Monday, April 5, 2004 | 8:43 a.m.
What: "Hollywood Comedy Tour."
Where: The Lounge at The Palms.
Rating (out of five stars): **
If "edgy" is defined as discussion of oral sex and the overuse of vulgar language, the "Hollywood Comedy Tour 2004" at the Palms may be the edgiest show in town.
But Redd Foxx, Richard Pryor and a lot of other comedians who blazed the trail of edgy comedy used the words decades ago -- and those comics were funny.
The use of four-letter words has become so common that the words have lost their shock value. So comedians who are fond of using them are going to have to start including something more in their routines, such as humor.
"Hollywood Comedy Tour" provides some funny moments, but those moments are too few and too far between.
The show is co-produced by stand-up comics Paul Hughes and Cort McCown. It is scheduled to be at the Lounge at the Palms on a monthly basis. Saturday night was the premiere. The next show is set for May 1.
For a production that was supposed to be an event, it was rather uneventful -- nothing like Jeff Beacher's "Comedy Madhouse" at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel, which is all madhouse and precious little comedy.
At least Beacher's show was infused with energy from the time fans started being seated until the stand-up comedy started, at which point the energy level dropped.
"Comedy Madhouse" has a circus atmosphere, with stilt walkers, bare-breasted angels, dwarfs and other odd assortments of characters.
Of course the seating capacity at The Joint is 1,200, compared to about 225 at the Palms' venue, which makes it impossible for the smaller room to compete in the atmosphere department.
"Hollywood Comedy Tour" had some problems getting out of the starting gate. The doors were to open at 8:30 p.m. and the show was to begin at 9 p.m.
When 9 p.m. rolled around, the eager crowd of mostly twentysomething fans was still stuck in a line that impeded traffic flow of the casino, creating some jostling and "Hey, watch it" comments.
Hughes, a sometimes funny, reed-thin comedian with unkempt hair and scraggly goatee and moustache (the tonsorial trend of the day), occasionally walked the line assuring everyone the doors would be open any minute now.
He also assured everyone they were about to see a hilarious show.
He was wrong on both counts.
Some compared the show to Beacher's "Madhouse" in terms of a new trend in stand-up comedy venues that would provide an alternative to the more traditional clubs.
Apparently by "alternative," they mean something crass and largely unfunny.
Perhaps "Madhouse" and "Comedy Tour" could merge. Surely there is enough humor in both of them to come up with one good show.
By the time the doors opened and the seats in the Lounge were filled, it was past 9:30 p.m.
Hughes hosted the show. He implored people to laugh and go crazy, because Palms owner George Maloof was in the house and the troupe of comics wanted to impress him.
I hate to see comedians beg for laughter. They should rely on their material.
Hughes spent a little time trying to warm up the crowd. He told us that that was his job. It probably was good that he said something, otherwise no one would have known that was what he was doing.
The cast of "Hollywood Comedy Tour" included Hughes, McCown, headliner Jeff Richards (a former member of the "Saturday Night Live" crew) and Jon Reep (best known as the Hemi guy in the Dodge Ram commercials).
It also included Josh Meyers and Ike Barinholtz from "MADtv," who formed a comedy team.
Reep, easily the funniest member of the cast, opened the show. He enlivened the audience with his sometimes self-effacing humor and Southern jokes.
McCown followed.
He also was funny and it seemed as if the evening might live up to its promise. Fans were getting into the humor. They were laughing, enjoying the show.
Then, like stealth bombers, Meyers and Barinholtz came out and killed the humor.
They announced they weren't stand-up comics, but sketch artists.
First, they performed a couple of prepared skits and then an improv routine, in the vein of "Second City."
Their routines were too long and too unfunny, sending a pall over the room that had finally gotten warmed up.
By the time Richards, the night's headliner, came onstage the evening was lost.
He could have been the funniest guy in the world, but it was too late.
Laughter may be the best medicine, but it can't revive the dead.
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