Los Angeles Has a New Comedy Clubhouse: Dynasty Typewriter

Cameras, monitors, lights and a rainbow’s worth of gaffer tape had been trucked in. Big money was being spent, and the stakes were high. B.J. Novak, Rachel Bloom and Chelsea Peretti were among the comedians in attendance; Macaulay Culkin, a friend of Povitsky’s, hopped onstage when she sought audience volunteers for a bit.

But it wasn’t a huge auditorium or famous club holding four tapings for Povitsky’s first hour special, set to debut on Comedy Central early next year. It was Dynasty Typewriter, which seats only 199 and hadn’t been open long.

“It wouldn’t fit me to do a special in front of thousands of people,” said Povitsky, who counts “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend” and “Last Comic Standing” among her credits. She explained, “I like an intimate show, so I wanted to capture that as best that I could. I’m more of a jeans-and-sneakers girl, and this is more of a jeans-and-sneakers venue.”

“The Comedy Store, Laugh Factory and Improv get a lot of tourists,” she added. “Dynasty Typewriter is very local LA.”

In less than two years, Dynasty Typewriter has established itself as a comedy home that celebrates unconventional programming. Now that Meltdown Comics and the Steve Allen Theater have both closed, Dynasty has become the city’s hippest young alternative hub.

“Our business model emphasizes placing the value on the experience as a whole,” said Jamie Flam, 42, who is co-artistic director along with Vanessa Ragland, 36. He is a sixth-generation Angeleno whose résumé includes booking the Hollywood Improv.

“We care about both ends of the experience, for the artists as well as for the audience,” Ragland said.

The comedy hot spot is situated in Westlake, northwest of the downtown bar scene and southeast of the region’s comedy epicenter, in West Hollywood. Though the neighborhood runs light on night life, it wasn’t always that way. The building at 2511 Wilshire Blvd., now known as the Hayworth, first opened in the 1920s as the Masque Theater, and has housed a tiki bar and the Vagabond revival movie house. Jenji Kohan, creator of “Orange Is the New Black,” bought the site in 2013, and her Tilted Productions offices remain upstairs.

Dynasty’s art deco design oozes classic Hollywood. Jazz wafts from a lobby phonograph. There’s no bar, but there’s a cotton candy machine, along with a popcorn cart and candy. The stage décor includes candelabras, area rugs and antique furniture from Flam’s family. The name itself pays tribute to the Angelus Typewriter company that Flam’s great-grandfather and great-uncle ran downtown.

Dynasty lineups include not only stand-up, but also sketch, improv, film, music, live podcasts like Dan Harmon’s “Harmontown,” experimental theater, cabaret, puppetry and all manner of vaudeville-style variety acts. There are free monthly talks on overcoming creative roadblocks and holiday parties that let guests roam the entire space — green room and podcast studio included. A mariachi band from the La Fonda Mexican restaurant next door has been known to parade through shows.

“We want people to leave everything behind when they walk through the doors and enter a timeless place,” Flam said. “Even for just an hour or two.”

Dynasty’s timelessness has been aided by good timing. When Flam quit the Improv in early 2017 and began organizing a $100,000 crowdfunding campaign, he didn’t know the Steve Allen Theater on Hollywood Boulevard, where Marc Maron had a recurring residency, would close that November. Meltdown Comics, a haven for comedy nerds on Sunset Boulevard, shut down in March 2018, leaving the “Harmontown” podcast and other shows without a home. Both sites had fallen victim to condo development.

Reggie Watts, bandleader for “The Late Late Show With James Corden” and a longtime staple of the alternative comedy scene, also cited the 2017 closing of the Cinefamily movie theater, where Watts was a regular. “I was wondering, ‘Well, where’s the next kind of clubhouse going to be?’” he remembered.

Watts performed last month in “Up & Up,” a monthly talent showcase for Conan O’Brien’s Team Coco brand. “This is exactly the kind of place that I want to see more of in LA, or any city. You always know that you’re going to see something great.”

Comedy veterans like Sarah Silverman, Hannibal Buress, Bob Odenkirk and Margaret Cho have played Dynasty Typewriter. Maron, Eddie Izzard and Hannah Gadsby have booked residencies to try out new material. Adam Sandler’s 2018 Netflix special, “100% Fresh,” was party filmed there. (And celebrities including Natalie Portman, John Legend and Chrissy Teigen, and Tyler, the Creator are routinely spotted in Dynasty’s red leather seats. Brad Pitt even sampled the popcorn.)

But comedy isn’t always on the bill. On Feb. 22, Povitsky was to play her first headlining night there, but that afternoon she learned of the death of the comic Brody Stevens, her co-host on the “Brode & Esther” podcast. At first Povitsky wanted to cancel. Eventually, rather than perform as planned, she went on to speak openly about losing Stevens.

“I will never forget being on that stage, talking to a bunch of people who bought tickets to see me about this really personal, horrible thing that had just happened,” Povitsky said at her tapings seven months later. The experience cemented Dynasty in her mind as a space where performers are free to pivot in the moment, and audiences will appreciate that authentic interaction. “This venue really draws the right kind of comedy crowd.”

Gadsby agreed. “It sits in this lovely space between theater and a more traditional stand-up comedy venue,” she said. “As a performer and an audience member, you can take it as seriously or as playfully as you need on any given night.”

The Australian comic added, “I am an outsider and not a real aficionado of the North American comedy scene, so part of what I liked about Dynasty is that it feels a little bit grassroots, a little bit top shelf, and a little bit of whatever you need … and popcorn.”

This article originally appeared in

Los Angeles Has a New Comedy Clubhouse: Dynasty Typewriter

JOIN OUR PULSE COMMUNITY!