Just Where Do The Actors In New York Hang?

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On the circuit of hangouts, watering holes, taverns, gin joints (of all the gin joints in all the world . . .), eateries, saloons, grilles, speakeasies, et al, that are frequented by every conceivable member of the big town’s performing-arts community, the above quotes sum it up. It’s the fantastic range of choice–first, of where to go, and second, of what to choose once you get there–that really stands up under scrutiny (and a few cocktails). Surprised? Would this be the Big Apple otherwise?

From lush dining extravaganzas to down-and-dirty drinking/carousing, exquisite Old European decor to sawdust and smoke-filled “dart pubs,’ we went “on tour’ to track down the hot spots and cool jewels that among stage and screen folks are where it’s at these days.

Approximately 25 joints were chosen and visited, primarily on the basis of tradition and word-of-mouth from those who know–a “straw poll,’ if you will. There was an amazing litany of responses from various personnel on the trail–after they got over the initial fear that they were under Board of Health investigation or something–and, generally speaking, a lot of it boiled down to the same things: actor-types like the places because of (pick one from column A, two from column B) “tradition,’ “location,’ “ambience,’ “comfort,’ “economy,’ “prestige,’ or, oh yes, the quality of food and drinks.

Other factors: These are most definitely places to see and be seen, so the rosters of “heavyweight’ regulars and visitors–fictional or otherwise–are electrifying. Name a Broadway actor, a prime-time TVite, a big-time director–hey, name any celeb–and chances are great that he/she “is one of our best customers’ or “stops by for a drink now and again.’ Let’s just say that one wonders how Al Pacino finds the time to work, since he was mentioned at more hangouts than we can count.

Quite a few respondents were quick to add that August may not be truly representative of their drawing power–”Everybody’s out doing summer stock,’ or at least “you should have been here last night’– and that the coming weeks are when things really start to cook. In that sense, then, Back Stage is right on time in providing this recap, if you’re planning your fall “hangout’ itinerary (and aren’t we all?).

These places are caught in films and on tv (sometimes showing characters with Back Stage tucked under their arms), they appear as subjects of entire plays, and they’re often your second home or your strategy headquarters. It was not a terribly scientific process, so if we overlooked your favorite stop for script-reading over a plate of nachos, kindly refrain from contacting Back Stage indignantly–otherwise you’ll receive bemusement and a shrug as your answer.

So, in keeping with the diversity theme: bon appetit, smoke “em if you got “em, votre sante, here’s lookin’ up your old address, salud, and CHEERS.

Barrymore’s 267 W. 45th St. 391-8400

An absolutely superb location and a fair amount of tradition combine to give Barrymore’s a solid rep. Within shouting distance of a bunch of Broadway houses, it’s made up in a classic Olde English pub style with the ambience to match. Up to 90 percent of the crowd in the post-theatre hours are show people, says manager Mike Kerr, but “you’ll see big Broadway stars in here slapping rope-pullers on the back,’ adds Tom McKeon, an actorcustomer.

Kerr insists that Barrymore’s is “the best-kept secret on Broadway’ (a likely story), and to prove it he produces a theatre-district restaurant recap from that day’s New York Post which fails to mention Barrymore’s, in business for about 12 years under that name. The darkish two-room set-up (one a former tailor shop), surrounded with stained glass plus ancient photos and lithographs of theatre lore, can handle nearly 70 at the tables and a dozen or so at the sizable bar.

Two notable features: Kerr claims that Barrymore’s is the only area joint to offer a separate “theatre snack’ menu day and night (chicken wings, mozzarella sticks, calamari, etc., from $1.75-7.95). Also, the regular menu notes a tradition, dating back to John Drew’s era (the 1860s): On a Broadway opening night, the staff sends a basket of apples to the theatre, with each apple bearing the name of a cast member.

“We go as Broadway goes,’ says Kerr.

Menu notes: Primarily American (veal, steaks, burgers, fish, etc.) plus sandwiches, soups, many salads, specials. Top price: $14.95. Desserts (“awesome,’ says Kerr): $3.50-3.95.

Hours: Mon. 11:30 am-1:00 am; Tues.-Sat. 11:30 am-3:30 am; Sun. 12:30 pm-7:30 pm

 

PHEBE’S 361 Bowery 473-9008

This is the “southernmost’ stop on the gin-joint tour, a look at the “Sardi’s of Off Off Broadway,’ the “Ellis Island of the Lower East Side,’ and, by several accounts, a god-send and a savior for this transitional neighborhood.

Phebe’s, impossible to miss from blocks away with its blaring yellow letters on the side of its building, opened on the same day as the nearby Truck & Warehouse Theatre in 1969. The T & W shut down, but Phebe’s remains, as the “only reasonable place in the area for actors,’ says long-time employee Joseph Blunt, a composer. “Some of the best deals in Off Broadway history were signed here: “Torch Song Trilogy,’ “Hair’ . . . it’s now in some ways “the office’ for Ellen Stewart and the La Mama people. I mean, people like Lanford Wilson, Sam Shepard, and Michael Bennett have written scripts here, and Robert Patrick’s “Kennedy’s Children’ has Phebe’s as the setting. A lot of actors come into town, call their friends, and know that if they’re not home they’re at Phebe’s.’

