Sam Tripoli

You'd walk in like on a Wednesday and there was like 40 people in the OR.

And it was great because you could go up there and bomb with dignity.

You know, like you didn't have to worry about the industry being there because they hated Mitzi.

So they didn't want to go to the comedy store.

So you could go up there and really work on shit.

And all the guys that have Netflix specials now, they were all working the OR and the comedy store during its dead period and were able to really stretch it out.

It was like the purest comedy

is ever going to be.

Because Mitzi was running it, but she really wasn't running it.

The inmates were running the asylum at that time.

And it was just this wonderful time where you could bomb with dignity.

Yeah.

I remember the first time, it's a famous story how I get picked up, Paul Mooney.

So a week before...

I'm doing this show at the Hustler Cafe, which is the Hustler store, but they had a cafe in it.

And this guy, Johnny Montana, was running a show there.

And this was like right around Columbine, I think.

And I was doing a joke about how hard it is to be a white guy.

And Paul Mooney came up to me.

He's like, oh, homie, you ain't white.