Customer Reviews

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

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How did this story go untold for so long? Before some of America's best known comics were household names in homes like yours, they were household names in but their own homes. That is, they were nobodies. And most of those homes were hovels. This book tells the largely untold story of how they -- or at least many of them -- made it big while turning standup into a business and art form as culturally vital as rock and roll. Though you'll instantly key in on people like Robin Williams and Richard Lewis, after but a few pages you'll feel like you're best friends with a lot of people that I at least had never heard of, and root for them in their many battles against unfair working conditions, addiction and changing tastes. Author Knoedelseder is a reader's writer --he respects your intelligence and your time. He's got a witty, engaging style that makes you feel like you're chatting over a beer or cup of coffee and the writing is super tight. Not a wasted word. You won't be able to put this one down.

I really enjoyed this book. It's about a labor dispute in 70's in Hollywood, the twist is that the disputers are a bunch of stand-up comedians, many of whom will become famous. It's a treat to see them young and struggling and to get the inside story on relationships between people who have since become iconic. All of the characters,even the unknowns (at least to me), are colorful and the plot reads like a novel.

When the Tonight Show moved its base of operations from New York to Los Angeles in 1972, the world of comedy was completely upended. Instead of working out their routines at NY nightclubs, any up-and-coming comedian worth his salt had to relocate to LA as well. Why? Because, in those days the Tonight Show was considered an unavoidable rite-of-passage for any comic who aspired to bigger things like Vegas, record albums or TV and movie stardom. The stars who received Johnny Carson's nod of approval, were often invited back and would eventually become household names in their own right. Jay Leno, David Letterman, Robin Williams and others would all be beneficiaries of the move in years to come.
In order to get `discovered', these comics needed a platform to woodshed their material and to get in the field-of-view of the show's cadre of talent scouts.
Enter the Comedy Store.
As a reporter for the Comedy Beat of the prodigious Los Angeles Times, Bill Knoedelseder had a ringside seat for the development of the LA comedy scene emerging at the Sunset Strip nightery as well as it's Melrose counterpart, Budd Friedman's Improv. Between the two clubs passed nearly all of the renowned comedians of the 70s thru 90s. Richard Pryor, Jimmie Walker, Leno, Williams, Andy Kaufman, Sam Kinison, Richard Lewis, Elayne Boosler and dozens more all worked out at the club in it's heyday.
Trouble was, the club's legendary owner, Mitzi Shore (yes, Pauly's mom) never believed in paying the talent. "It's a showcase room," Shore would insist, not a place for comedians to earn a living. Eventually, Shore's policy would blow up in her face as the comics formed their own `union' and tried to boycott the club in an effort to gain at least a meager stipend from the dictatorial Shore.
It is, in fact, the story of the Comedy Store and it's remuneration policy that takes up the bulk of Knoedelseder's book. Nearly every detail of the strike is outlined here including the suicidal death of despondent comedian Steve Lubetkin, who jumped off the roof of the Hyatt Hotel next door to the club in a fit of depression.
All in all, Knoedelseder's account of the LA comedy scene of the era is as complete as one could ever expect from a book on the subject. The fact that there is not much humor in a book about comedy is a bit lacking, but perhaps given the psychological profile often associated with comedians, not such a surprise.

This book does a wonderful job of humanizing people we know only as performers - David Letterman, Tom Dreesen, Richard Lewis and many other well-known comedians. You see them off stage, as real people in real and often difficult situations. It's also one of the best books I've ever read about the cut-throat business side of "show business." If you have any interest at all in the history of stand-up comedy (not how to do it - you won't find that here) and what makes comedians do what they do, I highly recommend this book. If you're looking for laughs, you'll find a few here, but there are equal parts tragedy, so don't pick it up expecting big yuks on every page.

This is a wonderful book that captures the feel, the significance and the emotions of the era. While it is exciting to read about Dave and Jay's origins, it is the stories of Richard Lewis, Tom Dressen and Steve Lubetkin that give this book so much heart (a heart that The Washington Post's reviewer must not have).

As noted in another review, there are errors and I hope that they are corrected in future editions (e.g. Howie Mandel's name is spelled wrong and Howard Cosell's variety show was on ABC and not NBC).

"I'm Dying Up Here" is a great yarn--a funny and moving story, suspenseful, even, in its depiction of a tightknit community that eventually unravels. The jokes, the riffs, the gags are there--there are hilarious moments throughout. But Bill Knoedelseder has done a fine job of awakening these figures who are either unknown to most of us or (more of a challenge, I think), too well known. He gives them dimension and dignity and, best of all, he gives them real human frailty.