The late Lester Nichols, original founder, is mentioned with considerable respect and admiration for his efforts in providing and maintaining Phebe’s for the artistic-minded regulars and for his causes on behalf of the then-sagging area. “Lester would plant trees, pick up garbage, give publicity to the shows and credit to the actors, lend props, and try out new food combos on actors,’ says Ozzie Rodriguez, a resident director at La Mama and a frequent Phebe-ite. “It’s because of him that many actors and dancers actually get jobs while here.’

Phebe’s (“open 365 1/4 days a year’) is quite a bit larger than it looks (258 legal limit, 55 tables), especially since Nichols bought the bar next door years back and expanded. The hushed, muted-wood set-up gives a dark-and-light feel and is dotted with posters and candle-lit tables, surrounded by expansive windows on two streets. Menus are broad and very American, with accents on the burgers and sandwiches.

The “cast’ over the years is among the most interesting anywhere: Mick Jagger, John Lennon, Tennessee Williams, Anthony Perkins, Harvey Fierstein, Harold Prince, a guy named Pacino . . . “Everybody from Buddhists to mudmen eat burgers at Phebe’s,’ says Rodriguez.

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Rap Master Who?

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How many divisions does the pope of Walden Puddle have? Several, political commentators like to say, since when Garry Trudeau draws a line, millions of eyes faithfully follow it to the end, even when the end involves a tour of President Reagan’s brain–though in the case of Reagan’s brain, sundry newspapers dropped an editorial curtain over the offending comic strip, and the millions must have dwindled. Trudeau is a valuable man, in short, and it’s very nice to see him collaborating with Elizabeth Swados on “a partisan revue” at The Village Gate. There are seventeen songs in the revue, each more partisan than the last. “Rap Master Ronnie,” the title song, offers a rap routine intended as a “Reagan Campaign Message to Minority Voters,” in which the President soullessly recites herky-jerky rhymes over funk rhythms, while Secret Service agents breakdance and chant backups. “Say, we want Ron, the cat’s pure sex,/he’s the man who signs your monthly welfare checks.” In “The Class of 1984,” four revolting yuppies croon, “We’re entry-level assholes on the rise” and come out for social Darwinism. A chorus of right-wing ministers sing for intolerance. Another song lampoons the gloulish Elliott Abrams, officer in charge of making optimistic reports about human rights under fascism. A man and wife sweetly declaim against feminism. “Must I have it all?” she sings. And the mustn’t and she won’t, we realize, because nearly every song in Rap Master Ronnie shows Reaganism kick social equality, tolerance, broadmindedness and dignity for all, down the stairs and into the ditch, where they are scheduled to remain.

She doesn't cameo, but she should!

There’s a good deal of pathos in Rap Master Ronnie. A melancholy marine Writes to Brooke Shields from Beirut. A derelict reflects on life on Park Avenue, where he occupies a bench. Pathos is by and large the strongest emotion of the evening, and pathos mixed with Trudeau’s satiric geniality can get a little tiresome. I kept wishing Trudeau and Swados would stand up and blast the White House, but good. I wanted to see mudballs; I’ve wanted, many of us have wanted, to see mudballs all campaign long. I wanted to go on a tour of Reagan’s brain. Mario Cuomo pointed the way when he proposed a campaign that would raise questions such as, Why did the President leave his first wife? Why doesn’t the President ever see his grandchildren? (Naturally, Cuomo suggested these questions with Ciceronian delicacy by saying they were questions he would not raise.) On the level of politics, a barrage of unprincipalia would make an excellently principled point: that Reagan stands for hypocrisy, the hypocrisy of all the right-wing pospelers who, like Senator Roger Jepsen, preach family values while cavorting in whorehouses or, like Senator Paul Laxalt, talk probity while deriving their power from the Las Vegas Mafia. Why shouldn’t the President be shown as the scheming hypocrite he is? On the level of theater, a more vicious satire than Rap Master Ronnie would at least get us pounding the table. There was vicious satire in the days of Lyndon Johnson. Barbara Garson’s Macbird was a classic of viciousness. Let the President run into mightly Barbara Garson in a dark alley, and you have the feeling national affairs would be in good hands. But I would be less confident if it were Trudeau and Swados lurking among the trash cans and dim shadows.

The music in Rap Master Ronnie accounts for some of the geniality. Swados has a gift for stylistic variety. The songs she has written with Trudeau are disco, calypso, funko, ballado and blueso, and you do get a feeling of musical fluency, which is satisfying. But there’s little depth to the score, possibly because of the constant stylistic shifts, nor do the lyrics always work especially well with the music. The performers–there are five, of whom Reathel Bean and Catherine Cox stand out–often have to cram oversize declamations into their mouths, as if they were eating giant sandwiches with lots of tomato and onion dribbling out the sides.

