comedy

From the article:

In the 1970s, David Letterman baby-sat her children and Jay Leno slept on the back stairs of her Sunset Strip club, where Jim Carrey later tended the door.

Mitzi Shore was "the den mother of some berserk Cub Scout pack," as Letterman once said — one that brimmed with a breathtaking array of now-famous comics who broke through because she tapped them to perform.

Shore, who was regarded as the godmother of comedy in Los Angeles and whose Comedy Store was one of the most important showcases for stand-up in the country, died Wednesday after battling Parkinson's disease, according to a statement from the Comedy Store. She was 87.