THE SUPERSTAR JAM, WITH ME TO FOLLOW

Published by Rick on Tagged Uncategorized

In 1987, The Comedy Store was supplying me with enough income that I could have stayed in LA the whole year and made a comfortable living. But during that 80’s Comedy Boom there were road rooms that were also being very generous, paying airfare and lodging, and one that I worked in Texas even supplied me with a rental car. It was inevitable the boom would eventually go bust, but in the meantime, we were partying heartily.

The Store on Sunset had three paying rooms open on weekends, and if you were in Store owner Mitzi Shore’s good graces, you could work the 300-seat Main Room Tuesday thru Saturday and make at least $500 for the week, not bad for 15-minute spots a ten-minute drive from where I lived at the time. In addition, there was the room in La Jolla near San Diego, which booked the same lineup Wednesday thru Saturday with two shows on Friday-Saturday, and the comics stayed in a beachside condo where you would be woken in the morning by the sound of the ocean. Then there was the Las Vegas room, at the late great Dunes Hotel, which sat 600, and booked five acts to do 10-12 minutes for 15 shows a week, for which I was paid $100 per show. In 1987, I think I worked that cushy gig six weeks total. That party would end by the 1990’s sadly, though the La Jolla room is still going.

For me, the big disadvantage was that Mitzi somehow perceived me not just as the closing act to end the evening, which sometimes meant playing to the remaining 10 or so diehards who refused to believe the evening would end, but I was also the designate to follow whatever self-proclaimed superstar would want to do a “quick drop-in,” and then an hour later, after his ego had been satiated, finally cede the stage to me. It was very rare that I ever went on before midnight in any of the rooms at the Sunset Blvd. club.

But one night, September 16, 1987 to be exact, that lateness and the superstar factor worked to my advantage. It was a Saturday, and I was scheduled for midnight, closing the show in the Main Room, which would pay 60% of the door split among only 5 comics. The room was totally sold out, so easily $300 for my 15 minutes, certainly worth waiting for, even if I would have to wait a couple hours and play to the remaining drunks. When I checked into the room, I noticed Eddie Murphy was on stage. By the way, I’ve heard many stories about the ego-driven asshole Murphy was reputed to be, but in all my encounters with him, I never saw any examples of that behaviour. From his entourage, that’s another story!

I said to myself, “Oh well, Eddie will probably do 45 minutes, just means my midnight set will be more like 12:45-1:00.” Then the doorman informed me that also waiting in the wings to do guest spots were Richard Pryor and Robin Williams! I started waving bye bye to that nice paycheck, assuming these three combined would go on until 3:00 at least. I had certainly seen it before. I did have a chat with Robin backstage about various things, not mentioning that I might miss out on my spot. We mostly had a silly conversation going back and forth with all the two word phrases we knew for male homosexuals. I don’t even remember what triggered that discussion, very politically incorrect, but it was a much different time. The usual phrases, like Squat Sergeant, Rear Admiral, Butt Slammer, and Dick Smoker were bandied about, but I made him laugh out loud with Colon Camper, one he’d never heard. I never checked to see if that found its way onstage.

Mitzi was there that night, and told me that because of the superstar factor of the night, and that it was clear she was making some big money that night, she was going to pay all the other acts that were on the bill, even though none of them would be performing. Somehow she determined that one of the regulars, i.e. ME, should close the show and go on whenever this triumvirate decided they had done enough. And just to make my job even more difficult, all three of them would be onstage at the same time! The words “sacrificial lamb” ran through my head many times over the years at that club, but never as much as this night.

Their performance was actually fun to watch, even though I noticed time ticking close to the 2:00 witching hour closing time, though I’m sure most of the crowd would have been happy to stay even if they couldn’t legally buy any more drinks. As Pryor and Robin riffed together, Murphy felt a little bit left in the dust, and his anxiety was clearly showing. After about a minute of saying nothing, he finally interjected “Hey! I only work from a script!” which prompted Robin to stand behind Murphy and pretend to be his puppeteer, encouraging Eddie to move his lips while Robin supplied the words. Robin did a pretty good impression of Eddie’s voice too. Then, as the clock approached 1:30, a strange thing happened: They said thank you and goodnight!

After the thunderous standing ovation died down, the emcee (Blake Clark) walked out and calmed the crowd to say “Believe it or not folks, the show is not over.” He stalled for a minute or two to let the crowd recover, then introduced me. Surprisingly few left. I don’t remember much that I did that night, except for my opening line, which was “Thank you folks, and what’d ja think of my opening act, huh? I think I’ll be taking them on the road with me.” That got enough recognition that I got considerably more response the rest of the set than I expected. A triumph for the little guy, resulting in Mitzi rewarding me for many months after. Lovely time indeed.

August 17th, 2021



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