But why complain? At least Trudeau and Swados have gone after the Great Communicator. No sign in their revue of that terrible blight creeping across select liberal and left-wing columns recently, which makes otherwise sane individuals think Reagan is indistinguishable from Mondale. The dementia hasn’t reach The Village Gate. And at one point during the performance, I did find mysefl nursing a particularly bitter thought, for which Trudeau and Swados deserve the credit. Those of us who are more or less the same generation as these two artists have spent our adult lives, apart from four dubious years under Jimmy Carter, living under a Republican shadow. Ever since we’ve been teen-agers we’ve had to go home and wash whenever the President utters a remark. That’s no way to live. How old will we be when things are different? Ready for Social Security? Except there will be no Social Security.

Cabaret Continues To Perform

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There’s a lot to celebrate during the Manhattan Association of Clubs and Cabarets’ (MAC) Annual Cabaret Month. The past year has seen unprecedented progress for clubs large and small, and cabaret as an art form is in better shape than at any time since the mid-1960s.

Many factors have contributed to the continuing boom in the field, and the boom itself has produced some interesting side results. After long years of drought and neglect, the genre has finally reached the flash point where success in and of itself breeds more success. It’s still not an easy business, but it’s no longer like pulling teeth to get attention from the press and public.

Despite the high rents in Manhattan and all the other negative economic factors involved in starting any new, small business, it’s been a banner year for new cabarets and established enterprises opening or re-opening cabaret rooms as an expansion of their regular business. The growth curve, once led by the explosive expansion of comedy clubs, now seems to be steady and right across the board.

Cabaret continues to thrive.

There have been losses, most notably Nikell’s and Panache Encore. But both those spots closed for reasons having nothing to do with their own business. Panache closed because the restaurant which housed it went under, and Nikell’s because of a whopping rent increase at the end of a long lease.

Indeed, the drain of closings has slowed almost to a halt, particularly in the badly hit jazz field. Jazz clubs continued to suffer even as cabaret began to thrive, but the worst seems to be over. The situation has stabilized, and more new clubs opened in the jazz field in 1988 than closed in the preceding few years for a net gain.

Brand new clubs have cropped up all over town. Eighty Eight’s opened in April and became an immediate success. Rainbow & Stars Cabaret, the new flagship in the industry, received incredible publicity when it opened in early 1989, and has also been a smash hit. Rags To Riches joined Caroline’s at the Seaport as a venue for major names in comedy. Though comedy club openings have slowed a bit, Club 1407, Wonderland, the Village Gate and other spots have provided new performance space for aspiring and established comics.

The increase in performance space has been most notable in already established businesses. Maxim’s, Regine’s, Nell’s and the Doral Hotel have all started entertainment policies featuring cabaret performers. After a false start last year, the Slate came fully on line as the Chez Beauvais this year. Dannys’ Skylight Room in the Grand Sea Palace and Leslie’s Cabaret at the Ristorante Eleonora continue to do well. Cafe Gian Luca and the Zanzibar & Grill have given over space for jazz performers.

It’s hard to determine if there’s any direct connection between the boom and the improved legal climate in New York, but recent court decisions favoring unlicensed cabarets certainly made it easier for club owners to operate. Removing restrictions on the number and kind of instruments allowed on stage has permitted a qualitative improvement of the shows themselves, making cabaret even more appealing to the public. Owners no longer fear precipitious action by the Consumer Affairs Department, and are getting freer about publicizing their performers.

Signs Of Confidence

If there’s a trend developing, it would certainly seem to be in favor of flashier, more sophisticated clubs. All of the newer rooms are posh in comparison to the cabarets which sparked the boom, and the fact that entrepreneurs are spending money in such a fashion indicates that business people are confident in the future of cabaret.

That confidence also expressed itself in 1988 in a round of renovations and upgrades in well established clubs. The Oak Room at the Algonquin, Mostly Magic and the Ballroom had major face lifts–including vastly improved sound and light systems, Palsson’s is getting ready to reopen a totally refurbished room, the Plaza plans to reopen the Persian Room as the Rose Room and the St. Regis is also renovating. Serious money is being spent on cabaret.

That money manifests itself in other ways which help performers and also create an atmosphere which encourages customers to keep on coming. The technical capabilities of the rooms have improved radically, and while there’s still room for improvement (particularly in some of the supposedly better clubs), the sound and light systems in the main line cabarets are superb.

Money is also being directed into advertising and public relations. You see far more club ads in every paper today than you did even two years ago. Even some of the smaller clubs (or, more frequently the performers in the smaller clubs rather than the clubs themselves) advertise in the major papers, and almost every club advertises somewhere. There’s also a whole fleet of cabaret press agents and promoters these days. Ad money encourages the papers to maintain coverage, and press agents help oil the gears.

