After watching Showtime’s fascinating 5-episode documentary, The Comedy Store, directed by Mike Binder, I realized how grateful we should be for Adam Eget, his revival of The Comedy Store, and his contributions to the new comedy hub – Austin, Texas.
Adam Eget was The Comedy Store’s manager and talent supervisor. He is credited for bringing the legendary LA club out of the dark years, where it had fallen away from its deep history of producing the best comedians of all time. After his successful run with The Comedy Store, he moved to Austin, Texas and was a key figure in opening of Comedy Mothership, Austin’s premier comedy club.
While not a comedian himself, he is widely recognized in the industry as a behind-the-scenes expert and is friends with the top comedians in the industry.
Prior to managing The Comedy Store, Eget managed the Tempe Improv comedy theatre in Tempe, Arizona and co-hosted the Norm Macdonald Live talk show, with he and MacDonald being best friends.
If you don’t know, The Comedy Store is the legendary comedy club in Los Angeles, California, best known for consistently producing the funniest comedians, dating back since the 1970s.
Guys like Richard Pryor, David Letterman, Dice, Jay Leno, Chris Rock, Sam Kinison, Robin Williams, Jim Carrey, Joe Rogan, Jeff Ross, Whitney Cummings, Tony Hinchcliffe, Tom Segura, and basically everyone else, all used this club as their training grounds and home base. Many of them started working as doormen for the club, earning their rite of passage.
How Adam Eget Revived The Comedy Store
When Adam Eget left Tempe Improv in Arizona and became a manager at The Comedy Store, he worked under legendary Talent Manager Mitzi Shore. Though she, suffering an illness described by some comedians as dementia, had turned talent management over to Tommy Morris.
During Mitzi’s illness and Tommy’s management, The Comedy Store lost its way. The club had been taken over by comedians, jealousy, and bad apples. Comedians with “bigger names” would show up and hog stage time, sometimes for hours at a time, depriving young talent from getting any stage time.
The club stopped investing in itself and had gotten sick from the inside out. Many comedians, both famous and up-and-comers, left over a preference to perform at The Improv, Hollywood Improv, and The Laugh Factory.
Tom Segura: “When I came here what I remember was, like it was not very inviting.”
Paul Rodriguez: “You’d come here and nobody knew you, and I remember one time walking in here and the place was empty and you’d feel really sad. You’d go ‘Wow’.”
Tom Papa: “It’s just a ghost town, it’s dark, it’s like you knew something happened here at one time.”
Louis C.K.: “When I got there, it was like a haunted house. Like a lot of the guys that lived there had died and were haunting it.”
Eventually Tommy was out and Eget was put in charge as talent manager and club operations. Immediately Eget began to put his mark on The Comedy Store and aspired to return the club to its long-standing reputation of being a home base and proving grounds for the best talent in comedy.
One of the first things Eget did was refurnish the club’s appearance both inside and out. He put big money into advertising, cleaned up the rotten furniture and carpet inside the club, designated parking outside for comedians, all while keeping The Comedy Store’s uniqueness and heritage the same.
Eget immediately started recruiting back the comedians who had left like Joe Rogan, Joey Diaz, and others who had stopped coming, although Rogan had been banned from the ‘Carlos Mencia incident.’ And he cleaned up the nightly lineup, not allowing big-names to hog all the stage time.
Leslie Jones: “Adam did a big, big boost for the club.”
Nikki Glaser: “He’s made an actual effort to bring in more women.”
Adam Eget Brought Joe Rogan Back to The Comedy Club
One of the best things that Eget did for The Comedy Store was bring back legendary stand-up comedian and JRE podcast host Joe Rogan.
Rogan’s first experience with The Comedy Store was when the club’s appeal had already fallen off and was in the dark years. Rogan said, “When I got there in ’94 it was bad, but it was good sometimes. Like, sometimes Martin Lawrence would show up…so you’d get these glimpses.”
Later, Rogan had been banned by the club’s manager, Tommy Morris, for the famous Carlos Mencia incident where he called Mencia out for joke stealing.
Other comedians were hurt by the club’s decision to ban Rogan, because they felt like it was showing alliance to Mencia, the bad guy, because he was more famous than Rogan at the time.
Bert Kreischer said, “The banning of Joe was a genuine f*ck up cause he stood for what was good.”
When Eget took over, he sought to make amends with Rogan and bring him back to The Comedy Store. At first, Rogan was reluctant and still had some bad taste from the complicated situation with Mencia. But, Rogan’s good friend, Ari Shaffir, filmed his special at the club, which cracked open the door for Rogan to come back and stay for good.
Also see: The Top 20 Best Friends of Joe Rogan
Eget described Rogan’s reluctance of coming back on The Comedy Store documentary:
“He was very apprehensive of coming back because of the terrible experience. He did so much for the club, he purchased the sound equipment in this room and he gave so much to this club and he really got the shaft in that whole Mencia fallout.” – Adam Eget
Later, Eget would visit Joe Rogan’s podcast studio and was in episode #1481.
The Comedy Store documentary on Showtime, directed and hosted by Mike Binder, is a fascinating and hilarious watch, and Eget is featured throughout.
Eget’s New Adventure in Austin: Comedy Mothership
After his successful run with The Comedy Club, Eget was one of many top talent in the comedy industry that left Los Angeles for a new city with big potential as a new comedy startup – Austin, Texas. Top comedians that made this venture included Joe Rogan, Tom Segura, and Tony Hinchcliffe, among many others.
The club in Austin, called Comedy Mothership, was orchestrated in large part by Rogan and Eget, with Rogan purchasing the famous Ritz building on 6th street in 2022. With Eget’s top talent and managerial skills leading the club, it has brought in the top comedians in the industry and serves as a platform for rising up and comers.
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