Holy City Zoo
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Holy City Zoo was a small but influential comedy club in San Francisco that ran from the early 1970s to the early 1990s.
In 1975 the Holy City Zoo, a San Francisco beer and wine tavern owed by Robert Steger featuring folk music was purchased by Peter Reines. At first "the Zoo" continued to offer folk music five nights a week and closed on sundays. Reines was approched by Jose Simone (sp?) and suggested adding comedy at the Zoo. A number of comedians were holding shows in the basement of a church and wanted more of a club setting. Sundays opened under a open mike format and became very popular event. Gradually comedy was expanded to seven nights a week. Under the promotional and mc skills of Tony DePaul, the Zoo gain national and international recognition.
The Zoo was a training ground for most of the stand-up comedians who passed through San Francisco during that era, including Robin Williams, Dana Carvey, Kevin Pollak, Jake Johannsen, Rob Schneider, Paula Poundstone, Kevin Meaney, Bobby Slayton, Rob Becker, Nora Dunn, Will Durst, Dana Gould, Margaret Cho and Joe Campaiolo (aka Dexter Madison)[1].
“The Zoo” was located on Clement Street between 5th and 6th Avenues, and consisted mainly of a bar in front that sold beer, wine and soft drinks, a small stage near the back, and an office and balcony upstairs.
Reputedly, the club got its name from a sign the owner, Robert Steger, picked up for free at an out-of-business sale in the local zoo for Holy City, California. He had stopped there to buy redwood tables and chairs that were converted into the club’s décor [2].
The club began hosting comedy shows in 1975 under producer John Cantu, who reputedly slept on the club's stage sometimes after the shows [3]. A trademark staple of the Zoo was the open mike night, which ran one or two times a week throughout the club’s existence. Anyone at all could go on stage for five minutes, affording stage time to future stars, countless acts who are now forgotten and no small number of the mentally unstable.
The comedy club stayed in business for nearly 20 years. But it was never financially stable and changed ownership many times. Among the people who owned or co-owned the Zoo at one point or another were Robert Steger, Peter Reines, John Cantu, Jason Christoble (spelling uncertain), Tom Sawyer, talent manager Bob Fischer, comedian Jim Samuels, and, at the end, Durst, comedy booker Tracy Forrester and Forrester's family, Gilda and George Forrester.
The club went in and out of business at least once (in the 1980s, before reopening for awhile as the Ha-Ha-A-Go-Go under Sawyer)[4], before finally closing for good in 1994.
