The Comedy & Magic Club is located in Hermosa Beach, California and opened in 1978 by Mike Lacey. The club's beachside location has made it a favorite destination for both comedians and audience members for a long time. Many of the top comics in the industry have referred to it as their home club. Gabriel Iglesias, Ian Bagg, Cristela Alonzo, Daniel Tosh, Arsenio Hall, and Jay Leno appear regularly. Leno has held a weekly residency on most Sunday evenings for many years.
Their audiences are held in high regard by the comedians which frequent the venue as being some of the best in the country. It is a common practice for comedians preparing for a five-minute late night appearance to perform and polish their routines at the club. In addition to the roster of top-tier comedic talent The CMC boasts an impressive array of magic and variety performers including Derek Hughes, Rob Zabrecky, The Passing Zone, Danny Cole, Jon Armstrong, and Lindsay Benner. The club's interior is also a museum housing comedy memorabilia from Charlie Chaplin, Lucille Ball, Robin Williams, Ray Romano, Dan Aykroyd, Jerry Seinfeld's Puffy Shirt, and others which are on display.[ citation needed ]
James Douglas Muir Leno is an American television host, comedian, and writer. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's The Tonight Show from 1992 until 2009 when Conan O'Brien took over as host. Beginning in September 2009, Leno started a primetime talk show, The Jay Leno Show, which aired weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET, also on NBC. O'Brien turned down NBC's offer to have Leno host a half hour monologue show before The Tonight Show to boost ratings amid reported viewership diminishing, which sparked the 2010 Tonight Show conflict that resulted in Leno's returning to hosting the show on March 1, 2010. He hosted his last episode of his second tenure on February 6, 2014. That year, he was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame. From 2014 to 2022, he hosted Jay Leno's Garage, and from 2021 to 2023, hosted the revival of You Bet Your Life.
Stand-up comedy is a performance directed to a live audience, where the performer stands on a stage and delivers humorous and satirical monologues sometimes incorporating physical acts. These performances are typically composed of rehearsed scripts but often include varying degrees of live crowd interaction. Stand-up comedy consists of one-liners, stories, observations, or shticks that can employ props, music, impressions, magic tricks, or ventriloquism.
A comedian or comic is a person who seeks to entertain an audience by making them laugh. This might be through jokes or amusing situations, or acting foolishly, or employing prop comedy. A comedian who addresses an audience directly is called a stand-up comedian.
The Tonight Show with Jay Leno is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fourth and sixth installment of The Tonight Show. Hosted by Jay Leno, it aired from May 25, 1992 to May 29, 2009, replacing The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and was replaced by The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien. The show returned from March 1, 2010 to February 6, 2014, replacing The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien and was replaced by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.
Scott Thompson, known professionally as Carrot Top, is an American stand-up comedian and actor. He is widely known for his use of prop comedy.
George Wild Galvin, better known by the stage name Dan Leno, was a leading English music hall comedian and musical theatre actor during the late Victorian era. He was best known, aside from his music hall act, for his dame roles in the annual pantomimes that were popular at London's Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, from 1888 to 1904.
The Improv is a comedy club franchise. It was founded as a single venue in the Hell's Kitchen neighborhood of New York City in 1963, and expanded into a chain of venues in the late 1970s.
The Ice House Comedy Club is a comedy club located at 24 Mentor Avenue in Pasadena, California.
George Henry Wallace is an American comedian and actor. Wallace has had supporting roles in a number of films, including 3 Strikes and the Coen Brothers film The Ladykillers. Wallace also appeared in Batman Forever (1995) as the Mayor of Gotham City. Other film credits include A Rage in Harlem (1991), The Wash (2001), Punchline (1988), Things Are Tough All Over (1982), Postcards from the Edge (1990), and Mr. Deeds (2002).
