San Francisco's Best Comedy Clubs

October 1, 4:51 PMSF Comedy ExaminerAlicia Dattner

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The Punchline Comedy Club

1. The Punch Line Comedy Club  Dave Chapelle's favorite workout room... in the past several years he has given three and four hour long performances that run until 3 am.  The Punch Line runs the only professional weekly showcase in San Francisco (Sundays at 8:00 pm), making it the best place to see lots of up and coming new talent who don't suck as well as the best comedians from around the country who don't yet have or want a sitcom.  To see comics with sitcoms, go to...

2. Cobb's Comedy Club  You can see Robin Williams, Damon Wayans, Janeane Garofolo here...  In the comedy boom of the 1980's, there were nine comedy clubs running in San Francisco.  People couldn't get enough of the stuff.  As standup began to saturate the TV market and comedy clichés were born, few clubs kept running.  Cobb's Comedy Club and the Punch Line were head-to-head competitors, being the last two major comedy clubs in San Francisco.  When Cobb's moved locations from The Cannary to it's new home on Lombard and Columbus, they tripled or quadrupled the size of the house.  And, the bigger, the house, the bigger the act needs to be to fill the house.  Cobb's was eventually bought by BGP, who owns the Punch Line, and the two rooms were dileneated into big and small venues instead of competitors.
 

3. The Purple Onion in North Beach has a long history of hip, independent music, comedy, and art.  It's been revived and now showcases comics on the bleeding edge of standup as well as classic living legends like Mort Sahl.  You can see Something People Like every Wednesday at the Onion.