one of the Store’s biggest stars at the time, Carlos Mencia, as a habitual and unapologetic joke thief, the unforgivable sin of the stand up world. Rogan’s call out and confrontation with Mencia was supported by the working comics, but not by the the club manager, and he wouldn’t be welcome there until years later. On the other hand, I’m sure The Comedy Store has received a lot of positive exposure to more people because of all the different successful podcasts hosted by LA comics who work out of that club. That club has been iconic since way before the likes of Joe Rogan, but having a podcast with that reach surely doesn’t hurt. 
 

I don’t want to hijack the thread, but the thing that interests me about “the Rogan effect” is how or if his move to Austin will affect the comedy scene here. Like you mentioned, him and his buddies, as well as other LA comics/podcasters, talk up The Store with the fondness of it as their local gym. They talk about it being an inclusive environment with a tight not community that encourages and fosters comedians. I don’t see Rogan, and others, coming to Austin without some confidence of being able to create a comparable creative comedy scene that will attract more established and up and coming talent. It will be interesting to follow what happens with comedy in Austin. 

Not to derail but Rogan has repeatedly said he’s opening a comedy club in Austin once the covid coast is clear.

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10 hours ago, Whitewater Horn said:

Speaking of Rogan, Episode 4 just dropped and it’s called “Joe Rogan Returns.”  Interested to see how much spin is put on this telling of that situation. 

Seems to me they laid it all out there.

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Whitewater Horn

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6 hours ago, RPM said:

Seems to me they laid it all out there.

I think it was a pretty thorough account of that time. I was curious to see if Binder was going to round up and interview all of the people who were either Team Mencia or the ones afraid to NOT be Team Mencia. It’s pretty clear that what Rogan did was overdue and he obviously ended up on “the right side of history” so to speak, but that happened way before Rogan had anywhere near the cache in that scene that he had these days. When Redban’s video got out there,  before “going viral” was this everyday thing, it was one of the biggest and most public call outs of a joke thief we had seen. The impact was greater because Rogan didn’t do it behind Mencia’s back, he confronted him in front a paying crowd and other comics. I was pretty “meh” on Rogan’s standup at the time, but appreciated that he had the nerve to bring to light this issue with Mencia that other comics were pissed about, but didn’t want to rock the boat with Mitzi and lose spots. It’s also cool to see that the known joke thieves are largely irrelevant these days, and that The Comedy Store scene rebounded and is flourishing, at least when there’s not a pandemic. 

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henrygandorf

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last night was the worst of the series, i thought, but still some good info and interviews.

i first moved to la in 1999 and we went to the occasional comedy show, but never at the comedy store.  it was a shithole, and now i understand why (and for how long).  back then the good shows were at the laugh factory or the improv, and there was stuff going on at the groundlings or ucb that was worth watching or i had friends involved or whatever.

the culture of these places overlaps, it's not just a comedy store exclusive thing - the good ones all have comics hanging out, hoping for time, and working out material for their specials or late night appearances.  from ~1996-2005 you could go see leno at the hermosa comedy and magic club every sunday night doing material that would appear during the coming week's monologues. 

i think that's one of the more fascinating parts of not just the clubs, but the profession.  actors do small plays.  writers can usually wrangle up some table reads with friends of friends, but comedy needs to be done on a stage with live ammo.  you have to get your ass kicked even if it's at 2am in front of 6 drunks.

when i saw louis ck at the comedy store about 4 years ago, he did about 90 minutes, and the last 15 minutes, he took a notebook out and was like, "ok, sorry about this, but i need to figure some of these jokes out, so what you're about to hear, is mostly untested garbage."  and much of it was.  half jokes without follow-up or runners.  some were just random off the cuff topics that he wanted to see a reaction to.

you can see a lot of this in crashing, the hbo show (in case anyone was unfamiliar).  there was also a documentary on epix about the improv, plenty of clips out there, not sure anyone has the whole hour: 

(actually looks like amazon might - https://www.amazon.com/Improv-Years-Behind-Brick-Wall/dp/B07B8RNQYD )

 

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DallasHorn26

DallasHorn26 586

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On 10/24/2020 at 4:01 PM, Neonmoon said:

Speaking of comedians 

Why doesn’t the the Comedy Store or whoever do a bubble audience and have comedians film a bunch of specials. Maybe they don’t have the material without practicing? But would it be too much of an investment to rent out a Ramada Inn and just have the same 100 person audience tested over and over again, and let comedians do work? Film specials?

I think Dave Chapelle has been organizing something like this with "Camp Chapelle". There have been comics, musicians, poets, and the like visiting his farm over the summer in front of small audiences that are tested as they enter. I think I've read somewhere that they've been filing, so it wouldn't surprise me if a Netflix special is in the works with this.

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