There’s a rift between the West Coast Friars and the East Coast Friars, according to a recent NYT article (Free reg. req.)

Despite the Friars Club motto, “Prae Omnia Fraternitas,” or “Before all things, brotherhood,” sides are being drawn.

“I’m in the Freddie Roman posse,” said Susie Essman, who has been a member of the New York Friars Club since 1995.

As a star on the HBO comedy series Curb Your Enthusiasm, which is taped in Los Angeles, she said she stays in a hotel when she’s working in Los Angeles and has never considered joining the West Coast club. “With their pharmaceutical money, who trusts them?” she said. “I trust comedians.”

Jack Carter, 80, the veteran stand-up comic and a Los Angeles Friar, is in the Schaeffer posse. “All they have in New York City is the names of rooms,” Mr. Carter said by telephone from his home in Southern California, referring to the New York club where most of the rooms are named after celebrities. “All the talent is in L.A. There’s no one left in New York anymore except Stewie Stone.” (Not that Mr. Carter is dissing Mr. Stone, an old friend with whom he performed recently on the Florida condo circuit.)

We’ve been in the Santa Monica location of the West Coast Friars (attending a screening of the excellent Friars docu “Let Me In, I Hear Laughter” a few years ago). It was fascinating and we found ourselves in the presence of Milton Berle, Norm Crosby, Jerry Vale and other luminaries. We have yet to visit the East Coast club, even though we have a couple standing invites– our sked just hasn’t allowed it yet. But East or West, we have always liked the idea of the Friars Clubs, both the physical buildings and the concepts embodied by the organization.

Early on in our magazine’s history, we tried to connect with the Friars, via their New York location. Their PR people ignored us. We weren’t exactly sure what we wanted from them, or what they might be able to offer, but we figured that the venerable organization might have wanted to somehow communicate with/through the WWW’s most beloved magazine about standup, run by two plucky “youngsters,” (who named their publication SHECKYmagazine.com for cryin’ out loud), but… NOTHIN’! Mind you, we aren’t complaining, we’re just saying that an organization like this one, which claims to be fighting for its life, seems to have rather large blind spots when it comes to modernization.

The East Coast branch claims to have been somewhat successful in recruiting new blood. That’s good. And the West Coast claims to have poured a lot of that “pharmaceutical money” into the physical plant and into the club’s image. That’s good as well. There’s still a lot of value to club like this one, on each coast. Again, from the NYT piece:

Still, for many comedians, the past is what makes the Friars Club relevant. “I became a member over 20 years ago,” the comedian Richard Lewis, who lives in Los Angeles and was unaware of the bicoastal contretemps, wrote in an e-mail message. “I joined mainly because I love the astonishing history behind it, the food is the greatest and the several million anecdotes that one can hear, on a daily basis, remind me that I haven’t been the only performer screwed in show business.”