Largo at the Coronet: The History of Los Angeles' Most Important Small Room
A music club that let comedians in by the side door became the room where LA's best comics try things they wouldn't try anywhere else. No phones, no talking, no exceptions.
Largo is a Los Angeles club run by Mark Flanagan since 1992. It started on Fairfax Avenue as a small music room, became a home for alternative comedy in the 1990s and 2000s, and in June 2008 moved into the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard as Largo at the Coronet. It is best known for Jon Brion's Friday shows, a strict no-phones rule and the comedians who use it to try material they would never risk anywhere else.
Largo has never been a comedy club in the usual sense. There is no two-drink minimum, no emcee warming up a bachelorette party and no promise of jokes every fifteen seconds. That is exactly why it matters to alternative comedy.
Café Largo and Mark Flanagan (1989–1996)
The room on Fairfax Avenue opened in 1989 as Café Largo, a supper club run by nightclub entrepreneur Jean-Pierre Boccara. In 1992 he sold it to Mark Flanagan, a Northern Irish expatriate, who shortened the name to Largo. By the mid-1990s Flanagan had reshaped it into an intimate cabaret built around live music: about a hundred seats, candles on the tables, and an audience expected to shut up and listen.
The defining booking was Jon Brion. Flanagan persuaded the producer and multi-instrumentalist to take a regular Friday night, and Brion's shows became legendary: he would build songs live with loops, take requests in any style and pull guest musicians up from the audience. Aimee Mann, Elliott Smith and Fiona Apple were among the musicians associated with the room. Largo became the kind of place that other artists went to on their nights off.
How comedy got in
Comedy arrived through the music crowd. The same audience that would sit silently through a fragile song would also give a comedian room to wander, and in the 1990s Largo became one of the rooms where the LA alternative scene could work outside the clubs. It sat alongside Un-Cabaret and a handful of other shows as an alternative to the Sunset Strip, where club sets were judged by laughs per minute.
Over the following years Largo became especially associated with comedians who liked to experiment or ramble: Sarah Silverman and Paul F. Tompkins above all, and the loose circle of comics, musicians and writers around them. Tompkins hosted a long-running variety night there, mixing stand-up, music and characters. Larry David also performed at Largo in his 1999 HBO special, the one that led to Curb Your Enthusiasm.
The move to the Coronet (2008)
By 2007 the Fairfax building was facing demolition. Around the same time the Coronet Theatre, a playhouse on La Cienega Boulevard that opened in 1947 (its early history includes the 1947 premiere of Bertolt Brecht's Galileo with Charles Laughton), was sold to a new owner who had considered tearing it down for retail. Flanagan secured a long-term lease instead.
Largo closed on Fairfax in early June 2008 and reopened as Largo at the Coronet. The new building gave it a proper theatre with raked seating, a stage and more than double the old capacity, plus a much smaller second space, the Little Room. Flanagan has said the move came with a steep rise in rent, at the worst possible moment: the start of the 2008 financial crisis.
Remarkably, the culture survived the move. The same booker, the same house rules, the same habit of letting performers do long, loose shows. The Coronet felt less like a new venue than like Largo with better sightlines.
The Coronet years: who plays there
Largo at the Coronet runs music and comedy side by side, often on the same bill. Some of its best-known comedy associations:
- Sarah Silverman. Silverman has used Largo as a regular workshop for years, with a monthly set that she reportedly hadn't missed for most of two decades before the pandemic. Her 2013 HBO special We Are Miracles was taped in the Little Room in front of a tiny audience, which suits its intimate, conversational tone.
- Tig Notaro. On August 3, 2012, days after a breast cancer diagnosis that followed a serious illness and the sudden death of her mother, Tig Notaro walked onstage at Largo and told the audience. The set, released as Live, became one of the most talked-about stand-up recordings of the decade and was nominated for a Grammy.
- Variety and podcast nights. Live comedy podcasts, staged readings and variety shows have been regular bookings. The Thrilling Adventure Hour, a staged old-time-radio parody with a rotating cast of comedians and actors, was one of the room's long-running monthly hits.
