Modified On February 21, 2008
This puzzling article in Time Out Chicago by Steve Heisler was written after Heisler attended opening night of the Comedy Zone at the Dave & Buster’s location in Chicago and interviewed the owner of the club, Joe Doria. The publication date of the weekly is listed as Feb 7. But the opening graf says this:
After this story went to press, we learned that Comedy Zone Chicago had been indefinitely shut down and all its shows were “cancelled until further notice.”
There’s a link in that paragraph that goes to the Time Out Chicago blog that explains (or at least tries to) the situation with The Comedy Zone, Dave & Buster’s and Doria.
I called Joe and got the skinny. He admits right off the bat that he’s been left in the dark as well– he simply got a call today from Comedy Zone telling him that the club was shutting down. Apparently, Dave and Buster’s is severing its tie with the Comedy Zone, but only in Chicago. Other Dave and Buster’s locations around the country will keep Zoning it up. Joe had put in a number of calls and emails to the powers-that-be, but no one has given him any more information.
Doria is getting the runaround from the Zone and D & B. He says he’s scouting around Chicagoland for a new location.