Interview · moment 15 of 26
Auditioning at Pips and the Mob-Run Brooklyn Comedy Scene
from Small Talk with Colin Quinn | The Tim Dillon Show #343 · #343
3 min
Guest
Colin describes auditioning at the historic Pips comedy club in Sheepshead Bay, an incident where angry Avenue X guys stormed the stage over a failed comic's audition, and the mob's control over NYC comedy clubs in 1984.
- Tim auditions at Pips in Brooklyn on a Wednesday night and finds a hand-written sign saying Joey Limbuck won't be performing.
- Six Italian guys from Avenue X, all shaved heads and wife beaters, burst in and start throwing chairs to break up the show.
- The guys' friend Joey Limbuck had failed his audition the week before, so they've returned to disrupt the club in his honor.
- Joey ends up performing his act from the back of a flatbed truck parked outside, with the crowd chasing out to watch him.
- Tim gets a Friday night audition slot by sticking with the club owner during the chaos, but bombs and never gets used again.
PipsAvenue XWoody AllenBrooklynCaptain Walterswheelers