This is more a B Side to a B Side to bigger story. This is the story of the Comedy Store Bombers, The Funniest Basketball Team that ever was.*
(*With no intended disrespect to the Harlem Globetrotters.)
It’s around 9 pm, pretty early, pretty light crowd. Me and James Heck take a cease-fire from our opposing strike positions, then join the Mooney twins, Darrel and Dwayne Mooney up on the hotel ramp. We’re dangling our legs over, passing our joint, watching the rest of the strikers going back & forth.
“Well, what are you going to do Lue?”
“Well, pass the joint and I’ll tell you, Jimmy.”
A few hours earlier, all of these Comedy Store Bomber photos with other memorabilia hit my desk. Mitzi says “Burn it!” I’m looking at the photos & stare back at Mitzi like a cat that’s been told to fetch a tennis ball. “You sure?” She gives me her ten thousand-yard stare, “All of it!” (Mitzi would later say that going through the great stand-up protest was like getting 50 divorces!) And this wasn’t the most shocking thing that happened recently.
The most startling thing in my twenty four year life happened earlier that week. I arrived at work to discover 100 of the funniest people in the world had gone on strike at myjob. I was a Comedy Store door guy, living in Mitzi’s stand-up house with Dice, Binder, Argus, Yakov and OJ Simpson. So naturally, I chose to support my job, Mitzi, & The Comedy Store. To say it put a strain between myself and many others in the LA Comedy community was a bit of an understatement. My comedy partner Jimmy Heck had supported the strike, so that broke us up. Suddenly, that was the end of Heck and Deck.
There are a lot of hurt feelings, missed opportunities, and tragedies that still play out in the comedy community today. If you want that story, I highly recommend reading Bill Knoedelseder’s “I’m Dying Up Here”. Bill featured me in his story.
A week into the Comedy Strike of 1979, The doomed Comedy Store Bombers had a scheduled game at the L.A. Forum vs some celebrity team. Everybody on our team had quit, given notice to Tom Dreesen. Tom then gave notice to me. I gave notice to Mitzi and then Mitzi gave notice to me, by dumping a box of Comedy Store Bomber memorabilia on my desk. Then something even more unexpected happened.
A few days before the upcoming canceled game at the LA Forum, Tom Dreesen drops by the Comedy Store on Sunset and hands me a parking pass, a Forum pass, seat pass, and locker room pass. I give him a puzzled look, “Why?”
Now, Tom Dreesen and I don’t agree on many things: strike and basketball-related, and yet unexpectedly I found myself agreeing with his logic “It’s the Forum”. Some things aren’t about money, some are about our love of basketball. Even some comics!
That day, I found myself at multiple crossroads, more so than usual. So every time I get a moment to leave my posts (the main room, from the stage, or from being a doorman) I’m on the street, out in front, pleading with my teammates on the strike line. I find myself repeating “It’s the fucking Forum!” over and over to both myself and others. And now we’re back to where we started.
It’s around nine o’clock pm, pretty early, pretty light. Me and Jimmy Heck take a cease-fire from our opposing strike positions and invite the Mooney twins Darrel and Dwayne up on the hotel ramp. We’re dangling our legs over, passing a joint, and watching the strikers going back and forth.
“Well, what are you going to do Lue?”
“Well, pass the joint and I’ll tell you, Jimmy.”
I take in a hit and I cough out my answer, “I’m going to show up by myself and play alone! I will play all five of those mother-effers and I will hit every one of them. They will take me off the court because I committed assault. But the Comedy Store will be there. Got that!”
Darrell coughs, “You crazy Lue!” “ So are we”, Dwayne takes the joint, & like that the Mooney twins joined in.
I later run into Johnny Witherspoon. “What do you got against Mitzi, Johnny?”. Johnny stutters, “She’s.. she’s.. Mean!”
“C’mon Johnny, it’s the Forum!”
Later that night, Johnny catches me a mid-smoke break. “I’m in, but don’t tell anybody.” With Johnny Witherspoon in, we have a team.
So who were the Comedy Store Bombers? Let’s take a look at that iconic team photo, starting at the top left, there’s David Letterman. David was a good outside shot. Even though he won’t rebound or drive the ball, Dave was still a better shot than me.
Tim Reid stood six feet two inches, shot deep bench and took nothing from nobody. Step on him, you’re going to get stepped on right back. Good player. Good comic. At the time, it didn’t click that Tim and Tom were a team act on and off the court. Through and through, Tim’s a solid team player.
Then me, there’s me, I don’t shoot outside the lane, it’s my personal goal to get a rebound & throw it to every player on the team. As quick as I can. I want them to know I can rebound and then get them the ball. I know where the ball’s supposed to be. That’s my biggest strength as a player, I know where the ball should go. It’s like hosting a stand-up crowd.
You’re still wondering how’d I got on the team?
Long story short, I was walking home from one of my regular Saturday morning 3-on-3 basketball games at Art Metrano’s, Da Jersey guy that went: (dah-tah-dun-tah…dah-tah-daa!”). This time they brought in Lou Ferrigno’s stand-in for the Hulk (Jake, of Body by Jake) as a ringer. Jake’s method of guarding me was just holding me. Surprisingly, it was effective.
