London Places

The club's premises at Oxendon Street W1

1. Those early premises, above the Gargoyle Club in Meard Street W1, were so cramped legend has it that performers were forced to change in a cupboard and relieve themselves in a sink.

2. The line-up on the Comedy Store's opening night included Sandy Toksvig and an energetic young compere, newly relocated to London via Liverpool, called Alexei Sayle.

3. The club has since provided a teething ground to several generations of comedy talent, from the "alternative" wave of the 80s that gave us Rik Mayall, Ade Edmondson, Nigel Planer and French and Saunders through to Ben Elton, Clive Anderson, Harry Enfield, Jack Dee, Jo Brand, Steve Coogan, Eddie Izzard and Bill Bailey, and on to today's young turks such as Rhod Gilbert and Tom Wrigglesworth.

Frank Skinner 'died' on his first visit

4. Few, if any, were household names to begin with. Frank Skinner's unheralded Comedy Store debut was in a post-midnight slot following Lee Evans. The rubber-limbed comic brought the house down; Skinner "went on and died" and thought he'd killed his chances for ever.

5. Similarly, a pre-fame Mark Lamarr honed his bequiffed, sardonic stage persona here while TV chef-to-be Ainsley Harriott, a club regular, got his first taste of public approval as part of an Hawaiian-shirted duo that specialised in novelty calypso songs.

6. Being baited by the audience was an early feature, established on Friday nights with the Gong Show where, according to comedian Simon Fanshawe, "if you hadn't experienced bullying and rejection at school, you could become a comic and catch up. If you didn't please the audience they shouted 'gong, gong, gong...', the compere hit the gong and you had to leave the stage".

Paul Merton is still a Sunday regular

7. Another tradition to endure to this day is the Sunday night improvisation slot, hosted by Paul Merton and his Comedy Store Players, the club's own comedy improv group. The current line-up includes a bunch of familiar faces from off the tele - Josie Lawrence, Jim Sweeney, Stephen Frost, Neil Mullarkey and Merton himself.

8. American comedians have gravitated to the Comedy Store stage. Visitors include Robin Williams, who would often go on unannounced, Mike Myers, Ruby Wax, Emo Phillips, Dennis Leary and, latterly, US superstar Chris Rock.

9. Another overseas visitor was Eric Douglas, Kirk Douglas's son, who became upset at the audience reaction to his routine and shouted out, "You can't do this to me, I'm Kirk Douglas's son!". A wag in the audience stood up and shouted back, "No, I'm Kirk Douglas's son," swiftly followed by the rest of the room. He "died on his a**e", recalls club co-founder Don Ward.

10. Plans are now afoot for India to embrace the Comedy Store when a branch opens in Mumbai. Some of London's best known names will kickstart the club, after which local comedians will perform their acts. Don Ward, typically, is setting the bench high - the search is on for the first Indian stand-up superstar, "the next Eddie Izzard" in fact.