Cobb's Comedy Club is a
stand-up comedy
Stand-up comedy is a comedic performance to a live audience in which the performer addresses the audience directly from the stage. The performer is known as a comedian, a comic or a stand-up.
Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, ...
venue in
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish for " Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the fourth most populous in California and 17t ...
's
North Beach neighborhood
A neighbourhood (British English, Irish English, Australian English and Canadian English) or neighborhood (American English; see spelling differences) is a geographically localised community within a larger city, town, suburb or rural area, ...
. It was founded in 1982 and has had many top comedians on its stage.
History
Chestnut Street
Originally known at Cobb’s Pub, Cobb’s Comedy Club was opened and operated by Ron Kakiki and John Cantu
in 1982 at 2069 Chestnut Street in San Francisco’s
Marina District.
The Cannery
In 1987, it moved to the
Cannery Shopping Center in the historic
Fisherman's Wharf, San Francisco neighborhood,
where it thrived for over a decade with owners Tom and Carolyn Sawyer, who went on to run the venue for more than 25 years.
In March 2002 a five-alarm fire broke out at The Cannery. Damage from the fire and subsequent flooding closed Cobb’s for a month before forcing the Sawyers into a lawsuit which eventually resulted in the club’s eviction from the building.
Columbus Avenue
With the help of some prominent comedian friends, the Sawyers raised enough money to reopen Cobb’s in November 2002 at 915 Columbus Avenue in San Francisco’s North Beach neighborhood, in the club formerly known as "Dance Your Ass Off" (disco), later Wolfgang’s (rock), where, as of August 2022, it remains.
Sister clubs
Punch Line San Francisco is San Francisco’s longest-running comedy club, and a sister club of Cobb’s Comedy Club. The Punch Line was owned and operated by
Bill Graham in 1978 in the rock venue formerly known as the
Old Waldorf
Old Waldorf was a music venue located in San Francisco, California. The famous club was located at 444 Battery St, and was originally opened by Jeffrey Pollack in 1976 before selling it to Bill Graham who closed it in 1983. During its time Old Wal ...
.
Punch Line Sacramento, a comedy club in
Sacramento
)
, image_map = Sacramento County California Incorporated and Unincorporated areas Sacramento Highlighted.svg
, mapsize = 250x200px
, map_caption = Location within Sacramento ...
, was opened and operated by
Bill Graham Presents
Bill Graham (born Wulf Wolodia Grajonca; January 8, 1931 – October 25, 1991) was a German-American impresario and rock concert promoter from the 1960s until his death in 1991 in a helicopter crash. On July 4, 1939, he was sent from German ...
in 1991 as an expansion of the comedy club of the same name in San Francisco.
References
External links
Official website*
{{Live Nation
Comedy clubs in California
Culture of San Francisco
Entertainment venues in San Francisco
North Beach, San Francisco