- Music that blurs into comedy. Brion's shows moved to the Coronet, and Largo's habit of mixing musicians and comedians on one bill continued.
The no-phone rule
Largo has long been strict: no phones out, no photos, no recording and no talking during performances. Staff enforce it, and the room is famous for it.
For comedians, the effect is enormous. In most rooms, a half-finished joke can end up online within minutes, stripped of context. At Largo, a performer can try something raw, personal or plainly unfinished and know that it stays in the room. That's why established comics use it to build new hours, and why sets there can feel more like a conversation than a performance. It also changes the audience: people watch the stage, not a screen.
What a Largo comedy night feels like
The difference from a comedy club is obvious within minutes. Nobody is hustling drinks during the set. The lights stay low, the audience is quiet until something is funny, and performers often take their time getting to the first laugh. A famous comedian may spend ten minutes talking through an idea that isn't a joke yet, read from a notebook, or abandon a bit halfway and explain why it isn't working. A Largo audience tends to treat that as a privilege rather than a failure.
Bills are often built around a host and "friends", and part of the room's reputation comes from guests who turn up unannounced. Music can break out on a comedy night and comedy can break out at a concert. That cross-pollination is the house style, and it echoes the old Un-Cabaret idea that comedy is better when it isn't trapped in a comedy-club format.
Largo and the LA scene
Los Angeles alternative comedy in the 1990s grew out of a handful of rooms: Un-Cabaret, Largo and a scattering of bar shows, followed by the UCB Theatre's arrival in Hollywood in 2005 and the wave of comic-book-shop and back-room shows in the 2010s. Most of those venues have closed or changed hands. Largo has outlasted almost all of them, which says something about the value of a clear identity and a loyal audience.
For the broader picture, see our histories of 1990s alt comedy and the UCB Theatre, and our New York counterpart piece on Luna Lounge.
Largo at a glance: timeline
- 1989
Café Largo opens
A supper club on Fairfax Avenue, run by Jean-Pierre Boccara.
- 1992
Mark Flanagan takes over
Flanagan buys the club, shortens the name to Largo and starts reshaping it around live music.
- 1990s
Jon Brion's Fridays
Brion's residency defines the room; comedians from the alternative scene start to play the same stage.
- 1999
Larry David's HBO special
David performs at Largo in the special that leads to Curb Your Enthusiasm.
- 2008
The Coronet
Largo closes on Fairfax in June and reopens in the 1947 Coronet Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard.
- 2012
Tig Notaro's set
Notaro's August 3 show, released as Live, becomes one of the most celebrated stand-up recordings of the decade.
- 2013
We Are Miracles
Sarah Silverman tapes her HBO special in the Little Room.
Going to Largo
Largo at the Coronet is at 366 North La Cienega Boulevard in Los Angeles, near the Beverly Center. Tickets are sold through the venue's own website, and the big names sell out quickly; signing up for its mailing list is the usual way to hear about shows early. Expect to keep your phone away for the whole show.
Frequently asked questions
When did Largo move to the Coronet?
Mark Flanagan closed the original Largo on Fairfax Avenue in June 2008 and moved the club to the Coronet Theatre on La Cienega Boulevard, renaming it Largo at the Coronet.
Who owns Largo?
Mark Flanagan has run Largo since 1992, when he bought a Fairfax Avenue supper club called Café Largo and shortened its name. He has programmed it ever since, through the move to the Coronet.
Why can't you use your phone at Largo?
Largo has long enforced a strict no-phone, no-photo and no-talking policy during shows. It protects performers who are trying out unfinished or personal material and keeps the room quiet for music and comedy alike.
What happened at Tig Notaro's Largo show?
In August 2012, days after being diagnosed with breast cancer, Tig Notaro opened a Largo set by telling the audience about the diagnosis and the run of losses she'd just lived through. The recording, released as Live, became one of the most celebrated stand-up albums of its era and was nominated for a Grammy.