You may not know the name Mitzi Shore, but odds are you’re well acquainted with the comedians whose careers she helped launch: Richard Pryor, David Letterman, Jim Carrey, Jay Leno, Robin Williams, Chris Rock, Garry Shandling, Sam Kinison, all just to name a few. These names, among the dozens of other A-list comedians Shore helped introduce to the world, owe their fame in large part to clubs like The Comedy Store, which Shore co-founded in Los Angeles over 50 years ago. The Comedy Store was famous not just for introducing groundbreaking comedians to the world, but also for helping to break the comedy glass ceiling by not only allowing female performers on stage in an age where such a thing was a rarity, but also by holding comedy nights designed specifically for LGBT performers.
The Comedy Store was not without its controversy, however, and the club’s regular performers banded together to go on strike, demanding compensation for their performances. Shore began paying her performers $25 per show, which had a monumental impact on the standup comedy profession and the industry as a whole. From a TIME magazine article:
“The strike's impact was far-reaching. Comedy clubs in New York City began paying their comics as well. Clubs that were springing up around the country were then forced to boost their fees too, to lure more top comics out on the road—launching the comedy club boom of the 1980s.”
Despite the controversy at the time, Shore was highly regarded, and her contributions to the world of comedy won’t soon be forgotten!
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