Good Press Coverage

Certainly the most significant contributing factor to the upsurge in public interest in cabaret has been the tremendous increase in press coverage. In 1983, when MAC was founded to promote cabaret, there were only five critics of import reporting on cabaret (excluding solely jazz critics). In 1989, there are (again excluding solely jazz) two critics at the New York Times (Stephen Holden and John Wilson), three at the New York Post (myself, Bill Ervolino and Pamela Bloom), three at the Daily News (Hank Gallo, Don Nelsen and Pat O’Haire), two at Variety (Joe Cohen and Martin Schaeffer), one at Newsday (Stuart Troupe), one at the Observer (Rex Reed), two at Back Stage (Bill Ervolino and myself) and a host of critics for smaller publications who will cover cabaret acts.

Though many of the critics named above cover a wide variety of events, some are exclusively cabaret or comedy critics (a completely new development–covering cabaret as a career is a recent specialty made possible by the boom itself). In addition to these direct reporters, there are scores of other writers and editors at every publication named above feeding into the system with feature stories, interviews, photos in columns, etc.

Television continues to lag behind, and local news coverage of cabaret is a city-wide disgrace. Being in New York is an advantage in every way except if you’re trying to publicize local events. Still, Joe Franklin has been a loyal friend and “Live At Five” and “People Are Talking” have been supportive. On cable, “Tomorrow’s Television Tonight” continues to feature cabaret, and “Cabaret Beat,” devoted entirely to the club scene, has become a popular show. Radio pays a great deal of attention to cabaret, and local DJ’s have begun to plug shows by playing records when performers are in town.

But the real surprise in 1988 was the amount of publicity garnered by the Manhattan cabaret boom in national magazines. Time, Newsweek, People, Omni and Elle have all taken notice of cabaret for the first time. And, while these features tended to concentrate largely on the high visibility clubs, smaller clubs like Jan Wallman’s, the Duplex and Don’t Tell Mama were all mentioned.

Record Industry Interest

The record industry has also rediscovered the club scene. Atlantic Records has released an incredible array of albums devoted to new and old cabaret stars. CBS, Elektra and Columbia have also had major releases in the field. Audiophile and DRG continuously release albums by cabaret performers. And, led by big sellers like Michael Feinstein and Cleo Laine, these records are doing well.

Audience Increase

Of course, the bottom line is the audience increase. I would conservatively estimate that the solid core audience (those who see acts on a frequent basis) for cabaret has quadrupled over the past three years, the regular audience has tripled and the occasional audience has doubled. Walk-in business is becoming a dependable quantity in cabaret, and so is business brought in by feature stories and reviews.

The new audience seems split between older patrons returning to cabaret after years of feeling that there was nothing going on, and younger, new patrons who are discovering cabaret for the first time. It’s becoming an “in” thing to do, and being the “in” thing never hurts. Restaurants, once described as the “theatre of the 80s,” are losing ground as an entire entertainment package as the public begins seeking more complete evenings out. Entertainment seekers disillusioned with theatre and tired of discos are also turning to cabaret as an alternative form.

There’s also a direct correlation between the growth in the audience and the improvement in the quality of the performers appearing in town. The fact that there is an audience today has encouraged major stars to return to cabaret in New York. Patti Page (after a 30-year absence), Joan Rivers, the McGuire Sisters, Tony Bennett, Barbara Cook, Yma Sumac, Peggy Lee and a host of others have either reappeared or returned to regular performing in New York because 1) there are now rooms for them to play, and 2) there’s a potential audience.

By the same token, the drawing power of those names has unquestionably pulled people into the clubs either for the first time or for the first time in years. It may only be a small percentage of them who return to see other acts, but that represents growth nonetheless. They’ve also helped draw press and public attention to cabaret through the publicity power of their names.

Lengthier Runs

Another new, significant trend can be seen in the length of runs being offered to known and even relatively unknown performers. Five years ago, there was rarely a thought of giving a performer an open-ended run in the hope that an audience would develop for them. Today, it’s becoming a prevalent situation in some of the leading small clubs.

It’s a mixed blessing. Top acts are tying up the key nights in what used to be easy access clubs, and getting a booking is getting harder for untried newcomers. The number of purely showcase rooms has declined simply because most of them have developed a strong stable of superb performers who can draw on a regular basis. But the quality of the performances has increased tremendously. Vanity act bookings (once a major economic necessity for any club trying to stay in business) have been banished to the off nights, and in some cases, banished outright.

Though that’s clearly an improvement for the field itself (and a further inducement to repeat customers who used to worry about wandering in on the wrong night), it has made it harder for talent to develop naturally in the city. Even comedy club open mike situations are tightening up because of the surplus of experienced, trained comics in the city.

The counterbalancing advantages to the experienced performers, however, are enormous. Such cabaret stars as Nancy Timpanaro, Lois Sage, Judy Kreston and Barbara Lea, who have virtually unlimited weekend runs at Eighty Eight’s and Jan Wallman’s respectively, have benefited both in terms of honing their performances and in increasing their audiences.

