DVD Review: The Comedy Store by Mike Binder

The Comedy Store
written and directed by Mike Binder (DVD 792.76 Com)

This five-episode documentary originally aired on the Showtime network in 2020, and came out later on DVD in 2021. The Comedy Store is a legendary club in Los Angeles, which opened its doors in 1972, and was expanded/renovated in 1976. The original facility has three different performing spaces — a main room and two smaller spaces, and all the rooms played host to many of the stand-up comedy legends of the past 50+ years.

 

Each hour-long episode of this documentary takes a look at a different era in The Comedy Store’s history. Shortly after it launched, Mitzi Shore received The Comedy Store from her husband in a divorce settlement, and she then spent the next several decades mentoring hundreds of comics and providing for an atmosphere that fostered the development of stand-up comedy.

 

Writer/director Mike Binder managed to conduct dozens of interviews with past and present comics, as well as unearthing tons of rare footage from past performances. What results is a fast-paced melange that is part “historical documentary” and part “personal remembrance”.

 

Because The Comedy Store was produced for a pay-cable network, the language is…colorful, and unfiltered…to say the least. But if you’ve only ever heard about The Comedy Store, and never had the opportunity to visit it, this will be an educational experience. Whether you’re a fan of old-school comics like Robin Williams, Whoopi Goldberg, Richard Pryor, Jay Leno, Andrew Dice Clay and David Letterman, or you lean more towards today’s comics, like Whitney Cummings, Joe Rogan, Andrew Santino, Ilza Shlesinger and Marc Maron, you’ll find something of interest in this look back at stand-up comedy history. I was particularly moved by the fact that this documentary not only pays tribute to so many comedians that have left us (Williams, Pryor, Sam Kinison, etc.), but also features recent interview segments with artists like Bob Saget and Louie Anderson, who’ve passed away just in the past few weeks.

 

(If you enjoy this, you may also wish to try the Showtime TV series, “I’m Dying Up Here“, which preceded this documentary, and addresses (in a fictionalized setting) the 1970s comedy club scene. This has NOT been released to DVD at this time.)

 

( Internet Movie Database entry for this film ) | ( official The Comedy Store documentary page on the Showtime web site )

 

Recommended by Scott C.
Bennett Martin Public Library — Public Service

 

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