Knitting Factory

The story

The name came from a joke. Bob Appel had worked in an actual knitting factory, and when childhood friends sat around riffing on that fact, a legendary New York club was accidentally named. Michael Dorf and Louis Spitzer founded the Knitting Factory in 1987, with John Zorn shaping its creative direction early on. It offered poetry readings, performance art, comedy, and musicians who pushed past the edges of rock and jazz. By 1990 it had its own radio show and record label, proof that a good joke, taken seriously, can build something real.