As Punchline seeks new home, many will miss magic of closing site

Demetri Martin, 8 and 10 p.m. Friday, March 27, and 6 and 8 p.m. Saturday, March 28, $35

J. Anthony Brown & Friends, 7 p.m. Sunday, March 29, $25

Craig Robinson, 9 p.m. Sunday, March 29, $40

280 Hilderbrand Drive, Sandy Springs. www.punchline.com.

Jay Leno. Jerry Seinfeld. Robin Williams. Richard Pryor.

Over 33 years, comic legends, along with thousands of lesser lights, have graced the Punchline Comedy Club stage in Sandy Springs, mocking its modest environs, the cedar walls, the awkward layout, the ladders that lead to nowhere behind them.

And this Sunday, Craig Robinson of “The Office” fame will tell the club’s final joke on that stage. The laughter will fade, the pint glasses emptied, the lights shut off. The Punchline as we know it will be no more.

The club’s lease was not renewed. The location may eventually become a condo, a trendy restaurant or a parking lot.

Jamie Bendall, the primary owner, isn’t willing to let the name disappear into the ether of Atlanta history. He is seeking a new space and will slap the Punchline name on it. It will probably be bigger. It will definitely be prettier and cleaner. But it won’t be the same.

Employees and former employees, many who gathered for a goodbye party last Sunday, called the place a true family, a cliche for sure, but a genuine feeling, too.

“There is something magical about this place,” said general manager Marcey Guthrie, who began as a hostess at the club in 1982. “I can’t even explain it. It just works. I fell in love with this place the day I got hired.”

Regular customers said they love the intimacy, the fact they could shake hands and get pictures with the comics at the entrance after the show.

“It has character,” said Elizabeth Rende, an Atlanta claims manager who would catch Craig “The Love Master” Shoemaker whenever he came to the Punchline. “You come here and you can feel all the people who have been here before. You look at the walls. It’s going to be sad to leave. It’s a landmark.”

Comedians have been doing special shows in recent weeks specifically to say goodbye: Jeff Foxworthy, Tom Rhodes, Bill Burr, Don “D.C.” Curry.

Billy Gardell, who stars on CBS’ hit sitcom “Mike & Molly,” said he almost teared up driving to the club Friday night before his two headlining shows. He began working the club in 1992.

“If you could get the Punchline on your resume, you could work anywhere on the East Coast,” he said. “I grew as a comic here. It was the first legitimate club I worked.”

Gardell lived in Atlanta in the mid-1990s and met his wife and manager at the Punchline. “There will just never be another place like this. The history and tradition and the level of comedy that has passed through here. It will never happen again.”

Ken Rogerson, the feature act last Friday, has been performing at the club since 1983.

“Never had a bad show here,” he said. “This is one of those places on Sunday night, you say, ‘I don’t want to go home! This is fun!’ “

Rogerson can’t decide what souvenir he might take before he leaves one last time. “Something from the stage or the bar. I’ve been passed out on both of them. They both bring back memories!”

Chris DiPetta, a former club manager and minority owner, said he is taking pieces of the stage, cutting them into squares, placing them on plaques and giving them to the most loyal comics as gifts.

He and Bendall have checked out about 15 potential new sites, from downtown to Johns Creek, from Midtown to Atlantic Station. Nothing has felt right yet.

“We’re narrowing it down,” said DiPetta, sitting in a ratty recliner in the office by aging electronic equipment even Radio Shack couldn’t sell. “We’ve been here 33 years. We have to make the next location as right as we can.”

One of the final shows on Sunday will feature James Gregory and J. Anthony Brown, two stand-up comics who opened the club in February 1982. They are still active today.

“The Punchline launched my career,” said Brown, who is part of Tom Joyner’s syndicated morning show, heard locally on Kiss 104.1. He said he’s probably done 100 shows there. “It stayed true to form. It never tried to be anything other than a comedy club.”

And if you want a souvenir from the Punchline, the owners are holding an on-site auction at 10 a.m. March 31. While they plan to keep all the old 8-by-10-inch black-and-white photos of comics past that line the walls of the club, the chairs and tables and bar and kitchen equipment are going.

“These chairs have been here the entire time,” DiPetta said. “They’re old teacher’s chairs. Other than being nicked up and scratched, they’re fine. They’re not even loose!”