Leno, laughter return to Hermosa Beach Comedy and Magic Club
Gabriel “Fluffy” Iglesias (right), who performed a sold out show at the Dodger Stadium last month, performs at the Comedy and Magic during its annual birthday celebration in 2004. Others on stage include Jay Leno writer Jimmy Brogan (back left, in glasses). Photo by Bev Morse
by Kevin Cody
For the first time since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, Jay Leno, Alonzo Bodden (NPR), Laurie Kilmartin (“Last Comic Standing,” Conan O’Brien writer), and others of the country’s top comedians are returning to The Comedy and Magic Club stage.
The club reopens this Friday, May 20 with its popular 10 comics show, featuring 10 comics, each performing for just five minutes.
Leno’s first show is Sunday May 29. Prior to the pandemic, he performed at the club almost every Sunday for over three decades. It’s where he tested new jokes during his 1992 to 2014 reign as “The Tonight Show” host. He’d read the jokes from index cards, and toss the cards that didn’t get laughs over his shoulder. The cards that got laughs became the following week’s opening monologue, heard by “The Tonight Show’s” 14 million viewers.
The club will only be open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays for the immediate future. Tickets are available online only. Only 100 tickets will be available for each evening, though the club seats 250.
The seating is temporarily restricted to allow the new kitchen and server staff to learn the club’s procedures, owner Mike Lacey said.
Rumors of the Club’s imminent reopening began circulating last week after what had become known as “the dead building at the end of the block,” because of its boarded up windows, painted black, was repainted bright white with cheery, blue window trim.
Comedy and Magic has been a favorite place to perform among comedians since the then 24-year-old Lacey opened his club in 1973.
Jim McDonald, a comedian, and Hermosa resident, is fond of sharing a quote from Laurie Kilmartin, who said, “I feel like I have to do a joke on TV before I can do it at the Comedy and Magic Club.”
Tickets to the 10 Comics shows are $25. Leno tickets (which elsewhere are often over $100) are $30.
Tickets are available at TheComedyAndMagicClub.com. ER