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Punch Line San Francisco
	Punch Line San Francisco entrance
Address	444 Battery St
Location	San Francisco, California
Coordinates	37°47′44″N 122°24′00″W / 37.795539°N 122.399965°W
Owner	Live Nation
Type	Comedy club
Capacity	Main room: 182
Opened	1978
Website
	www.punchlinecomedyclub.com

Punch Line San Francisco is a comedy club located at 444 Battery St in San Francisco's Financial District. It has a sister club in Sacramento, California, and is also associated with Cobb's Comedy Club, now in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco. It is San Francisco's oldest running comedy club.

The club was originally a restaurant during the day and the backstage hangout for The Old Waldorf nightclub next door at night.
— Bobby Slayton^[1]

History

The Punch Line was opened, circa October 1978, by Jeffrey Pollack and sold to Bill Graham in 1981.^[2]^[3] The building was adjacent to^[4] the Old Waldorf, a music venue originally opened in 1976 whose owner (Jeffrey Pollack) booked all the acts he could find, including music legends such as U2, Metallica, Dire Straits, Elvis Costello, R.E.M., AC/DC, and more.^[3]

The Punch Line San Francisco,^[5] the Punch Line Sacramento, and Cobb's Comedy Club were all owned and operated by Bill Graham Presents up until the death of Bill Graham in 1991.^[4] The company was taken over by a group of employees who later sold it to SFX Promotions. It was subsequently sold to Clear Channel Entertainment.^[4] On December 21, 2005, Clear Channel Communications completed the spin-off of Live Nation, formerly known as Clear Channel Entertainment. Live Nation is an independent company (NYSE: LYV) and is no longer owned by Clear Channel.

Comics such as Robin Williams, Ellen DeGeneres, Rosie O'Donnell, Drew Carey, Chris Rock, Patton Oswalt, and Dana Carvey took their first comedic steps on the Punch Line stage.^[4] The Punch Line's dedication to comic tradition has earned it the San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle's Readers' Choice Award for the Best Comedy Club. Today, The Punch Line is the only full-time comedy club in San Francisco.

In May 2019, the club announced it could not renew its lease with the current property owners (a subsidiary of Morgan Stanley) and was looking for a new location.^[6] Stand-up comic Dave Chappelle launched a #savethepunchline campaign and rallied SF city supervisor Aaron Peskin and Bay Area comedians W. Kamau Bell and Nato Green.^[7] In July 2019, an agreement was reached between Morgan Stanley, Google (new tenant of the building complex) and the Punch Line to secure the renewal of the lease. The club also received the Legacy Business status from the city of San Francisco, which safeguards the club as a cultural institution.^[8]

Venue

The Punch Line San Francisco is open for business almost every Tuesday through Sunday to ticket-holders ages 18+ with valid photo I.D. The box office is open on show days from 3:00 – 6:00 p.m. There is a two drink minimum per person. Cameras and video/audio recording devices are not permitted.

Sister clubs

Cobb's Comedy Club is located in the North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco and has been a comedy staple in the city for more than 30 years.

Punch Line Sacramento is Sacramento’s premier comedy club, and was opened and operated by Bill Graham Presents in 1991 as an expansion of the Punch Line San Francisco.