As I was making ‘my walk of shame” home, Mitzi just happens to drive down the same road (she lived 2 blocks away) and couldn’t get the soft top of the Jaguar down. Then she sees me and her first response was, “Help me get the top down!” then to “What are you doing here?”
“I’m playing basketball.”
“I’m paying your rent, you should be on my Comedy Store team. The same goes for big Roger.”
Big Roger Peltz from the comedy team of “Roger and Roger”. Way back then, Big Roger had played center for at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville. He could really play. However, Big Roger had a showbiz career, & didn’t want stupid little idiots like me elbowing him in the face for a stupid little rebound. Roger reminded me of ABC news team member Bill Russell, who we got to play against with the ABC team. Big Roger liked me because I always threw him the ball. Around that time he was chasing Yogi Bear in Space! As Deputy Goofer McGee.
Darrow Igus, was as fierce on the court as he was on stage. He’s showed up on everything from Shameless to Fridays to Car Wash to playing Jersey in the Black MASH spin Off “Roll Out”.
Skinny Jimmy Walker was a good shot and a top defender. Pretty good, deep in. Didn’t rebound. Still, you can’t move him if you tried. Good player, you could say Jimmy was “dynomite!” It was Good Times!
And there’s Johnny Witherspoon. Spoon was a complete player and he just didn’t care to play. Even if he wanted to play defense, he was very good. The man had a lift. Spoon could really coordinate!
Tom Dreesen, at the time, had done multiple tonight shows & had been in a whole bunch of pilots. Mitzi got him a development deal. Honestly, he was a pretty good basketball player. Not much help underneath, cause he was small, but he knew where the ball should go & literally he would take himself out to put me in.
Kneeling down under David Letterman was our fifth guard Jimmy Heck. Heck was some kind of baller. He had an outside shot. He had a drive that was not to be believed early in my, uh, my life with him. Heck had red hair down to his waist. He’d try to pull a sweet drive on you. Then, Jimmy would whip you with his long hair and sling it into you.
Joe Restivo NY comic who played ball out there. He had an acidic wit like Richard Belzer. Joe could play. Every so often from time to time I catch him playing Horse on the Subway episode of Seinfeld.
Of course, you can’t forget the Mooney twins Darrel and Dwayne. They were the best two guards I ever played with. See them play in: “The Fish that saved Pittsburgh!” They both could shoot well & they could drive. Then, they could play deeper. Once we got to where we trusted them, we’d get them the ball on defense, get a rebound out of it. For rebounds, it was either Dreesen or one of the Mooney Twins.
In between the Mooney Twins & uncredited is Cork Hubbard. Eventually, somebody mentioned to Mitzi, “Oh, “We ought to put a little person like Cork in the team picture. It’d be funny!” So he’s in the team picture. I remember Cork Hubbard literally would do LSD and do sets and be funny.
So at one game, we put him in as a center, and he would walk from where we shoot to the center court and just say, “Asshole, tie your shoe!” He was our heckler at center court.
Then there was little Roger Behr the other half of the musical duo “Rogers and Rogers”. From 1984 to 1988 him and Big Roger Peltz won the “People’s Choice Award” for touring acts. They were one hell of a musical act. You might remember Roger as the comic in the Albert Brooks film “Defending Your Life”
Jimmy O’Brien was from the comedy team of “O’Brien and Severa” Come to think of it, there sure were a lot of comedy teams on the Bombers. About four teams within a comedy team within the Comedy Store team. Teams already know to depend on one another.
Bobby Kelton. He did maybe eight Carson’s good standards. As a basketball player, he had pretty good jokes. He did well all the time, no matter where he went.
We had six or eight games with referees in uniforms. Two of them were at San Bernadino State Technical college gym or something like that, but it was celebrity basketball. And then came the strike and now the team was kaput. Still, the Forum game is at seven-ten tonight, I don’t know about everybody else, I’m still playing at eight twenty. Might as well show up.
I arrive at The Fabulous Forum at four pm in my Comedy Store basketball uniform, carrying a basketball.
A security guard approaches me, “Well, what are you doing?”
“Well, I’m going to perform halftime at the game tonight and I have these passes.”
“Well, you’re the first one here.”
“Yeah. I meant to be.”
“Why?”
“It’s the Forum.”
“Well, come on in kid.” I get to wander around the Forum for hours. I even bought a shot of whiskey. About an hour later, some employees wander in, but the game is still not for another two hours.
I’m there when they’re putting the floor in shape, I walked around. I can see 3/4 of the Forum and I don’t see one person. Yeah. Well, Pardon me? Whoosh! I start playing and shooting my own ball. The ball boys come out and bring out the shelf carts which carry 10 balls each.
“Can I use, one of the league balls?