It also used to be that a new act that did well petered out because of audience exhaustion and the inability to get regular bookings. Club owners–having been burned frequently by great acts that, through no fault of their own, simply ran out of audience–were reluctant to approve extended engagements. Now owners are taking that chance and it’s paying off for them and for the acts.

Still, the incredible diversity of performance styles continues to be cabaret’s most marked characteristic and, I suspect, its major appeal to the public. Computerization has taken place for a lot of the music, but it is not without its pitfalls. There are, of course, always going to be hard drive failures and room for data recovery companies like this one. But as performers use backup hard drives and other key protections against hard drive crashes, the need for such services is lessened greatly. Indeed, there’s room for everything in cabaret, including the development of new styles. The synthesis of jazz and cabaret-style singing, for instance, has created a whole new type of jazz performance that’s far more accessible to the general public than mainstream jazz.

Charting MACNYC’s Accomplishments

At least part of the credit must go to the Manhattan Association of clubs and Cabarets, which has with great difficulty begun uniting the field. Though it was organized around a mere handful of clubs when it started, it now represents a healthy cross-section of the field and member clubs include almost all the major venues in town outside the jazz arena. The comedy clubs have come on board in force, as have ritzy rooms such as Maxim’s and the Oak Room.

MAC has also provided a greater sense of identity for and communication between the various components of the business. MAC-run seminars create an opportunity for valuable networking in addition to their inherent educational purpose. MAC provides recognition and validation for cabaret performers, and has done much to eradicate the notion that cabaret is a hobby instead of a career.

A key function of the organization is the MAC Awards, the only awards recognizing cabaret, comedy and jazz performers in New York based on both peer and critical evaluation. The system isn’t perfect–no system of awards is–but it’s a major improvement over no recognition at all. And it’s also garnered valuable publicity for cabaret and for the winners.

Using It As A Springboard To Fame

Some nore must also be taken of the increased mobility of cabaret performers to other venues. Kathy & Mo, Wallem & Tolan, Michael Feinstein and other cabaret acts have moved almost intact on and Off Broadway. Such upward mobility attests to the fact that casting directors, producers and talent agents are once again finding out that cabaret offers them a fertile field of discovery.

More and more producers, in the face of high rents and decreased inexpensive rehearsal space, are using cabaret to showcase and try out theatrically-oriented ventures. Nunsense and Forbidden Broadway have been huge successes, and neither would have been possible had they had to go the usual route. That kind of success doesn’t go unnoticed.

The things can only get better from here. As the size of the audience continues to increase, so does the effect of word of mouth and press coverage. Eventually, the cycle may go bust again. But we haven’t even begun to approach the crest of the wave and the end is nowhere in sight.

Comedy Clubs Remain A Serious Moneymaker

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Stand-up comic Joy Behar, a former secretary who worked for ABC’s “Good Morning America,” parlayed her exposure at clubs like Catch a Rising Star and the Greene Street Cafe, into her own talk show (“Way Off Broadway with Joy Behar”) on the Lifetime network. Mario Cantone, another talented young comic, was recently signed up as the host of a new children’s show for WWOR called “Steam Pipe Alley.” And Colin Quinn is now the announcer on MTV’s new show “Remote Control,” a show hosted by yet another stand-up veteran, Ken Ober.

There isn’t enough room here to list the many other comics who’ve derived TV, film or commercial work from appearing in the clubs. It’s safe to say, however, that their number is rapidly growing, and, good or bad, the end appears to be nowhere in sight.

“It’s a situation that is accelerating at a very rapid pace,” observes Cary Hoffman, owner of the uptown club Stand-Up New York, “and one which is altering stand-up tremendously. We’re seeing comics today developing cleaner, more generic acts–television acts. They are also much more concerned with their acting abilities. A lot of them are even taking acting classes. By now, they are all familiar with the story of how Carl Reiner came into the Comedy Store and discovered Robin Williams. To many of them, stand-up has become a quick steppingstone to television and films.”

Catch a Rising Star owner Richard Fields agrees: “We have close to 100 performers appearing regularly at Catch, but I’d say only two or three of them see stand-up as a long-term goal. The rest are waiting to be discovered. And, while they wait, they can earn $30,000 to $75,000 a year. Our management company currently handles some acts–people who are not major stars–who are earning two to four thousand per week.”

Many of the clubs aggressively pursue casting people, inviting them to stop in, have a drink and sample that night’s acts. “Casting people call us all the time,” Cary Hoffman notes, “and yes, we do pursue them. The comedy clubs are now viscerally connected to films and just about every other medium. ABC, for example, has a pilot development program and they are always in the clubs looking for people to build pilots around. They want comics.”

Comedy Gets Serious

This growing interest in comedy among industry types as well as audiences, continues to bring big bucks into the clubs. But, as new superstars emerge from the stand-up pack, even the mega-venues like Madison Square Garden and Radio City Music Hall are beginning to feel the heat.

