When The Belly Room Grew — and Flopped — for Female Comics
Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen
PRX
4.6 • 675 Ratings
🗓️ 20 March 2018
⏱️ 16 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
In 1978, there were more female comedians in LA than ever before, and many of them were performing at the Comedy Store. But that didn’t mean they were treated fairly, or even given much of a chance to perform.
The Comedy Store’s owner, Mitzi Shore, tried to rectify that with an experiment — a room dedicated only to female performers. It was a move that was warmly welcomed by some comedians, and treated with a lot of skepticism by others. It was a great place to develop a unique style that might not have played with mainstream audiences, because audiences rarely showed up. Here’s the story of the ups and downs of the Belly Room.
Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | From PRX. |
| 0:07.1 | This is Studio 360. |
| 0:08.8 | I'm Kurti Anderson. |
| 0:12.4 | But Louis is like the turning point. |
| 0:14.1 | I mean, you know, his allegations was the only one that made me, like, laugh. |
| 0:18.4 | A few months ago, Dave Chappelle gave the world his take on the Me Too movement and the |
| 0:24.6 | sexual misconduct committed by his fellow comedian, Louis C.K. |
| 0:29.2 | It's terrible. I know it's terrible. I'm sorry, ladies, you're right. You are right. |
| 0:34.4 | But at the same time, I mean, you know what I mean? I don't know. |
| 0:38.5 | Jesus Christ, they took everything from Louis. |
| 0:40.5 | I was like, I don't know, it might be disproportionate. |
| 0:44.3 | I can't tell. |
| 0:45.9 | I can't tell. |
| 0:46.7 | This is like where it's hard to be a man. |
| 0:48.6 | They took everything from Louis. |
| 0:50.1 | It's hard to be a man. |
| 0:52.1 | Really. |
| 0:53.1 | But what really was surprising and ironic |
| 0:56.2 | was the venue where Chappelle made that case. |
| 0:59.5 | He was doing his bit at a small room |
| 1:01.6 | at a comedy club in Los Angeles, |
| 1:04.0 | a club that 40 years ago was set up |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from PRX, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of PRX and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.