by I’m Dying Up Here may have died after two seasons on Showtime, but the pay cable network is going directly to the source material for a new four-part docu-series about The Comedy Store and its late great owner Mitzi Shore.
This is not news to anyone who has visited the Store earlier this year. I saw film crews all over the club during separate visits to the famed Sunset Strip venue in February and March.
Now for the actual news about the documentary project, which will premiere sometime in 2020:
Mike Binder, himself a former young Comedy Store comic in the 1970s, is directing and executive producing. Binder plans to include never-before-seen footage and emotional interviews — he already has convinced Richard Lewis to return to the club for the first time in 40 years (since the strike and the infamous suicide of Steve Lubetkin).
“The Comedy Store is a magical place – it’s Juilliard for stand-up comics, the Bolshoi Ballet of comedy,” said Binder. “It’s an honor for me to be able to return home to my roots, and I am so grateful to be able to tell this remarkable story.”
