The Comedy Store Film To Be Produced By Tom Hanks Tom Hanks is quietly developing a movie based partially on the life of Mitzi Shore. Yes: She is Pauly Shore’s Mom, but she also founded L.A. Comedy Store, which is in fact where a lot of older generation comedians got their start, like David Letterman and Jay Leno. If you’re a popular comedian in your late 40s or 50s, chances are, you worked The Comedy Store at some point, and that list includes Eddie Murphy, Tim Allem, Bob Saget, Chevy Chase, Jim Belushi, Jim Carrey, etc., etc. The narrative arc of the story, which is based on William Knoedelseder’s nonfiction book, I’m Dying Up Here: Heartbreak and High Times in Stand-up Comedy’s Golden Era , focuses on the years around 1978 and Mitzi Shore’s policy of not paying comics for their stand-up performances. Her theory was that The Comedy Store was something of a training ground — a college for comedians, a workshop for new material — and she felt no obligation to pay for their acts beside...