This book has made me think a lot about the recurrent spiral of ecstatic coherence and heartbreaking dissolution that every band of brothers and sisters dances through. It's Camelot, it's the Beatles, it's every great run that comes to an end, it's what we keep looking for when it's not there, that feeling of "we chosen few" that can't last but is never forgotten.

Knoedelseder has delivered a solid read, a captivating tale, and an honest tribute to those who take on the heroic and essential task of making us laugh.

Once in a great while, a writer will manage to cast in a new and fascinating light, what we think of as familiar territory. In this fabulous chronicle, Bill Knoedelseder takes a cast of characters well known to -- and loved by -- most of us (Leno, Letterman, Richard Lewis, Robin Williams, et al) all at the beginning of their respective rises to iconic pop culture status, and spins a yarn around an (until now) little ballyhooed, but pivotal moment in their respective lives...the Comedy Strike of 1979.

Set against the backdrop of the birth of the contemporary stand-up comedy scene in Los Angeles, Knoedelseder writes with a strong and sure voice about the lives of some of our favorite comic icons as they intersected in and around a little Sunset Blvd. club called the Comedy Store. With a true insider's knowledge, he tells us of the loves, failures, successes, and rivalries, of a tight-knit family of performers, riven by their opposition -- or allegiance -- to the reigning diva of the LA comedy scene at the time, Mitzi Shore.

Don't miss this! You will never think of stand up comedy the same way again.

I'm quite a devotee of stand-up comedy and comedians of the 1970s in particular, so I was quite keen to read this account of the Comedy Store's impact on the industry, as well as a peek into the career origins of such well-known people as Letterman, Leno, Richard Lewis, etc.

The book is a very easy read, the author does have an engaging style that doesn't get too bogged down in minute details that don't add anything to the story.

That said, I have to point out two things. First, that not once, but twice, the author credits Billy Crystal with being in the cast of 'Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman.' To the best of my knowledge, and after searching the internet, I can find no reference of this. If this is indeed wrong (as I suspect), then it's pretty sloppy. Secondly, George Miller (frequent talk-show guest and fine comedian) is mentioned a number of times, including near the end when the book mentions his memorial service; yet we are never told how he died, although from the references to Miller throughout, drugs were probably involved.

Great read for fans of stand-up, and especially interesting to see the seeds being sown for meteoric careers like that of Letterman. It's sad that stand-up comedy isn't quite the same today as it was back in the "good old days."

Straight up - I found this a very hard book to put down! It pretty much describes the efforts of comics in the 70's trying to get paid, by breaking the 'norm' of performing for free under the guise (which in some cases was indeed genuine) of giving them the opportunity to showcase their acts. In presenting this polemic the author makes a genuine effort to remain unbiased and by doing so presents the effects on both sides with clean sensitivity. The reader is made to feel as though they are there 'on the front line' as it all unfolds.

The book also provides a great insight into what comics went (and still) go through to hone their performances in an attempt to 'make it big' in the business.

In particular, I really enjoyed reading about Leno, Letterman, Dreseen, Kaufman, Shore... and Lubetkin. I don't feel there was anything really missing.

My only real criticism is in relation to the coherence of the work. The book, particularly in the earlier chapters, tended to switch subjects/topics that didn't initially appear directly associated. I would then have to return to these subject later which therefore had me 'flicking back' to work out who-was-who?!

Having said that - I would still highly recommend this book, particularly for those who desire insight into the grass roots experiences of those starting out in 'the business' and /or what it was like for those such folks in the 1970's `Golden Era' of Stand-up Comedy.

In other words, the high points of the book...specifically the rise to fame of many of the comedians profiled... compose the majority of the book and their interactions with each other are what stick out the most. The two main conflicts regard the comedians "strike" regarding pay and the suicide of Steve Lubetkin. The strike, unfortunately, doesn't hold the same vigor or intrigue to carry the book as the first half did (although it does contain arguably the funniest thing Jay Leno's done in his entire career.) The Lubetkin death, while a significant event in the souring of the stand-up attitude in L.A., is undermined a bit due to the narrative having a poorly executed subtext the onset hinting that he's emotionally unstable. The seeds are planted far too soon that he'd do something drastic, and until his final days, this foreshadowing became more annoying than intriguing.

As a whole, the book is an enjoyable read, but don't be surprised if your interest wavers towards the final chapters.