LAugh Garage moving, comedy store taking over venue

[Cherryish]

The Comedy Store's side, emailed out and generally sent around, this was received via Facebook:

PREFACE: To those who have received this statement via direct email please ignore the following, which is the same statement.

Dear Members of the Comedy Community,

Please find following a statement from the Comedy Store, regarding recent events surrounding the opening of our new Comedy Store venue at Parramatta in 2008.

The Comedy Store is opening a new venue in 2008, the Comedy Store Parramatta, at the premises formerly occupied by The Laugh Garage Comedy Club, who have indicated that they will relocate to another venue on Parramatta’s Church Street restaurant strip.

The Laugh Garage has alleged, online and most recently in The Sydney Morning Herald, that the Comedy Store obtained the lease to this premises by underhanded means, that this amounts to attempts to trade on the goodwill created by The Laugh Garage Comedy Club, and that the Comedy Store is guilty of conduct in the comedy community worthy of disgust. Given the exaggerated and false claims made, especially those made recently in the mainstream media, we find it prudent to inform the comedy community of the truth.

The lease obtained by the Comedy Store was the result of a commercial transaction between the Comedy Store and Raine and Horne Commercial, the agent for the owner of these premises, conducted legally, with professionalism and propriety.
The Laugh Garage did not obtain a renewal on their existing lease, because they did not act in the designated time frame in which they had exclusive and untouchable access to this lease.
”The bottom line is that the (Laugh Garage) already had a valid lease and a right to exercise an option (to continue it),” Mr Surian said. “They failed to exercise that option. They attempted to renegotiate terms that weren’t acceptable.”
John Surian, Raine and Horne Commercial, Parramatta Advertiser, October 25, 2007.

From this point on, The Laugh Garage relinquished the right to exclusive access to the lease and, we later learned, continued attempting to negotiate a new lease based on terms the owner deemed, as stated above, unacceptable. This meant that the lease in question was up for grabs to any interested party, of which the Comedy Store was one.

The commercial reality is that a lease on a valuable location became available, which presented an opportunity to all interested parties, and if the Comedy Store had not acted, another business would have.

Once The Laugh Garage had not renewed their lease, the Comedy Store was allowed access to actively negotiate on the premises, and proceeded to do so. At this time, the Comedy Store was unaware that the Laugh Garage had continued negotiation beyond this point.

It was not until much later, in November, when Darren Sanders of the Laugh Garage called Mick Roche of the Comedy Store, enquiring about the Comedy Store’s involvement in any projects in Parramatta, that the continued involvement of The Laugh Garage was realised by the Comedy Store. At this time, Mick Roche willingly suppressed information from Darren Sanders. This action has been alluded to by Mr. Sanders as underhanded. Mick Roche acted professionally, respecting the confidentiality of the active contract between the Comedy Store and Raine and Horne Commercial, and owing more to the best interests of the Comedy Store and its projects than any personal or professional relationship with Darren Sanders and The Laugh Garage Comedy Club.

Finally, the Comedy Store does not wish to exploit goodwill established by The Laugh Garage. The style of comedy entertainment presented by the Comedy Store is greatly varied from that presented by The Laugh Garage and we are confident that we will each continue to attract audiences to whom our individual programming styles is desirable.

If you require further details or personal discussion on this subject, please contact the Management of the Comedy Store on 02 9357 1419 from our first trading day of 2008, Wednesday 2nd January.

Regards,

The Management of the Comedy Store

[kebab_oner]

http://www.thelaughgarage.com/index_...Parramatta.htm

according to their website, the laugh garage is now running at the riverside theatre every saturday night.

[op shop girl]

Comedy Store Parramatta is set to open next week.
Sydney Comedy Store - Comedy Store Parramatta

I probably won't be able to catch any shows for the first week, but hopefully I'll be able to check it out soon.