Rock may still rule on the road, but according to the music trade newsletter Pollstar, stand-up is beginning to make significant advances at concert hall box offices. Pollstar’s recently-released list of the top 100 touring acts included five comedy headliners with average nightly grosses that really rocked.

Eddie Murphy, of course, was number one among comics for the year. (No surprise there–he was also 1987′s top movie draw, thanks to “Beverly Hills Cop II” and his stand-up concert film “Raw.”) The “Saturday Night Live” alumnus, who got his start doing stand-up at clubs here in town and on Long Island, ranked number 28 overall among all touring acts with an average gross income, per date, of $181,114.

The other four on Pollstar’s list were Howie Mandel ($73,970), Jay Leno ($44,010), Sam Kinison ($39,169) and the double bill of Louie Anderson and Roseanne Barr ($34,364). Not bad for a night’s work, especially when you compare the obvious financial differences between carting a comic from town to town, to moving a rock act–replete with band members, instruments, sets, tech people, smoke bombs and what have you–over the same distance.

Stand-up veteran Freddie Roman, who played three nights at Caroline’s at the Seaport last month and is set to return for additional dates later this year, says he was surprised to see Anderson and Barr, both virtually unknown a year ago, crack the Pollstar list so quickly. And, though he was hardly stunned by the figures, he was quick to add that “if you had mentioned numbers like that to me ten years ago, I would have laughed in your face.”

Roman, who now divides a good deal of his time between high-paying gigs in Las Vegas and Atlantic City, got his start in comedy at the age of 14, playing the hotel circuit in the Catskill Mountains. “In the early ’50s,” he says, “there were 300…maybe 400 hotels you could work and they always needed comics to fill the slots. As audiences became more sophisticated, though, more and more hotels started to close. For the comics it was disastrous, particularly for the younger ones. There weren’t enough places to go around.”

Nowadays, there are so many rooms for young comics to play–some 500 and counting, nationwide–that, at times, it almost seems as if there aren’t enough comics to go around. Manhattan’s appetite for comedy is especially voracious, with more than a dozen clubs featuring comedy on a regular basis, and a dozen or so more in neighboring suburbs. Add to that list the cabarets and theatres which feature comedy and comedy troupes occasionally…and the improvisational groups with their own theatres…and the performance art spaces with their own comedy shows, and the list could conceivably stretch from here to…oh, how about Lansing, Michigan–a city, according to Freddie Roman, which “now has two very nice clubs, too.”

The club surge, once considered a fad within the entertainment industry, is now being taken very, very seriously. Catch a Rising Star, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange only months ago, is now in the midst of a rapid nationwide expansion. This year alone, according to Richard Fields, Catch will open new rooms in Chicago, Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Washington, Atlanta and Dallas.

Remembering London’s Club Scene

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Despite general gloom in the entertainment world, nightclubs for the young and seriously trendy are the happening scene (as they say in the business)

FOUR o’clock on a Sunday morning in Trafalgar Square, there are usually a couple of hundred people waiting at bus stops. Some wear scruffy bomber jackets, some shiny leggings, some are in black with their faces painted white. In Brixton, Notting Hill, a Hackney an Camden, hundreds more wander along the pavements, some off to bed, some to another club.

London is Europe’s main clubbing city. Rome and Madrid have big scenes, Berlin and Amsterdam have variety, but only London has the size and the mix. According to the British Tourist Authority, in 1989 4% of European tourists said they came to dance. The Japanese are joining in, too: Gaz’s Rockin’ Blues in the West End has a regular crowd of Japanese in impeccable designer scruff.

New York has the high-fashion film-star clubs, but London has a bigger grassroots scene. Part of London’s advantage lies in its relative racial harmony. Blacks, who make most of the music, are essential to serious clubs. London imports black American music generated in places that American whites would not venture into-acid house came from black Chicago, for instance-then produces a version for its mixed-race clubbers.

The recession has hurt some clubs. Members’ clubs have had a bad time: people are unwilling to pay a big signing-on fee. Places that rely on tourism have suffered. The older, plusher end of the market has been hit: yuppies with mortgages have cut down on the champagne. Some clubs have closed, some changed hands. Adrian Flack, owner of the small and fashionable Brain Club in Wardour Street, says things are now picking up: “I can really relate to what the chancellor is saying.” But the West End is still thick with rumours of closures.

To keep full, West End clubs have been letting out their premises to promoters and disc jockeys who are in closer touch with the more resilient end of the market, known as the hardcore. The hardcore is under 22, does not own property and may well still live with its lucky parents. If it is in work, it has money to spend. It is serious about music, and will not be seen dead in a place that plays the charts. james Style, who writes on clubs for the independent, reckons that there are 30,000 determined clubbers in London, compared with 20,000 in the mid-1980s.

