Two more shows on Saturday, each one putting up 20 comics for five minutes a piece. Basically the same lineup, with some changes– Debi Gutierrez, Gary Cannon, Elon Gold, Chris Porter, T.J. Miller, Jeff Klinger, Mark Eddie and Franklyn Ajaye were onboard on this particular evening.

The 20 Hot Comics format is quite entertaining! There is no emcee– each comic commits the next comic’s intro to memory and brings him on, “tag-team style.” And each comic is limited to five minutes. And to ensure that each act sticks to the time, the AV guy in the back of the house hits a bell (“DING!” like that used at a prize fight) at anywhere from 4:30 to 5:00. (At first, it sounds… barbaric. But we assure you, it’s a hoot! And comics are encouraged to confer with the sound booth beforehand to make sure that the crew is clear on where the ostensible last bit is and is aware of any taglines!) It works exceptionally well. And the audience usually spontaneously erupts into a rousing ovation after each loud ding!

Rob Little, Greg Otto, J. Chris Newberg

It was quite a thrill to meet Ajaye after all these years of correspondence. (We interviewed him back a few years ago– here.)

We’d estimate there were perhaps 30 comics in the house at one point. The atmosphere backstage was like a mini-festival.

Among those present (but not performing) were John McDonnell, Dave Smith, Vinnie Coppola and Kevin Rooney (pictured below with The Male Half).

We hadn’t laid eyes on Rooney since September of 1993! We know the date with certainty, because it coincided with our eventual decision to bug out of L.A. and head back east after living in SoCal for the previous five years. (We hasten to add that Rooney was not our reason for fleeing! But our decision to call U-Haul was made– quite coincidentally– just minutes after that final encounter!)

Lamont Ferguson waiting to go up.

The Comedy & Magic Club was, once again, the perfect host. (We can’t say enough great things about Mike Lacey and Richard Barrett– they do all that is humanly possible to cultivate the ideal atmosphere for both comic and audience member. They arrange things so that the comic need not care about anything other than the performance… and they welcome and situate the audience member so that he need not care about anything other than the performance. What you end up with is a situation where audience and performer harmonically converge. It’s like no other venues in that regard.) We marvel at their humility. When we tell them just how singular the venue is, they react as if what they’r doing and how they’re doing it isn’t extraordinary, nor should it be. (Of course, on the second count, they are absolutely correct. It shouldn’t be extraordinary.)

Just one small anecdote that captures quite nicely the uniqueness of the club: When we arrived at the entrance to the parking lot (it’s on the roof!), we were greeted on this evening (as we had been the previous evening) by a fellow with a clipboard whose task it was to direct the comic to the proper parking spot. He prefaced his greeting with, “I’m sorry, but I don’t remember your name.” Imagine that! (The Female Half says, “Hell, we’ve worked entire weeks at some clubs and, when the owner goes to pay us, isn’t sure of our names!” An exaggeration? Slight, perhaps, but you get the idea.) When the entire outfit is encouraged to familiarize themselves with the names of the acts (and even inclined to apologize when the name isn’t recalled) there is definitely something going on!

It’s been an exhausting four days. We rose Saturday morning and headed over to a quaint breakfast spot in Topanga Canyon to dine with FOS John DiCrosta. DiCrosta ordered eggs benedict– see below!

We call him “Eggs Benedict”