I’m Dying Up Here

"This is a book about the Comedy Store, which is a famous comedy club in Los Angeles, and the main story revolves around the comedians’ strike that happened in 1979. Some of the comedians weren’t getting paid to perform, because the owner of the club, Mitzi Shore, who is still the owner of the club, saw the Original Room as a place for younger comedians to work out their material and grow, so she didn’t think they should be paid for that. Her theory was that this isn’t considered a professional room, these were young comedians still working on becoming professionals. Also, she wanted people to be free to try stuff out, because with some clubs there was a lot of pressure about who was going to be at the club, which made more inexperienced people nervous. The problem was that all the comedians were asking for was ten dollars to cover their gas. And she kept saying no, no, no, so the comics went on strike. And some of the comics that were striking were people like Jay Leno and David Letterman. Leno and Letterman were actually part of the group of comics that did get paid because they performed in the Main Room, which was considered a professional room. Still, they went on strike to support the other comics who were not getting paid. So Mitzi ended up giving in. And to this day if you are performing in that room you work for 15 minutes and get 15 dollars. The idea being that it’s a place to work out, not a place to get rich. It’s great. The Original Room really maintains that experimental vibe that Mitzi wanted for it. Definitely Tuesday, Wednesday, sometimes Thursday, you feel like, ‘OK, this is where I am going to experiment with my material and try new stuff,’ and on the weekends you tend to go a little more with your regular material. I have been a regular there for 11 years and ever since I became a regular my comedy grew exponentially."