Stewart feels right at home in S.F. return
Traveling comedians, like musicians, have a reputation for not knowing where the hell they are.
Jon Stewart, booked as a headliner at Clusterfest in San Francisco on Sunday, June 3, had the added degree of difficulty of jumping out of a plane less than 24 hours earlier at the Warrior Games in Colorado. I would have forgiven him for dropping a “Hellooo, Sacramento!” upon taking the stage.
But from the moment I met Stewart backstage before a preshow Q&A I was scheduled to moderate (after covering the comedy and music festival as a reporter on Friday and Saturday, June 1 and 2), it was striking how comfortable the New Yorker was talking about San Francisco.
The former host of “The Daily Show” got the fine details right, including an unprompted Mitchell Brothers namedrop and very specific memories of comedy performances in the Bay Area. His first local performance was at San Francisco’s Punch Line comedy club on Oct. 22, 1989, less than a week after the Loma Prieta earthquake.
Clusterfest was Stewart’s high-profile return to touring as a stand-up comic. He’s scheduled to start a national tour with Dave Chappelle, beginning with stops this month in Boston, Houston and El Paso, Texas. There were plenty of memorable moments
during the more than hourlong onstage conversation, including Stewart’s enthusiastic defense of Samantha Bee, who dropped an expletive aimed at Ivanka Trump on her show “Full Frontal” last week.
Here are a few San Francisco-centric highlights, beginning with the only question that had a right or wrong answer: Was LeBron James’ crucial NBA Finals Game 1 defensive play a block or a charge?
(It was clearly a block.)
Stewart was asked about the controversial fourth-quarter foul call, which was reversed by officials and called as a block on James. Imagine Stewart gesturing wildly during the beautiful rant that followed, then mock-storming off stage ...
Jon Stewart: It’s a bang-bang play that when you break it down into increments like that, into milliseconds, yeah, you could see that as, you know, a block.
That was a charge. Like, it was a charge. LeBron shouldn’t have been called for the foul.
(Crowd lets out a smattering of boos.)
How many championships do you motherf—ers need? You have the best team in basketball!
(Crowd cheers)
Let me just explain a little bit. I’m a Knicks fan. All right? So just even the idea that you’re a hair’s breadth away from a victory or defeat in the championship based on a blocking foul? Do you know what I’ve been dealing with? I’ve got season tickets to the Knicks. I’ve been going to the games. Like it starts out OK, and then the team that we end up with is just like guys from the G League.
Hartlaub: I’m very sorry about that.
Stewart: No, you’re not! You’re delighted. You’re all delighted!
(Crowd cheers)
And I’ll go even one better. You and your f—ing, “I’m in a world championship in baseball every other year.” I am out of here!
Earlier in the interview, Stewart was presented with a listing from The Chronicle’s archives showing his name on a Punch Line bill. He opened for comedian Bobby Slayton less than a week after the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake.
Stewart: I opened for Bobby Slayton in 1989 at Punch Line, which was right after you had a very significant earthquake.
Opening for Slayton was great because Bobby is a legend up here. And so he took me out to all the various neighborhoods, and we ate great food and went on the Lenny Bruce tour — where all the greats played. … the hungry i, Purple Onion and those kinds of clubs.
(I remember) there was a man clearly living on the street — and this is just a testament to Bobby’s popularity in San Francisco: As we walked by, (the man) looked up and said, “Bobby Slayton, comedian extraordinaire!” … Like Ulysses, Bobby Slayton is on a journey of humor.
Asked later about the quality of his early comedy, Stewart began with sarcasm …
Stewart: It was phenomenal! The audience all said, “This kid’s got it!”
I sucked, I was terrible. I moved to New York in late 1986, first got onstage at the Bitter End in New York in 1987 in April and then sucked for like the next five years so, thank you.
The idea that you could be paid to come out to San Francisco, and Bobby and I played Walnut Creek …
(Crowd cheers and woos)
Really? Unless Walnut Creek has changed drastically — now it is a lovely place, but it is not “woooo” worthy. It was fine, but here we have the city, and we stayed down in the Tenderloin district.
(More cheers)
That, I believe, is “woooo” worthy.
From there, the conversation meandered into what traveling to San Francisco meant to Stewart, with an audience that appreciated comedians. I interrupted his flow to talk about the Mitchell Brothers O’Farrell Theatre, a strip club in the Tenderloin district of San Francisco, formerly owned by brothers Jim and Artie Mitchell.
Stewart: San Francisco is a sophisticated (comedy) town, you have that understanding of what that journey is like. … (The 1980s) was gladiatorial to some extent. In ranks of the hierarchy, you had Spielberg and Nicholson (on top), and then it kind of devolves down to the Mitchell Brothers club and all that. And then we are below that. Stand-up was never considered this high art form.
This is all new, the festivals and the idea that a person of worth would try stand-up comedy. Back then it was, “Oh, you blew college.”
Hartlaub: By the way, Mitchell Brothers is a great local drop. Stewart: I drop Mitchell Brothers in every city I go to. Is it still here?
Hartlaub: Yes it is still here, down the street. But the brothers are no longer with us. Stewart: They have gone to the big dildo shop in the sky? Hartlaub: (Turns to audience)
For people coming from out of town, Mitchell Brothers is a very storied exotic dancer club. Stewart: Sure, let’s call it that.
The conversation turned to comedy audiences and how different stand-up comedy is for Stewart since “The Daily Show” made him a household name. Which brought up the now-closed Punch Line in Walnut Creek again.
Hartlaub: Doing Punch Line in Walnut Creek, you probably got audience members who are not on your side coming in ... Stewart: Punch Line in Walnut Creek was the pinnacle of those kinds of gigs . ... The Punch Line chain, the Improv chain, the Catch chain — those kind of clubs were run very well, and they had a certain standard of performance. … It was probably the only gig I got like that in 1989 because Bobby Slayton got it for me. They didn’t book me. Bobby had seen me perform at the (Comedy Cellar in New York) and he was like, “Hey, let’s do it, let’s go f—ing around in San Francisco.”
I was just excited to be there for the ride . ... I was honestly there on Bobby’s coattails, because it is not how they saw me.
Stewart also discussed his decision to return to the road. Stewart has two children in their tween years.
Hartlaub: Tell us about the decision, and why you decided to make San Francisco your first stop on this new journey. Stewart: Journey? You make it sound like “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” ... Part of it was I just didn’t have time doing the show, but I love stand-up. That is how I started, and I feel it is my identity, and the unfettered version of this business.
But (“The Daily Show”) for me was so immersive that I just didn’t have any energy to go out on the road as much as I would have liked to. … It is funny to me because I don’t see this as a return but that I have more time. And my family, who I have gotten to know a lot because I am there now for the last couple years … now they are ready for me to go on the road again.
I thought it was going to be like, “Hey man, we are going to take van trips,” and my kids are playing “Fortnite.”