It’s the best green room in the business. The Female Half has been saying for years that every green room should have a coffee machine. (Have you ever noticed the look on the face of most comedy club waitresses when you ask for a cup of coffee? If you ask for cream it’s as if you’d punched her in the baby-maker– we’re using the alt-comedy lingo, heavy on the irony… for the kids.)
Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop has one of those Keurig machines that makes one cup at a time. And a glass-doored fridge bursting with Snapple and cold water and Gatorade and Red Bull and Coronas and Bud Lites. And a giant hi-def screen that lets the comics monitor the show. And an oversized coffee table with jars filled with candy and snacks. (In the venue’s previous life, the room was used for… storage. And the comics were forced to hang in a tiny room just off the stage.)
One comedy club owner once referred to a green room as “a breeding ground for egos.” Needless to say, his club didn’t have one at the time. Nor, we assume, did the comedians he hired have any egos. Nor, we assume, did they have any self-respect.
The comics in the green room this past week at Brad Garrett’s Comedy Club at the Trop have plenty of self-esteem. The Female Half, Greg Vaccariello and Bob Zany were there from Monday to Sunday. Eva Longoria even stopped by! So huge is the green room (and so tiny is she) you could fit a thousand Eva Longoria’s in there!
It was quite a pleasure to hang out with any after all these years– we worked with him many years ago in Atlanta and he agreed to be the first ever SHECKYmagazine.com main interview. His words were featured in the premiere issue of the mag, way back on April 1, 1999. We almost forgot to mention Zany’s documentary, “Close But No Cigar.” He gave us a copy of the as-yet-unreleased film and we watched it the other day. It is (or will be!) mandatory viewing for anyone in the business, no matter what level of experience you have. It’s alternately inspiring, fascinating and frustrating. It moves like a shot and it’s an insightful look into one man’s absolutely singular career in standup comedy. We’ll keep you posted when it’s available to the general public. It’ll be shown at the Los Angeles Film+Music Weekend.
The Female Half with Bob Zany at Brad Garrett
Greg Vaccariello with The Male Half at Brad Garrett's Comedy Club at the Trop. (Bob Zany can be seen on the big screen in the rear.)