Jesters follow fads, but jokes remain in demand

By Jerry Fink

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 | 2 a.m.

Comedy changes with the times, ebbing and flowing with each hot comic, says Mark Lonow of the Improv.

Lonow should know. He performed at the Improv in New York before heading for Los Angeles to act in TV and movies in the ’70s. He plunged back into comedy in 1980, becoming a business partner in Budd Friedman’s Improv West Associates, which franchises the famed Improv Comedy Club. Lonow and his wife also manage comics, including Lewis Black.

“Comedians have changed. They come and go, stylistically,” Lonow says. “In the ’70s there was more storytelling. Then when Robin Williams became such an enormous hit there was more improvisation — not improv exactly, but the style of seemingly speaking off the top of someone’s head.

“Then Rodney Dangerfield became really big and people started doing lines. Now, we’re back to the concept of stories.”

The business has changed dramatically since the first Improv opened in 1963. “Comedy was like a very erudite, small community of people and nightclubs. There were maybe 300 comics in the whole United States.”

The comedy club scene, fed in part by the success of HBO’s “An Evening at the Improv,” became a victim of its own success, Lonow says. From a few hundred comedians across the country, the number shot up to thousands, with hundreds of stand-up comedy clubs.

“In the early ’90s it became oversaturated and a contraction began.”

Now the industry has reached a degree of stability, Lonow says.

The Improv is the biggest comedy chain in the country with 22 franchises. Harrah’s owns the club in Las Vegas but pays Lonow and Friedman to produce the shows.

“So we’re more involved with booking the talent than we are at other clubs,” he says. “They run the room, sell the drinks and pay us.”

The Vegas club is the most profitable in the chain, Lonow says. “Actually, all of our clubs make money. Most are quite profitable.”

When the economy is down, he says, that usually is a good time for comedy clubs. “We’re a relatively inexpensive ticket, and people need to laugh.”