Here’s Why Louis C.K. Wasn’t Approved to Perform at the Comedy Store

When David Letterman was a young comic, he loved performing at the Comedy Store, he told Louis C.K. in 2015. “There is no better location for a club, especially in Los Angeles, than right there on Sunset Boulevard,” he raved, “looking out at the beautiful lights and the nighttime and the sunset.”

C.K. didn’t disagree, but his experience at the Comedy Store was a little different than Letterman’s. Unlike other comedy clubs, getting booked required the personal approval of Mitzi Shore, the Comedy Store’s legendary owner. “You have to pass the audition there,” he said, “no matter who you are.”

Despite being a “known comedian” with several appearances on Letterman and other late-night shows under his belt, C.K. had never performed at the Comedy Store. At one point, he finally called the club and asked if he could do some sets there. The club made it clear — despite his success, he’d still have to pass the audition. 

C.K. was game for the tryout. He came in for his audition, and Shore sat at a small table directly across from the stage. She had access to a light in the back of the room that the club would flash to let comics know their five minutes were up. It was also Shore’s way to signal whether or not a comedian had passed muster. 

Cue C.K. He took the stage, said hello and started a joke. “The light went on immediately,” he remembered. “And I thought, Well, that can’t really be it so I keep going.”

But that really was it. C.K. described seeing Shore at her table, pointing at the comic and gesturing with her thumb to get off the stage. “I’ve been doing this for like 20 years,” he told Letterman. “I’m not going to get off stage after 10 seconds. So I did like five minutes. The audience liked me, and then I left.”

It was the last five minutes C.K. would do at the Comedy Store for years. “My manager called,” the comedian remembered. “She said, ‘I hated him! He’s terrible!’ So I wasn't allowed to work there.”

Letterman couldn’t believe it. Even if Shore didn’t love C.K.’s comedy, she’d love his notoriety. 

The comedian shrugged. He did perform at the Comedy Store in Shore’s later years, but he claims she never knew he was there. He was even promoting a pay-per-view special, Live at the Comedy Store, that he was pretty sure Shore didn’t know about. “If she sees it, she’s going to be like, ‘That kid doesn’t work my club!’”

Letterman wanted to broker some kind of peace treaty, but C.K. was resigned to his fate. “The fact is that people just don’t like me sometimes,” he explained. “You have to just accept the fact that some folks just hate you.”