Bay Area Stand-Up Comedy: A Humorous History

By Nina G and OJ Patterson

Comedians of the San Francisco Bay Area changed comedy forever.

From visiting acts like Richard Pryor, Steve Martin and Whoopi Goldberg to local favorites who still maintain their following and legacy, the Bay Area has long been a place for comedians to develop their voice and hone their stand-up skills. Popular spots included Cobb's, the Purple Onion, Brainwash, and the holy grail of San Francisco comedy during the 1980s boom, the Holy City Zoo. For over seventy years, these iconic venues and others fostered talent like Ali Wong, Moshe Kasher and the Smothers Brothers, introducing them to local crowds and the world beyond.

Join comedians Nina G and OJ Patterson on a hilarious and thoughtful tour through the history of Bay Area comedy.

• Language: English
• Publisher: The History Press
• Release date: Feb 14, 2022
• ISBN: 9781439674468

Nina G

Nina G is a stand-up comedian, author and disability advocate. She performs and gives keynote speeches at colleges, companies and conferences across the world. She is the author of Stutterer Interrupted: The Comedian Who Almost Didn't Happen and the children's book Once Upon an Accommodation: A Book About Learning Disabilities. Nina is a fifth-generation Bay Area native and resides in Oakland. She contributes to books, blogs, articles and podcasts. For more on Nina, go to www.NinaGcomedian.com. Oj Patterson is a writer, comedian and homebrew historian born and raised in Pittsburg, California. A "retired stand-up," he's contributed to numerous online and print publications, including his award-winning blog Courting Comedy and as an entertainment copywriter. OJ Patterson currently resides in the Greater Los Angeles area and unofficially has the best laugh in the room.

Book preview

1

BEFORE THERE WAS STAND-UP COMEDY

The Bay Area is rich with histories of many people and communities. The first of these begins with the Ohlone and Miwok people who lived throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. There were many Ohlone villages, including three located on what we now know as Oakland. As the first Europeans came, so did their missions occupying Native land (Dolores in San Francisco, San Rafael in the North Bay and San Jose in the East and South Bays). Spanish-Mexican rancheros like the Peralta family of the East Bay came to establish their lives and livelihoods. As United States citizens came across the country, they grabbed land from the rancheros whose missions had previously grabbed the land from the Native people. Americans would establish the cities that we know today. Yerba Buena Island became San Francisco, while land farther east that was once called Contra Costa soon became multiple cities, with the biggest being Oakland in 1852. Contra Costa translates from Spanish as opposing coast to denote the proximity to San Francisco. Opposing coast would be a social and cultural identity that cities like Oakland and Berkeley would one day grow into and embrace.

There are certain events that are closely associated with the history of the San Francisco Bay Area. These include the gold rush, the earthquakes (1906 and 1989), immigration, establishment of ethnic enclaves and the great migration of African Americans. All of these and more play a part in the cities where the stories and history within this book occurred. For example, the gold rush established San Francisco as an anything goes city where streets are named after the sex workers who occupied them. The underworld that developed during Prohibition would one day turn into the legal bars and nightclubs where San Francisco comedy would flourish. The tolerance for the fringe would welcome beatniks, hippies and the off-beat comedians who were countlessly referenced in articles about Bay Area comedy starting from the 1950s to today.

Stand-up comedy is a uniquely American art form. According to comedian and comedy historian Ritch Shydner, Artemus Ward, who set out to humorously parody lectures that were popular in the 1850s (think funny but faux TED Talks), was the first stand-up comedian. As the first, he had the challenge of acclimating audiences to public laughter, which was taboo, especially for women. Ward was working on the East Coast when he received a telegram inviting him to perform at the Maguire Opera House in San Francisco. The theater was located at 618 Washington Street. The change of locations was welcomed because with the Civil War raging, many audiences in war-torn America didn’t feel like laughing. The San Francisco audiences were receptive to Ward and the new art form. The price of admission was paid with gold nuggets. Ward performed around Northern California and Nevada. Shydner adds that Ward often performed for mining camps, alerting potential audiences nearby that there was a show by a lighting a bonfire. Ward was friends with Mark Twain, who also made his stand-up comedy debut in San Francisco.

Essanay Studios in Niles. Courtesy of the Niles Essanay Silent Film Museum.

This book will broadly examine the 1950s to the present day in the San Francisco Bay Area. Although he did not fall in this period, it is important to acknowledge Charlie Chaplin’s time in the Bay Area, as it mirrors some of the experiences of the comedians who would come after him. Charlie Chaplin filmed five one-to-two-reel shorts while working in Niles, a small town bordering the city of Fremont. Currently, Niles is part of Fremont. Although Chaplin was not a stand-up comedian, his universal influence on comedy is undeniable and thus important to include here due to his early comedic connection in the