Fashionable drugs encourage clubbing: they keep you awake all night. Ecstasy, at E15-20 a tab, is the most popular; for those with less money, speen is [British Pound]12-15 a gramme (enough for ten people for an evening). Unlike alcohol, which makes young men aggressive, ecstasy convinces people that the world is their friend, so hardcore clubs tend to be rather amiable places.

Acid-house parties, the most visible symptom of the nightlife boom, were stamped on last year by new laws. Clubs, encouraged by the regular extension of dancing licences until 6am, have picked up the custom. According to Dave Swindells, clubs correspondent for Time Out, new venues are opening more often: three years ago, a couple of new clubs opened in a year, whereas now there is a new one every month or two. About 50 heterosexual clubs are mentioned in Time Out. But by no means all clubs are listed. Advertising is not cool-serious clubbers rely on word-of-mouth-and unlicensed clubs do not seek publicity.

The hardcore market is highly fragmented. The biggest scenes are:

* Acid house. The music is Fast and furious, the crowd is a bit maler, whiter and more working class than others. The clothes are baggy and deeply unsexy. No smooching.

* Hip-hop and rap. The people are younger, blacker and flasher – “Lycra-ed out”, as other scenes put it. There is more sex in the air and an occasional whiff of violence.

* Funk/soul. Slower music: some clubs guarantee a maximum number of beats per minute. The customers smooch and chat.

* Reggae. Gentle jamaican music, now having a revival.

Beyond these are the Latin, African and jazz scenes, grunge music (favoured by hippies), the Goths (black clothes, white-painted faces, found in the intrepid Fox in Soho).

Since the customers are easily bored, venues offer different scenes on different nights, and promoters and DJs hop between venues. The DJ is the key to success. Top DJs have taken over much of the ground that pop stars used to occupy. As well as music, the customers want a bit of art: promoters employ artists to design light shows.

The business can be exceedingly profitable. A top DJ can make [British Pound]700 an hour, appearing at three venues a night. Since inverted snobbery demands that the premises should not be too plush, rents are low. VOX, a popular new place in Brixton, happens in a former warehouse customers are welcomed by a large “Loading and Unloading” sign, and descend into the club in an industrial lift). Other places are squatted: according to a promoter, if you find a good railway arch, spend [British Pound]3,000 on hot DJs and incidental costs and get the word around, you could get in 1,000 people at [British Pound]8 a head.

On the other hand, nobody may come. Fashion is a slippery business, and the fashionable are fickle by nature. This has discouraged the big entertainment chains, which leave the hardcore to young entrepreneurs with a feel for what their demanding peers want. The business is run by people in their early 20s, black and white, whose lack of interest in publicity probably has something to do with the tax authorities. Interviews with them are interspersed with calls from their parents asking if they will be home for dinner. Some make a lot, and many make a living.

Students rock the house!

There is some biggish investment going on, though. The most happening place at the moment, the Ministry of Sound, which opened two weeks ago, is huge, licensed for 1,200, with a sprung dance floor and a sound system, said to be the best in Europe, that directs thunder at the dancers and quiet at the alcohol-free bar. Set in the grey concrete of south London’s Elephant and Castle, the club has the atmosphere of a high-security jail. Searchlights scan the queue, fearsome bouncers frisk the customers down to the bottoms of their cigarette packets and police vans cruise suspiciously. It is supposed to give customers the frisson of an illegal acid-house party. They seem to like it.

In one way, recession has helped the club business: the property slump has increased the supply of venues. Sir Terence Conran’s Docklands venture at Butler’s Wharf collapsed last December; with the development in limbo, warehouse parties have started happening there. A DJ speculates that this Christmas, there will be a rash of illegal parties in unlet Docklands buildings. Why not, he suggests with a visionary gleam, in Canary Wharf?

Fresh News: New Orleans Club Adopts Air Cleaners

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Everything in New Orleans is funky - everything but the air.

Buck Sardi, co-owner of Ponchartrain Air Conditioning, a 10 year old contractor, enjoys a project that presents a challenge, particularly when the project is new and there are lots of parts to the puzzle.

One of Sardi’s most recent challenges was to engineer and install climate control for City Lights, a chic new night spot in the heart of New Orleans’ revitalized warehouse district.

In a sense, City Lights was already a success, thanks to a sister club, Ditka’s City Lights, i downtown Chicago. Given New Orleans’ burgeoning visitor trade and a proven formula, the owners believed the club had excellent potential and were very specific about what they wanted.

A top priority was a pleasing, humidity-balanced environment–a tall order for a club that sits four blocks from a river in a city known for its 90 F, 90 percent RH climate. The second requirement was for air that was free of odors and smoke.

The building that houses City Lights is a stately turn-of-the-century structure with brick walls, wooden trusses, and massive exposed beams. The real key to the building’s charm, however–and one of the major challenges to effective climate control–was the 40 ft high cathedral ceiling.

