• Wally's Comedy Club • 1983 • Gil Cable
Bob Rubin
Jeannene Hansen
Chris Titus
Wally Smith • Host and bleeding-edge Producer
Those truly were the days. And not just in hindsight. I just wish I had foresight to know it then. Such a great time to explore who we were all going to become.
So weird to look at this now. 43+ years later! I was a very immature 24. Jeannene’s was my second show. The only talent I had was no fear. Man, I was awful. But I do remember how fun it was to fail. Maybe that’s why I’ve done start up companies the last 42 years. They are just a series of daily failures until they succeed.
Recovered Episodes
Bob Rubin
Bob’s set still holds up. Bob showed up with his posse, not knowing exactly what the show was. When he saw what he got himself into his best line was how the show was being “beamed around the block.”
I ran into Bob 10 years later and gave him a copy of the tape. I don’t think he remembered doing the show, I didn’t really know Bob, but as fate would have it 35 years later I became one of the producers of his Netflix special. ~WS
Jeannene Hansen
I didn't expect this to be my big break into broadcast television. However, the breakneck speed of my delivery wasn't nerves, but no audience, except for the crew manning the canned laughter button. Whether my material deserved it, is up for debate. But I appreciated Wally's playful hosting as a great foil for 'the couch' segment. Nothing was on the line & everybody was having fun in that spirit… the spirit of Xmas! ~JH
Wally Reflects
CalvaLcade of Comics
Chat on the couch
Surprisingly, these tapes aren’t destroyed from forty years of degradation.
It cost me $50 a week for the studio and I had to use my friends to run the camera and the soundboard which is also fully obvious because they were mainly beer drinkers.
My skills were painful to watch but I take comfort in knowing they validated my career move to the boring world of tech ~WS
San Jose
Gil Cable
The shows were taped in San Jose. More specifically it was for Gill Cable change 2B. You actually had to press the B button on a little tiny box on top of the TV and then turn it to channel 2 in order to get it.
Fun fact is the “show” was on opposite Dynasty and I used to watch Dynasty instead of my show. And now you know why. ~WS
The San Jose Gill cable system gave service to roughly 110,000 subscribers and at the time was the biggest independently-owned cable television system in the United States
Anything for a Laugh
Not So Fun Fact
During the Christmas episode I pretended to shoot my self in the head with a cap gun (like all the great cerebral comics used to do) and I still have hearing loss as a result. Reason number 142 on why it’s a bad idea to be a prop comic. ~WS