Comedy… and magic… and info

by Brian McKim & Traci Skene on May 17th, 2009

The Male Half did two shows tonight at the Comedy & Magic Club– Part of the 20 Hot Comics series. There were three total over the weekend and about a 20 per cent difference Saturday over Friday. Performing Friday were Kevin Biggins, Danny Cole, Daniel Tosh, Chris Porter, Brian Kiley, Charlie Viracola, Heath Hyche, Diane Nichols, Chuck Martin, Matt Fulchiron, J. Chris Newberg, Clinton Jackson, Suli McCullough, Megan Mooney, Eddie Gossling, Bruce Fine, Mike Siegel, Jeff Cesario, Kirk Fox and Owen Smith.

Saturday night saw most of the above and Dom Irerra, Dan Greuter, Elon Gold, Michael Loftus, Kermit Apio, B.J. Novak and Dana Daniels.


Owen Smith and Heath Hyche, in the hall, just east of the stage door.

All three shows were packed and all three crowds more than held up their end of the bargain– responding enthusiastically from the first act through the last, unflagging and appreciative.


Jeff Cesario and Brian Kiley patiently waiting their turns.

We exhort any comedy fans who live in SoCal (or are planning a visit to Los Angeles) to set aside one night to attend the Comedy & Magic Club– regardless of the format of the show or who is on the bill. Of course, the 20 Hot Comics Show is our favorite. It’s well over an hour-and-a-half of veteran comics, solid newcomers, road comics, comics famous from starring in television sitcoms, comics who are writers on network talk shows or sitcoms– an appetizer plate, a pupu platter of comedians, none of whom are doing more than five minutes at a time (advertised as “twelve cents per joke” in LA Weekly, but we think their math is off… it might be far less!)– all within the confines of a jewel of a showcase club in a splendid seaside setting.

Tomorrow, we head back across the desert– early– to catch the final show of Shecky Greene’s weekend engagement at the Suncoast in Vegas! We’ll try to get a “grip and grin” pic of the Halves of the Staff with the great one! Stay tuned!

We heard that J.P. Buck (formerly of HBO) has been hired as the talent coordinator for the new Tonight Show incarnation, the one hosted by Conan O’Brien. We had the pleasure of taking in a couple of shows in Montreal at the Just For Laughs festival with Buck back in ’07 (when he was Manager of Talent for HBO’s Aspen Fest). He tells us that he’s excited about the opportunity and we believe him.

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