The town’s best buy in comedy is unquestionably the show at the Holy City Zoo, a snug little club at 408 Clement St. There’s no cover, no admission, and the price of a drink gets you an hour or more of live entertainment by an assortment of stand-up comics.
The performers are all local and work for nothing. Since the club has a capacity of slightly over 100 people, the house rule of “one drink, one set” isn’t about to enrich anyone. Not too surprisingly it’s always a tight squeeze for the SF Funnies’ nights, as they are called. They’ve been going for two years on Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, from 9 p.m. (The club’s other four nights are devoted to folk music. )Why do the Funnies work free? Because they consider the Zoo, as they affectionately call the place, their classroom.
“The Zoo is where comedians can show their wares and learn to work before an audience,” said Tony DePaul, the affable 30-year-old producer of the comedy nights. DePaul also tends bar and performs. He came to the club as emcee and worked up his own comedy act. He then persuaded owner Peter Reines to let him take over three nights a week.
Popularity wasn’t hard to achieve a DePail’s modest prices, and he lined up it dozen acts as regulars. The small room was too crammed, and it’s fame spread.
To find fresh talent, DePaul reserved Tuesday as “open-mike” night. Anyone who wants to perform is invited to the stage and given five minutes. Because of the uncertainty involved, DePaul always has a couple of his “heavy weights” on hand to take over the show and keep the audience happy.
Although it functions mainly as a training ground, DePaul also likes to think of the zoo as a clearinghouse for comedians.
“Club owners from all over the Bay Area are always dropping in. They are looking for comics, and our regulars get quite a few gigs at more commercial places like the Palms Café and Boarding House. I’m presently working seven nights doing gigs in San Jose when I’m not at the Zoo.
“We’re scouted all the time by TV producers. The local stations have found people here for specials, and some of our comics have gotten jobs in commercials.
“One of our people, Lou Felder, was picked up by Norman Lear for ‘Fernwood Tonight.’ On which he’ll do the Wonder Blender routine that he broke in at the zoo.”
The really big raid on the Zoo was by producer George Schlatter for his new “Laugh-In” company. Schlatter came from Los Angeles in search of talent and signed four Zoo regulars — Jim Giovanni, Robin Williams, Bill Rafferty and Antoinette Attell (Toad the Mime). They’ll be in the series when it starts up in September, along with Nancy Bleiweiss of “Beach Blanket Babylon” Schlatter also plans to do a San Francisco comedy special which will be taped August 4 at the Great American Music Hall. The show will feature the four zoo comics, plus a couple of others from the club.
DePaul talks about the Zoo’s “Laugh-in” bonanza with mixed pride and regret. He hopes people won’t forsake him, but will continue to perform at the club in their off-hours from the monthly series.
Tony feels the Zoo is now sufficiently popular to warrant charging a dollar or two admission. “We’re thinking of it,” he said. “There have been special evenings, like one with Robin Williams performing alone, in which we charged a dollar. It brought in pocket money for Robin, and people didn’t seem to mind paying.”
DePaul is optimistic that he can make up his loss to “Laugh-In.” “Comedy is very big in San Francisco,” he said. “Dozens of kids want to do it and we know that sooner or later they’ll show up at the Zoo.”