Live Comedy L.A.

One visit to the Comedy Store should tell you that management has given up. One visit to the Comedy Store website should tell you they are out of touch. They are now in the business of apathy as opposed to the business of comedy, entertainment, and talent development. If you read the “Early Years” section of the Comedy Store website, their history ends in the 1980’s. In case you haven’t checked the calendar in a while, it’s 2008. What’s been going on there since then? Who knows. But a recent visit to “The Store” tells me creating a better business that promotes live comedy isn’t a priority.

Problems include:
1. No staff organization or clear presence of someone running the club.
2. 16 comedians in a line-up - not fun for anyone, including the comedians.
3. A gigantic Main Room originally designed for big names that can no longer attract the talent and the crowd to fill it, making it a cavern where great jokes disappear.
4. A pitiful web presence - the website looks like it was designed a decade ago, the Myspace page is visited very infrequently, and no other “web 2.0″ promotional tools are used.

There are no indications that any of this will change anytime soon. For the sake of the comedy world…for the sake of the talent that makes our entertainment world go round…and for the sake of helping people laugh…it’s time for the Comedy Store to sell.

I believe it makes sense for a major media company or movie studio to purchase the Comedy Store.

For a major media conglomerate, owning a venue such as the Comedy Store can work in several ways:

1. Training and Development facility for talent - Jerry Seinfeld, Ray Romano, David Letterman, Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Jim Carrey, Will Ferrell…all started in live comedy. Why not corner the market on talent early? Own the minor leagues. Own the talent pool. Talent is currency in this business. If I have a shot at getting A-Rod early and cheap, I’m taking it (that’s a sports analogy folks).

2. Testing facility for new concepts - wouldn’t it be great for Jimmy Fallon to run his test program in the Main Room at the Comedy Store.

3. Use as a promotional tool for current films, tv shows, and internet ventures by driving people to live shows.

4. Create a closer interaction with the press and the public through live entertainment thereby creating buzz and transparency.

5. Blend current stars with up and coming talent to create buzz for the next generation.

6. Gives the artists a setting to create - an environment where they are together and brainstorming concepts for your company. I have news for you…these people are brilliant writers.

7. Wrap the building in promotion - billboards on the Sunset Strip are expensive.

The list goes on…these are just some ideas. The Store has the size and the history to make an impact on the industry. With additional programming and management changes, it would be one of the premier entertainment venues in the country.

The bottom line is…a purchase by a media company makes more sense than anything else. It’s all about incubation. Worst case scenario, it’s a real estate investment in a piece of property on the Sunset Strip (almost positive they own the building).

So…let’s do this. Start talking to your friends…your friends of friends…and let’s make this happen.

Tags: The Comedy Store

This entry was posted on Sunday, September 14th, 2008 at 5:58 pm and is filed under Stand-Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.