Lee Mack summed it up when he said: "The Comedy Store is the gig that every comedian wants." Emma McAlpine talks to owner Don Ward about the club that changed British comedy forever.
French & Saunders, Chris Rock, Jack Dee and Michael McIntyre have all bombed there but it’s only made them more determined to succeed. The Comedy Store is the breeding ground of legends and even after 31 years it is still the only venue that every comedian in the country is desperate to crack, because once you have, as Marcus Brigstocke puts it “It makes you feel like a king.”
Still thriving, it now has sister venues in Manchester and Mumbai and even made a profit during the credit crunch. If anyone was in any doubt as to whether the Store’s glory days were over, they need only look to this year’s Chortle comedy awards, where the flagship London and Manchester premises were voted ‘best purpose-built venue’ and ‘best Northern venue’ respectively. The reason behind its ongoing success is undoubtedly down to owner Don Ward.
Now in his late sixties, Ward is still very much in charge and agrees to meet me for an interview in his Piccadilly venue which he visits most days of the week. A man many comics claim both nurtured and bollocked them, he’s nowhere near as formidable as I’d imagined. Having not even been born when the Store first opened in 1979, it’s easy to forget quite how far live comedy has progressed since then and how much the Store has shaped the scene we know today. Ward fills me in:
“Live comedy used to be awful. It was your Bruce Forsyths, Les Dawsons and Bernard Mannings. Mother-in-law jokes, racism and sexism. I went to America in ’78 and saw what was going in LA. People were having a go at the government and it was quite observational. Compared to the banana skin jokes at home where there’s a definite casualty in every joke, it was amazing stuff to behold.’”
Ward was inspired and decided to turn his Soho-based variety club into the UK’s first purpose-built comedy venue. Joining forces with insurance salesman Peter Rosengard, the pair each put in £1000 for ‘signs and printing’ and began the hunt for suitable comics. “We put ads out in Private Eye, Punch, the Jewish Chronicle, Bricklayer’s Weekly! It said something like ‘Are you doing the wrong job? Are you a funny person but have nowhere to present your talent? Here’s your chance.” Hoping maybe 20 people would show up at best, Ward was pleasantly surprised to find over 100 people queuing outside his club for an audition. The first man through the door was Alexei Sayle, who he promptly made resident compere: “He was so different to anybody else. He was today’s comic for young people.”
Alexei Sayle
Opening night saw the likes of Ade Edmondson, French and Saunders, Nigel Planer and Andy de la Tour on the bill: the new generation of alternative comics. As the months went by, word started to get out about a pioneering London club, putting on exciting, innovative comedy. Robin Williams famously dropped by for a five minute slot and was such a hit he was still on stage 45 minutes later. During its ‘80s heyday, The Comedy Store became the breeding ground for every major name in alternative comedy, but it took many a while to hone their craft.
“French & Saunders had some terrible gigs here,” Ward chuckles. “I used to pay them £15 and I’d say, ‘Are you really going to take it?!’ and they’d reply, ‘You bet we are, and we’re taking it straight to the bar.’ I thought, ‘Well that’s fine, as long as it’s coming back again!” Jack Dee also struggled there before he hit upon the infamous sardonic persona that turned his act around. “He’d come in wearing biker’s leathers and a helmet, take off his kit, get on stage, die on his arse, put all the kit back on and sneak out the club pretending to be a pizza delivery man before he got lynched!”
One of the few places you could get a drink late at night, Alexei Sayle described it as ‘a circus’ in the early days, before they worked out crowd control. Ward agrees: “Alexei and I used to get an old vaudeville hook to grab people with but it hurt someone in the neck so we had to get rid of that.” Ward then proposed a gong show format, where the fearsome Sayle would keep the crowd (and the comics) in order by banging the gong and telling them no uncertain terms when it was time to leave.
Hearing stories about the ‘80s comedy scene always makes me feel like I’ve missed out on a very cool party that will never happen again. I wonder whether Ward himself ever feels wistful about those early days? “Yes I suppose so. I miss the adrenaline of doing something exciting and new. It was like the early days of punk, we knew we were making history. I think that’s why Alexei walked away from it eventually. It became extremely focused. Everyone wants to be the next Michael McIntyre now and get on television.”
Perhaps chasing that original adrenaline rush, he’s now attempting to carve out a new culture of comedy in India. Having waited 20 years before opening up a second venue in Manchester in 1999, he recently teamed up with Indian entrepreneur Amar Agrawal to open a 300-seat Comedy Store in Mumbai, designed for English-speaking locals rather than ex-pats. “Each week, international comics come over and there’s a change of programme. I’m also holding auditions over there and I’ve found six good Indian comics so far. We have a ‘local heroes’ night there every Wednesday where they go up against international comics and we usually fill the room to about 60-70%.”
It’s obviously an exciting new venture for Ward and no wonder. With no precedent for English language comedy in India, it must feel like 1979 all over again. ‘Retire’ is not a word he cares to consider. “Playing golf? You can forget it. I’ll be working till my dying day!”
See all upcoming Comedy Store events
Returnt to the London Comedy homepage
Add an event
Review: The Company You Keep
Robert Redford, an iconic face of Western cinema whose influence for decades has weighe...