Greg Lobb, Tom Sharpe, and Paul Hopkins started the Comedy Hideout with goal of finding new ways to present stand-up comedy instead of the standard format of one microphone with an MC. The Comedy Hideout began on March 3, 2001 with our first show "Sideshow Carnival" at the Comedy Underground in Santa Monica. The performers for that first show, for you trivia fans, were Jarrett Grode, Elizabeth Beckwith, a video performance from Zach Galifianakis, ringmaster Joe Wagner, and of course Greg Lobb, Tom Sharpe and Paul Hopkins. The very next week, March 10, 2001, was the first Rotating Talk Show. The Joke Machine made its debut on July 22 of the same year.
Over the next three and a half years, the Comedy Hideout would produce over 150 shows, mostly at the Comedy Underground, but also at the Hollywood Improv, the M-Bar, the Acme Theater, the Comedy Central Stage, the HBO Workspace, and at the 2002 Chicago Comedy Festival, where the Rotating Talk Show was a big hit. Los Angeles Magazine named the Rotating Talk Show one of its favorite comedy shows of 2002.
Over a dozen different formats have been presented, (with the Rotating Talk Show and the Joke Machine being the two most popular), and over 250 different comedians have performed in our various shows.
Starting in July 2005, we will be producing one Rotating Talk Show and one Joke Machine every month at the new Upright Citizens Brigade Theatre in Hollywood.