The Comedy Store: The club that changed British comedy

by William Cook

A few weeks after Margaret Thatcher moved into Number 10, a brand new kind of comedy club opened in a strip club in Soho. This innovative, unruly venue became the unofficial flagship for a fresh generation of comedians, who revived and transformed live comedy. It provided a crucial platform for these up-and-coming turns, who honed their craft on its tiny but prestigious stage. More than 20 years later, The Comedy Store remains an important springboard for modern comedy's rising stars. In this volume, comedy writer William Cook charts the eccentric story of this stand up and improvisational speakeasy, from its ad hoc origins in Soho's red light district, via its claustrophobic home beneath Leicester Square, to a slick purpose-built auditorium near Piccadilly Circus. Crammed with pictures, and with tales from bouncers, punters and promoters, plus interviews with past and present performers - including Clive Anderson, David Baddiel, Jo Brand, Julian Clary, Jack Dee, Eddie Izzard, Mark Lamarr and Alexei Sayle - the book offers an insight into the club that helped create not only alternative comedy, but the comedy circuit that continues to bloom today.

Paperback

First published November 15, 2001

About the author

William Cook is the author of Ha Bloody Ha - Comedians Talking (Fourth Estate), The Comedy Store - The Club That Changed British Comedy (Little, Brown) and 25 Years of Viz (Boxtree). He edited Tragically I Was An Only Twin - The Complete Peter Cook and Goodbye Again - The Definitive Peter Cook and Dudley Moore, both published by Century, and Eric Morecambe Unseen. He has worked for the BBC and written for the Guardian, the Mail on Sunday, the New Statesman and Conde Nast Traveller.

Reviews

[Alice · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sycophantic, repetitive, and overly long. Also - and disappointingly for a book about comedy - it's just not that funny.