Mitzi Shore, whose club was a comedy mecca, dies at 87

LOS ANGELES—Mitzi Shore, owner of the Los Angeles club the Comedy Store and an influential figures in stand-up for more than four decades, has died. She was 87.

Spokeswoman Jodi Gottlieb released a statement from the club announcing Shore’s death, calling her the “legendary godmother of the world famous Comedy Store” and “an extraordinary businesswoman and decades ahead of her time who cultivated and celebrated the artistry of stand-up comedy.”

“Mom/Mitzi passed Early in the morning at 4:42 a.m.,” her son, the comedian and actor Pauly Shore, tweeted Wednesday, “my heart lays heavy.”

No cause was given, but Pauly Shore had been tweeting in recent days that she had been in hospice, and legal documents filed by her family said she had Parkinson’s disease and other neurological issues.

Starting in 1974, Mitzi Shore gave comics gigs, advice, guidance, a clubhouse to hang out and talk shop in and occasionally a stairwell to sleep in.

“No words can express the gratitude I have for her,” Jim Carrey tweeted Wednesday, along with a drawing of himself with Mitzi Shore. “We met in 1979. She opened the door to my dreams! If she loved you, you did well. If she didn’t, you did something else. I will love her forever.”

Born Mitzi Saidel in Marinette, Wis., she took over ownership of the 2-yearold club on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip after divorcing its co-founder, comedian Sammy Shore, in 1974.

She arrived at a moment when a huge stand-up boom was erupting, and became a queen over the scene, with arguably more power than anyone to make or break the career of an up-and-coming comedian.