Friday, Jan. 2, 2004 | 9:23 a.m.
The new year brings with it some big changes for the local comedy-club scene. A pair of venues depart; another comedy-driven show opens; and Las Vegas' remaining clubs work to ensure the laughter continues.
Shortly before 2003 came to a close, on Dec. 20 the curtain fell for the final time on Golden Nugget's short-lived "The Funny Bone Comedy Showcase."
The show, which opened earlier in the year, featured a rotating lineup of comics (Bruce Baum, Gerry Bednob, Geechy Guy and Pam Matteson among them) during a pair of weekly shows. "Funny Bone's" abbreviated life span, according to Nugget execs, had been intended from its start.
On the heels of that shuttering came news that Catch a Rising Star -- which previously called Bally's and MGM Grand home before settling at Excalibur in 2000 -- is due to go dark, at least for the foreseeable future, following its final sets on Jan. 31.
Rumors are circulating that the club, which also has outlets in Reno, Albuquerque and Princeton, N.J., may be searching for its fourth Las Vegas venue. Calls by the Sun to a Catch representative seeking official comment on the club's closing and its future plans were not returned.
The club's decision to depart was a mutual one made with Excalibur execs, says Mike Hartzell, director of entertainment for the hotel.
"They have their interests that they're pursuing ... and we have an opportunity to bring in a new show," he explains. "So for the time being, it's like we're taking a hiatus, and we hope to work with them in the future."
Filling Catch's void in Merlin's Theater, Hartzell says, will be an adult-oriented show (details are still being developed) starring comedy-magician Jeff Hobson scheduled to open Feb. 9. Hobson hosts "World's Greatest Magic Show" at Sahara.
Meanwhile at 10 p.m. Saturday The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel transforms into "Beacher's Comedy Madhouse." The comedy/freak show is headed by New Yorker Jeff Beacher, who made headlines last month when he jumped into a giant fish tank at MGM Grand to promote the show, which opened Dec. 30.
Beacher formerly staged his "in-your-face"-style of comedy during performances at Madison Square Garden and The Supper Club in Times Square. "Madhouse" blends jokes told by a rotating lineup of his comic buddies -- including Robert Kelly, Steve Byrne and Artie Lang of "The Howard Stern Show" fame, who performs Jan. 31 -- and circus-like attractions (stilt walkers, anyone?) with loads of audience interaction.
The format "doesn't compare" to a typical comedy-club-going experience, Beacher says. "It blows it away." Though the stand-up-comedy element is present, the added bits of lunacy "makes it that much sicker."
None of the rumblings on the comedy-club scene have Bob Kephart, owner of The Comedy Stop at the Trop, concerned -- not even rumors about the future of his own club.
When word surfaced last year that the aging Tropicana could be next in line for implosion -- or, at the very least, a major overhaul -- questions were raised about the 13-year-old Comedy Stop's plans for a post-Trop run.
Kephart, who also owns Comedy Stops in Laughlin and Atlantic City, assures that the local club isn't going anywhere. Plans for a new Comedy Stop to be housed at Tropicana's next incarnation are already being drawn, and its relationship with the property is good.
"Even if we weren't gonna stay there ... there's a half-dozen places that we would fall into, because of our reputation," Kephart contends. "I'm not worried."
That's a sentiment echoed by operators of Las Vegas' other comedy clubs, including Kim Jones, local entertainment and comedy manager for Station Casinos, which runs Laugh Trax at Palace Station.
The club is patronized largely by local residents. "They've been very loyal, so I think that's how we succeed," Jones says, adding that such frequent favorites as comics John Caponera, Rocky LaPorte and Ken Rogerson will continue to take Laugh Trax's stage this year.
"We'll bring them back definitely," she says, "and incorporate some new ones as well."
It will also be business as usual at Riviera Comedy Club, where the lineup is booked by "The Sopranos" co-star/author/local entertainment consultant Steve Schirripa, who (in work unrelated to Riviera) also scheduled comics for "The Funny Bone Comedy Showcase" before it closed.
Schirripa says this year he'll continue to secure "big headliners" for the Riv's club, including Dom Irrera and Bobby Slayton and others who are "certainly a big draw in a 300-seat comedy club. Those are national headliners with national credits," he explains.
Having been involved with Las Vegas' comedy scene in various capacities since the mid-'80s, Schirripa has witnessed a multitude of changes.
"I think as the market gets saturated, only the strong survive," he says, pointing to Riviera as a prime example: "I think it's kind of been the hub of comedy, more so than anyone else."
Bud Friedman might take issue with that statement. The legendary owner of The Improv chain -- with 19 clubs nationwide, including the local outlet at Harrah's -- is particularly proud of the comics who perform on his Las Vegas club's stage, including Maryellen Hooper, Judy Gold, Wendy Liebman and Dat Phan, winner of the NBC reality series "Last Comic Standing."
"There are so many good acts out there -- and a lot of bad ones, too -- but we have a lot of good acts ... because we're very strict about the quality of the acts," Friedman said recently from Los Angeles.
A five-year contract was recently signed to keep The Improv at Harrah's, and Friedman -- who visits and himself shticks at the local club more often than any other in his stable -- says he's already booked the comedy lineup for the first six months of this year. "We're solid."
Scott Groseclose hopes changes to the comedy landscape will result in him and his club, The Comedy Zone at the Plaza, laughing all the way to the bank.
The local club, a franchise of a national 70-club chain, offers shows six nights a week and features such rotating comics as Russ Nagel and Benny Baker. It lost its most direct competition in downtown Las Vegas when "The Funny Bone Comedy Showcase" closed.
Groseclose says The Comedy Zone is "obviously going to benefit" from "Funny Bone's" fall, as well as Catch's closing. "You naturally see some influx of business whenever a competitor is no longer selling tickets," he says.
"Here's the reality, as far as I see it: There are many different types of entertainment. Many of them are cyclical, and they come and go in and out of fashion," he theorizes. "But in these very difficult times we live in, both economic and (of) world crisis ... everybody needs a good laugh, and if you can go out and spend $19.95 ... and have a good laugh, then you have a bargain."
Out for laughs
Hiram Kasten is no stranger to the small screen, having appeared on a slew of shows -- "Seinfeld," "Everybody Loves Raymond," "My Wife and Kids," "7th Heaven" and "L.A. Law" among them. Others might recall Kasten -- who performs Jan. 12 through Jan. 18 at Riviera Comedy Club -- for his portrayal of legendary comic Joey Bishop in "The Rat Pack is Back," the production show that played at the Desert Inn and Sahara.
A bit of trivia: Funny guy Bobby Collins formerly paid his bills by working as an exec for fashion designer Calvin Klein's company. All the while, he moonlighted as a comedian. In retrospect, it seems he made the right career choice: Grammy-nominated Collins headlines Jan. 26 through Feb. 1 at The Comedy Stop at the Trop.. because we're very strict about the quality of the acts."