One of the special effects used at City Lights is a high humidity vapor that bounces a rainbow of laser lights above the dance floor. The vapor is emitted near the ceiling, and the system had to be engineered so that the lighting effects wouldn’t be destroyed by the air conditioner or the air cleaner. Assurances also had to be given that the high water content of the decorative smoke wouldn’t compromise the effectiveness of whatever air cleaner was selected.

Ponchartrain Air Conditioning selected air conditioning equipment that would provide City Lights with 100 tons of cooling capacity. Three units continuously supply 4500 cfm of outside air–7 cfm per person when the club is at capacity. Because Ponchartrain sells a variety of air cleaning equipment from several manufacturers, Sardi had a number of options for this part of the project. Test data and references from other contractors influenced his decision to install passive electrostatic air cleaners.

These units are distinctive in that they are available with several types of inserts for combating different contaminants. In this case, the units were equipped with charcoal inserts that remove a wide variety of atmospheric contaminants, including tobacco smoke and the gases that always emanate from new building materials.

A major benefit is the units’ passive design, which does not consume electricity and does not use a power back or other device that can create service and warranty problems. Also, each air cleaner is permanent, with an indefinite service life. As is the case with all charcoal inserts, absorption of smoke and other contaminants will eventually saturate the insert. When this occurs, a simple replacement of the insert is all that’s required. The only other maintenance ever needed is periodic cleaning with plain water or a common household spray cleaner.

Clubs Change Hands In Louisville

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Rascals and Caddy’s have been sold, and Coconut’s Beach & Safari Club is changing hands, as prominent Louisville nightclub owner Mark Suna decides “what to do with the next half of my life.”

Terms of the transactions were not disclosed.

Suna, a 38-year-old teetotaler who had been a fixture among area night owls for about 15 years (Lone Star Saloon, Sophie’s, Jock Stop), said he’s burned out and tired of fighting a shift in public opinion against alcohol consumption.

“There’s been a definite downswing in consumption,” he said. “Liquor has become taboo. Some people equate a bar owner with a drug dealer. It’s gone haywire.”

DJ Frank not affected by the sale.

What eventually became Suna’s burden is what the clubs’ new owners describe as a “great business opportunity.”

Bruce Hicks, manager and co-owner of Rascals in the Watterson Towers on Bishop Lane, said: “This is an established business, a sound investment. It is centrally located (near Watterson Expressway’s intersection with Bardstown Road). I fell in love with this place.”

Suna founded Rascals nine years ago on the site of the former Peter Outlaw’s nightclub.

In a business where nightclubs come and go, Hicks said, Rascals has been a mainstay. “It’s sort of a landmark in the business.”

Hicks and business partner Michael Antonelli recently acquired the business. They jointly own John’s Liquors at 13th and Hill streets.

Hicks said Elaine Nunn of V.R. Business Brokers of Louisville put the nightclub deal together for the partners.

Antonelli is also owner of Mike’s Village Cleaners in the Village Square Shopping Center, Middletown.

Hicks said a lunch menu is being added at Rascals to attract workers in the Watterson and nearby office towers. A happy hour, with free buffet, is held 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday. Recorded top 40 and rhythm-and-blues music is played by request.

Meanwhile, Charles “Bud” Nichols and the Woodcox family of Louisville acquired Caddy’s, which is located at Old Shepherdsville and Poplar Level roads.

They will start managing Coconut’s, 3027 Hunsinger Lane, on Feb. 1, with an option to buy the business, Nichols said. Coconut’s was formerly known as Boomer’s Club Cafe & Deli, which Suna launched in 1989.

Caddy’s, which Suna founded as Mardi Gras in 1986, is located on a five-acre tract with plenty of room for a miniature golf course and volleyball courts that are proposed there within the next year, said Paul Woodcox.

Woodcox said the recent onset of a recession doesn’t bother him in the least.

“People who aren’t spending their money on big-ticket items will spend (modestly) at the bars,” he said. “The best time for the bar business is a recession.”

Nichols said outdoor-benefit concerts are planned this year at Caddy’s. Inside, there is a pub and a larger room that houses a nightclub. Total seating is 300.

The Woodcox family’s principal business is Jericho Painting & Special Coating Co. of Louisville. It is the holding company for Caddy’s.

Nichols has a minority interest in the nightclub.

Woodcox said live entertainment, mostly bands, are planned for Caddy’s and Coconut’s.

“That will be our knockout punch,” he said.

As for Suna, he will remain as a business consultant to Nichols and the Woodcox family. For the long term, he said, he is eyeing the possibility of starting a recycling business. “Paper, plastics, manure, things like that.”

He does not believe he will return to the nightclub business–as he did a decade ago after a hiatus of several months.

He also may launch a new career as an agent, representing an unusual breed of client: The eleven parrots that live with him.

The self-described “Bird Man of Louisville,” he’s training the birds to ride little bicycles, and he donates their talents for outings sponsored by the Dream Factory, an organization that grants the wishes of critically ill children.

“I’d also like to lease out the birds for Broadway shows,” he said.

But he’s in no hurry about switching careers.

“I just want to take it easy for a while,” he said.