As soon as he gives me one of the real game balls, I’m in the corner. I get the shot. He laughs, and throws me another one. Now he feeds me the whole rolling tray. So I get ten shots and only made about four of them. Okay. We’re having a good time. I go chase them all down and put them back on the thing. And he gives me one to play with. I take my ball and go back and put it on my seat. But now, I get to play in the Forum. There are some people around the popcorn sellers right here, about seventy people.
So I’m playing for my 20, 30 minutes to look around and I recognize a LA Laker. He walks out and his eyes light up to say, “I know you”.
“Well, we’ve met two different times. One was at a movie theater.” I explain. And his mind clicks back and recognizes me from when we first met. I had a job managing the Marina 6 theater and I recognized him and let him in early. Less than a month later, we meet again at the Comedy Store main room. I did the same thing. I walk up to him in line and let him in early. He recognizes me and says, “you again”.
So we’re standing underneath the Laker bucket, I look around & the same player walks up, says, “I knows you? Why do I know you?” So I reconnect the dots and he goes, “Comedy Store basketball? Is Tim Reid here too!”
“Tim’s not here.”
“Why not?”
“There’s a labor or dispute going on in the comedy community. And he’s on the other side of this dispute”
“I was at the Comedy Store three weeks ago, too bad.”
“Tom Dreesen will be here”
“From Tim and Tom? My dad used to tell me about them in Chicago.”
About an hour before the game, the ball boy signals me to sit down, so they could mop the floor. I’m sitting down for a while, the Mooney twins walk in, 10 minutes later, Johnny Witherspoon walks up. They take us all in to get dressed. I don’t need to, but I go play. I come back, there’s Dreesen all up dressed in his uniform.
We line up on the court waiting for the Lakers to go back into their dressing room. And as they’re going past, the player has grabbed a practice ball & slapped it hard into my middle. Now I have a ball going onto the court. Everyone else has to look for one.
We all walk out on the court and look around. The lights are on, & there’s Chick Hearn the announcer. I run the length of the court and dunk the ball. Lord, it hurt like hell, my knees. Worth it.
The celebrity team had Larry Wilcox from CHiPs, Robert Hegyes aka Epstein from “Welcome Back Kotter”, Dwight Stone, the Olympic high jumper. As they’re making the announcements, the celebrity team gets some roaring applause.
Now, they’re announcing the Comedy Store team, they announce, “Starting Center Lue Deck!”. As soon as they do that, I rush over to where everybody’s lining up for the center jump. As I hear my name, I go: “That’s me, ladies and gentlemen”. Unexpectedly, they jump ball. Cause I didn’t come to the jump circle, Johnny Witherspoon stepped in, took my job as the center to do the tip, then tipped the ball to me. Since I wasn’t paying any attention, the ball passes right between my hands in the opposite direction & all nine other players fly past me. Well, I screwed up. So, I played the moment for a laugh.
I walked to center court keeping my hands up. I’m saying, “I’m still Lue Deck!”, even though nobody can hear it. What I don’t know is: the other team goes down & takes a quick shot. One of the Mooney twins gets the ball, sees I’m standing alone at half court, and throws me the ball. Snowbird!
Well, thank you. On the first dribble, I hit my foot with the ball. It rolls flat into the corner. I’ve embarrassed myself again and I hustle over to catch it. Just as I get to the corner, I see all of my teammates streaking up, up all open saying, “Throw me the ball! Throw me the ball!”
“Well, this is the Forum! Here’s my 28 ft-er from the corner.”
Boom! I hit it. My teammates didn’t give me the ball for the rest of the game. I got several rebounds & threw the ball to each, cuz I’d had my moment, then we all had a moment. ‘Spoon hit something from the top of the key. He took 3 shots before he made it. The Mooney twins both drove past their hapless guards to made buckets and then made outside shots. I remember Dreesen both driving, and making a couple outside shots. We all had our moments.
Okay. Now that I made a long shot, I’m gonna drive the lane too & I got, uh, I don’t know, 3 or 4 shots on rebounds. Now, I’m throwing the ball to everybody. We tried to make it look like real basketball, but we’re playing, you know, six-min quarters. That’s remarkably short at the forum. We actually played for only 8 minutes. That was our halftime game, because the halftime game at the Forum was for show! Now, they got things to do, get out of the way.
We weren’t supposed to play. The Comedy Store had removed their sponsorship, unknown to all, and the strikers weren’t going because they were mad at the Comedy Store. Still, the five of us comic basketball fans snuck in, and played, the Lakers management. had no idea. They were promised a team and a team showed and played. And everybody got a great shot. Everybody on our team had their moment.
We outscored them by double. Sure, it wasn’t a real game. And sure, it was like 12 minutes or 7 minutes. Then, it was over. Still, I got to play at the Forum. After that, we never spoke as a basketball team again. That is my story of The Comedy Store Bombers’ last game was at the Fabulous Forum.
Or, that’s what I remember it 40 years later! God Bless them all!
Originally posted on Facebook.
For other stories and tips, you can also purchase Lue’s first book, “Stand Up Decoded: Be As Funny As You Think You Are”
