It’s Not All Laughs at The Comedy Store

In the long history of the building sitting at 8433 Sunset Blvd., The Comedy Store picked up not long after Ciro’s left off. In 1972 comic Sammy Shore (best known as Elvis’s opening act) and his partner Rudy deLuca opened The Comedy Store as a club for stand-up comics to perform and hang out. This was excellent timing since 1972 was the same year that Johnny Carson moved the Tonight Show from NYC to beautiful downtown Burbank. This gave younger, edgier comic talents a better chance to get valuable exposure on the Carson Show.

While The Comedy Club was a hit, Shore’s marriage tanked and in 1976 his ex-wife Mitzi purchased the building. Ms. Shore made some major changes like renovating and expanding the space to include a 450-seat main room. Over the next decades, the club and the house played host to practically every famous stand-up comic in the entertainment industry.

In 1979, the club began hosting the HBO Young Comedians specials and that was also the year it was hit was a labor strike by comics who got tired of being paid in “exposure.” Famous funnymen like Jay Leno and David Letterman could be seen picketing on the sidewalk in front of the club. The dispute was eventually resolved with comics who played The Comedy Store getting paid.

When Mitzi Shore purchased The Comedy Store, a home located just north of it came with the deal and the house at 8420 Cresthill Road would become a crash pad for aspiring comics new to  L.A. or just passing through. 1979 was also the year that Mitzi Shore opened the Cresthill house to aspiring comics and over the next decade, the structure became a frat house for the era’s top comedians including Sam Keniston, Andrew Dice Clay, Robin Williams, Richard Pryor, Bill Hicks and Jim Carrey. This was a bunch of wild and crazy guys so alcohol, drugs and debauchery became the order of the day until Mitzi Shore evicted all of them in 1988.

Given the history of 8433 Sunset, with all the crazy things that went down at Ciro’s and The Comedy Store, it wouldn’t be a major surprise that the building just might be haunted. Last year L.A. Times reporter Lorraine Ali took a film crew from “Ghost Adventures” to scope out the club using their state-of-the-art spirit-hunting technology. 

“This place was built in the 1930s and from the 1940s through the 1950s it was Ciro’s nightclub, which was a hangout for mobsters like Bugsy Siegel, Mickey Cohen,” explained Ali. “ And through the decades they’ve reported growling in the basement. The lights flicker on the stage. Apparently, comedian Sam Kinison has reportedly levitated on the stage, not of his own accord. Anybody that works there, works in the background or the comedians that are there late at night, have had stories of something spooky that has happened to them.” 

Alas, the “Ghost Adventures” gang failed to unearth any spirits but longtime regulars of the venue still tell tales of doors slamming, lights flashing and a piano that plays itself. Maybe these stealthy spirits don’t want to be discovered.

Happy Haunting, WeHo!