"The Last Temptation of Krust" is the fifteenth episode of the ninth season of the American animated television series The Simpsons. It first aired on Fox in the United States on February 22, 1998. It was written by Donick Cary and directed by Mike B. Anderson. Comedian Jay Leno makes a guest appearance. In the episode, Bart convinces Krusty the Clown to appear at a comedy festival organized by Jay Leno, but Krusty's old material does not go over well with the audience and he receives bad reviews. He briefly retires from comedy but returns with a new, better-received gimmick. He soon returns to his old ways, selling out to a motor-vehicle company.
Paul Mecurio is a comedian, actor, writer and producer. Mecurio has dozens of TV and film appearances and has won an Emmy Award and a Peabody Award. Mecurio worked as an investment banker and mergers and acquisitions lawyer before he turned to stand-up comedy full time.
Rocky LaPorte is an American actor and a stand-up comedy performer. In 2005 he had his own stand-up special on Comedy Central Presents. After the comedian Tim Allen watched Rocky on The Tonight Show, he claimed Rocky as his "favorite new comic" and brought him on to play in his movie The Shaggy Dog. Rocky visited Iraq with Drew Carey, and the trip became a movie called Patriot Act: a Jeffrey Ross Home Movie, which aired on Showtime. He was also one of the few comedians to get a standing ovation on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien is an American television talk show broadcast by NBC. The show is the fifth installment of The Tonight Show. Hosted by Conan O'Brien. It aired from June 1, 2009, to January 22, 2010, replacing The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and was replaced by The Tonight Show with Jay Leno.
John Caparulo is an American stand-up comedian.
Mitzi Shore was an American comedy club owner. Her husband, Sammy Shore, co-founded The Comedy Store in 1972 and she became its owner two years later. Through the club, she had a huge influence on the careers of up-and-coming comedians for many decades.
Tommy Moore is an American comedian, clown, and motivational speaker versed in the styles of vaudeville and Catskill comedy. His act is filled with classic jokes, original material, props, costumes, improv, and misguided magic, drawing heavily on audience participation. Billed as The Professor of Fun, he has been called the "man who put the FUN back in Funny".
Jimmy Brogan, sometimes credited as Jim Brogan, is an American stand-up comedian, writer and actor. He has made numerous stand-up appearances on the talk show circuit including The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson and Late Night with David Letterman. He was a writer on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno for 9 years. As an actor, he starred in the ABC sitcom Out of the Blue.
Daniel Dwight Tosh is an American comedian, writer, and producer. After graduating from the University of Central Florida with a degree in marketing, Tosh moved to Los Angeles to pursue a career in comedy. His career accelerated in 2001 after a performance on the Late Show with David Letterman. He would go on to appear in other national shows, leading to his own 30-minute special on Comedy Central Presents two years later. From 2009 to 2020, Tosh was the host of Comedy Central series Tosh.0, a showcase of popular Internet video clips with the addition of Tosh's narrative comedic dialogue. Daniel Tosh also went on his own series of comedy tours from 2010 to 2015.
Brian Allen Brushwood is an American magician, podcaster, author, lecturer, YouTuber and comedian. Brushwood is known for the series Scam Nation, a show where he teaches the audience entertaining tricks at bars so they can "scam" a free drink. The show also claims to be the only show dedicated to social engineering at the bar and on the street. In addition to Scam Nation, Brushwood co-hosts the podcasts Weird Things with Andrew Mayne and Justin Robert Young, Cordkillers with Tom Merritt, and Great Night with Young. Brushwood was also a regular guest on the This Week in Tech podcast. Brushwood performs his Bizarre Magic stage show across the United States and is the author of six books. Brushwood also co-hosted a YouTube show along with Jason Murphy called The Modern Rogue. Brushwood has appeared on national television numerous times including on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, CNN and Food Network.
Dwayne Perkins is an American stand-up comedian from Brooklyn, New York, currently residing in Los Angeles. He has made appearances on Conan, Comedy Central, and as a regular correspondent on The Jay Leno Show. In August 2012, he was selected by Rolling Stone magazine as one of their "Five Comics to Watch". In October 2015, he was the artist-in-residence at the Rotterdam International Comedy Festival.
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