COMEDY CAVE
Location: The Comedy Cave is a underground night club off Main Street in Decatur Alley between the Blue Sky Restaurant and Captain Comix collectibles shop in Grandview, New York, the county seat of Driscoll County, between Orange and Rockland Counties on the Hudson River, twenty-three miles north of New York City on Highway 9W and across the river from Tarrytown and Sleepy Hollow.
Description of Place: Grandview is a picturesque New England-type town in southeast New York. Several of the buildings in town are over two hundred years old. The hub of the town is the Town Square, which serves the purpose of a town park where locals frequently gather for outings. The center of the square is dedicated with a marble monument and bronze statue to local soldiers who died overseas in service to their country. The square is also surrounded by a variety of shops and businesses overlooked by the shadow of the town hall. For the time it existed, the Comedy Cave was one of the small town night stops for comedians learning and honing their skills up and down the East Coast. Located in the basement of a former inn, the renovated nightclub once served alcoholic beverages from a small bar to the side of a viewing area below a stage at the same level of the entry way and waiting area. One wall of honor held over fifty signed photos of major stars to have once starred here. The backstage area included dressing rooms and space for stage equipment. Now closed down, the former spot now sits empty and neglected.
Ghostly Manifestations: Voices crack with comments from empty corners, sounds of a crowd echo out on to the street, sensations of being touched, neglected drinks are consumed by unknown persons and stage equipment come on by themselves. Francine Lewis, the former owner, is well aware her father's former business could just probably be haunted, but she doesn't try to think of the place like that.
"Jerry Seinfeld once stood on this exact place in 1981." Fran reminisces fondly about the place and the talent to have come and gone. "And said... there is no way in hell he was working in a dive like this." She breaks up laughing. "He started five out of eight performances here with that line during the time he was developing his craft."
An attractive woman even in the on-set of middle age, Fran has been host to much of the phenomenon here. The sound system and spotlight has come on by itself for her, furniture has changed location, voices come from empty rooms, figures pop up and vanish just out of eye shot and the sounds of laughter have made her wonder if she is ever truly alone.
"It's not... horror movie scary..." Fran explains. "But the place does have its moments. It's like... the place has a personality, and it reaches out to you, and even touches you. I have been here by myself doing the books and it feels like the place is full. The air will become congested, and then you realize, well, it's below street level. Of course, it seems congested, but then you see shadows moving across the stage and you realize, oh, I can't explain that."
In 1987, comedians Blake Clarke and Marty Gold were busy setting up for each other by moving more chairs from the storerooms to the audience area. According to his memories, Clarke had a sensation that the two of them were not alone in the dark room. There was no light source in that room except a small window near the ceiling that opened to the alley and Blake had the feeling he was being watched. Patting Marty on the back, he then alerted him to a dark shadow in the cluttered room where the room was at it's darkest. Resembling an area darker than dark, the presence seemed to huddle in the basement watching them, and once alerted to their presence, it jumped forward at them, sending both men running out of the room for their lives. Gilbert Gottfried even asked them if that was where they were hiding their booze.
Jay Butler, the bartender, recalls having seen a figure in the back hall. During the 1997 News Years party, he was changing the keg at the bar and on the way back, he had to step aside to miss bumping into a guest in the hall to the restrooms. As he went about his way, something made him pause and look back. The figure didn't have a face, just a smooth area where his face should have been. Glancing back, the person was gone.
"This person was stone cold as I passed him." Jim recalls. "I always thought I'd be scared to death if I ran into one of the ghosts, but it was more like an after thought, an image that was there one moment and gone the next."
Female patrons have heard men's voices in the ladies room and have called out to empty rooms. An assistant once stacked all the chairs on the tables in order to sweep the room, turned her back to grab the broom and turned to find all the chairs back on the floor. The bartender has found his inventory slighted on occasion. Beer bottles vanish on a whim, a bottle of liquor locked away was produced empty of its contents and the number of glasses on the counter at any given time varies. In 1986, comedian and future star Tim Allen left a shot of beer on a stool backstage to drink just as he came off his act, but found it downed by someone else when he stepped off.
"I believe the spectral drinker is Old Max." Fran reveals. "He was a friend of my father who started here when I was a mere kid, and he was a big drinker. It even lead to his death, but he hasn't let that stop him from getting drunk. You can't leave a single glass of alcohol out without it going empty. On some nights, we close up without collecting the glasses, and the next morning, all the left over liquor on the tables is gone, but the glasses are still left behind."
In 1991, Marty Gold decided to test Max. He got a brandy snifter, he poured expensive German ale into it and was going to lock it as is in a small tin box for the night and then return to check on it in the morning before his show. According to Fran, as he was trying to fit it into the box without spilling it, there was a crash backstage after some microphones fell off the wall where they were hanging. Everyone rushed to investigate the crash and discovered all the unwound cables all over the floor. The hook on the wall wasn't even broken; it was as if someone had physically lifted them up and dropped them. Marty returned to lock up the snifter, and the beer was all gone!
"There was only five of us at the time, and none of us had been near it." Fran laughs. "Marty's staring at it like this..." She drops her jaw in stunned and annoyed surprise. "And everyone who had been rolling the cable back up is like, no way!" Fran shakes her head looking back at the memory. "And somewhere I think Old Max is laughing his head off."
The ghosts also seemed to really hate Andrew Dice Clay when he first tried his act here. Sound problems and unexplained outages occurred when he tried to appear here. Clay left blaming the technician for his difficulty and vowed to never return, but the Amazing Johnathan had even worse luck here. The ghosts actually tried to kill him. An ambulance and medics had to be called when an unexplained power surge through the microphone electrocuted the prop comic and stopped his heart for twelve seconds. Hearing of their experiences, Sam Kinison backed out of appearing at his date for the Comedy Cave. Rumor has it ghosts at the Comedy Store in Hollywood also gave him a bad time during his act.
History: Built as a inn in 1933, and once a poetry place for beatniks, the location has been used for one thing or another, but it was used for the longest time as one of the furthest comedy stops on the routes of several of today's top comedy stars. Jerry Seinfeld, David Lettermen, Greg Proops, Tim Allen, Drew Carey, Fred Greenlee, Roseanne Barr, Rick Overton, Jeff Dunham, Felicia Michaels and Colin Mochrie are just a few of the big names to have appeared here, sometimes three to four times a night with crowds of people lining out on to the street. However, over the years, the line started growing shorter and the audience started thinning. Francine Parent had continued the place for her father, Archie Parent, up until closing the place for good in 2007.
Identity of Ghosts: "According to a local psychic who prefers to remain anonymous," Fran replies. "The club is haunted by the spirits of several local comedians who got their starts here and for some reason or another never reached success. They return to this place because they were most happy here."
Among them, the ghost of Marty Gold has been felt most often. Another local talent, he apparently walked out of the club in a depressed state one night and then straight off a derelict bridge on the edge of town. The bridge is long gone, devastated by a plane crash nearby, but Marty still returns, stealing drinks and rapping on the walls.
Source/Comments: Ghost Whisperer (episode: "Undead Comic"), Phenomenon based on the Comedy Store on the Sunset Strip in Los Angeles, California and Bobby Mackey's Music World in Wilder, Kentucky..