I'm Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy's Golden Era

Comedy was king in Los Angeles in the '70s. And the Comedy Store in Hollywood was one of the focal points of that movement. "I'm Dying Up Here" details the rise and fall of comedy in LA.

A free space was offered for comics to try out their stuff, called the Comedy Store. But the owner made money while the comedians struggled. A strike was called that forever split the comedians into two camps.

A lot of familiar faces are here, including David Letterman, Jay Leno, Elayne Boosler, Richard Lewis, Andy Kaufman, Robin Williams ... imagine what it must've been like to see these talented people on their way up!

Greed and drugs destroy some of the comedians, and success and failure pretty much destroys the rest. All the while, the comedy keeps show more coming.

This was an amazing book to find for $2 at Half Price Books. That's why I love the place. And this is one book I recommend to friends.

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A history of the mid-1970s stand up comedy scene at Mitzi Shore's Comedy Store in LA (including Jay Leno, David Letterman, Richard Lewis, Elayne Boosler, Robin Williams, and many more), written by a journalist who covered the comedy beat for decades and knows the comics from that scene well. This is very readable, although sometimes a little scattered as Knoedelseder tries to capture the antics and personalities of a whole stable of comedians. The book gets better as it focuses in on the organization of a group to protest the lack of payment for comedy "showcases" even when the Comedy Store and other clubs were bringing in thousands of dollars in cover and drink money. The standoff between the young comedians and the stubborn Shore is show more interesting and (for the most part), well told, there are some great digs at strike-buster Garry Shandling, and the death of one of comedians at the end of the strike is really moving. Knoedelseder has some writing quirks (some of which are pretty sexist in an old white dude journalist clueless kind of way -- are all lesbians really "militant feminist lesbians?"), but he knows his stuff and any lover of the comedy scene will find something to love in this book. I'm still trying to figure out why we the lives and careers of stand up comics and professional chefs are so super interesting, but that's probably a question for another venue.... show less

I listened to this on audio. Man oh man does this book cover some ground. I learned not only of the comedic origins of David Letterman (the wise elder of the group; seriously), Robin Williams, Jay Leno, Richard Lewis, Richard Pryor ... and Pauly Shore (the latter "comedian's" origins I inferred from the narrative; that is because Mitzi Shore, Pauly's mom, ran LA's Comedy Store, where the aforementioned giants got their starts, and whence sprang the blight on the 90s that we who watched MTV back then knew as "The Weeze"; one senses a mother's nepotistic hand nudging the frizzy headed surfer dude stage-ward, is my point) ... but of the terrible fate of one sad soul named Steve Lubetkin, who leaped to his death from a neighboring hotel and show more landed practically on the Comedy Store's front doorstep. I'll forgo the obvious showbiz pun. Lubetkin's story is a chilling one for those, like me, who've tried and (so far) failed to realize their artistic ambitions.

Resquiat, Lubetkin. show less