Early on the morning of Saturday, March 13, 1993, as Birmingham woke up to 13 inches of snow from an historic blizzard, Comedy Club owner Bruce Ayers was walking through the drifts to see if what he’d heard was true:

A fire had started at the kitchen of the club on Shades Crest Road in Green Springs. The snow was making it hard for crews to get to the scene to fight the blaze.

Ayers hiked over more than six miles to get to the scene. He later said he only made it by hitching a ride with a TV news crew. It was 2 p.m. when he finally got there.

The club, which opened about 10 years before, burned to the ground.

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Among the losses were the props of then-unknown prop comedian Scott Thompson, also known as Carrot Top. At that time, the comedian was building his career, and looking forward to his television debut on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

Carrot Top’s act involves pulling props out of a trunk, making humorous comments about each one individually. But his props were all in the club.

Ayers recounted in a 2007 interview how Carrot Top went to Kmart in search of new props. Ayers began the long climb to reopening.

On Sept. 21, 1993 – six months after the fire – the Comedy Club reopened at the Hoover Stardome.

Later that year, Carrot Top came back to play there, toting a fire extinguisher while “Burning Down the House” by the Talking Heads played.

A few months later, he was named Stand-up Comedian of the Year at the American Comedy Awards.

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The Blizzard of 1993

In that same interview, Ayers recounted how the episode gave him a unique opportunity to promote his club.

Leno, explaining to the audience why they weren’t seeing Carrot Top the week after the blizzard, said that “he can’t be on the show because all of his stuff got burnt up in a fire at some rinky-dink comedy club.’’

“Well, all of these comics that I knew called Jay and said, ‘That club was so good.’” Ayers said.

“The next day, I come home and hit the message. Hey Bruce, this is Jay Leno, I want to apologize about what I said. I heard you have a great club. If you ever open up the club again, I’ll do a commercial for you and help you get it started.’

“When we opened up from the set of ‘The Tonight Show,’ he said, ‘Hey, this is Jay Leno, I want you to know that Bruce Ayers is going to open up The Comedy Club again and he promises not to burn it down this time.”

Carrot Top, on an episode of the Comedy Central series “This Is Not Happening,” hosted by Birmingham native Roy Wood Jr., recalled his first time at the club and later the blizzard.

“Every big comic wanted to play that club and the fact that I was this stupid little prop comic and I got booked was amazing,” Carrot Top said.

The night of the blizzard, Carrot Top said he got a call at his hotel saying his show was cancelled due to the storm.

After a night of drinking at the hotel bar, Carrot Top said he was awakened the next morning by his assistant and told the club burned down with all his props inside.

After a few days stuck at the hotel because of the storm, they were running out of food, he recalled.

“So it’s day four and I’m supposed to do “The Tonight Show,” he said. Instead, he watched Leno making jokes about the fire on his hotel room TV.

“Carrot Top’s act burned down in the club and they found Gallagher’s matches,” he said Leno joked.

“It was like the lowest of my life,” Carrot Top said. “I had this big huge week with “The Tonight Show” and everything was going right where it was supposed to be and nothing.”

But, in the aftermath, comics from around the nation helped him rebuild his prop routine before his next gig just days after he flew home.

“Literally, we built it in two days in my garage,” he said.

Carrot Top weeks later was rebooked on “The Tonight Show” and he returned to the rebuilt Stardome.

He ended the story by showing off a framed, burned Carrot Top shirt that survived the fire.