Comedy on Strip victim of own success

Budd Friedman would be a good candidate for one of those "Six Degrees of Separation" games. The founder of The Improv comedy clubs has worked with so many show business names, it wouldn't take six moves to connect most of them.

But maybe that's not always a good thing on the Strip, where The Improv at Harrah's Las Vegas now competes for attention with its own legacy.

"The more we talk, the more you depress me," says the 76-year-old impresario, when faced with the topic of how comedy clubs survive amid resident headliners. "All these comics having rooms. I should get a royalty."

Friedman is synonymous with the comedy club format and its visual identification: the bar stool in front of a brick wall. His original New York club was a Vietnamese restaurant he began remodeling in 1962.

"I'm ripping off all these mirrors and red-lacquered wood, and there's brick," he recalls. "I didn't know anything about putting up plasterboard or anything like that. I cleaned the brick up. And that's how the brick wall was born."

The Improv name is still on 23 clubs around the country, but 18 are franchised. Las Vegas, home to The Improv since 1985, is still among those directly held. But it's a bigger challenge now.

Friedman mentions George Wallace, Vinnie Favorito, Rita Rudner and Gordie Brown as Improv alumni, with all but Brown working a short walk from the Harrah's club. Rudner's showroom is just one escalator flight above.

"We laugh about that, if 'laugh' is the right word," Friedman says. "I didn't think it would bother us because her price is twice as high."

Instead, "I think that's cut into the business a bit," he says. "Our business is off, but it's still very profitable for me and Harrah's."

Comedy on the Strip has become a victim of its own success. Club formats still hold their own at the Riviera and Tropicana, and now at Trader Vic's and monthly at the Palms. But the clubs can't really copy their brethren around the country: book a bigger name such as D.L. Hughley and give him most of the door revenue, making money on food and drink sales.

On the Strip, Hughley and other names headline showrooms or theaters. That leaves a big divide, with the clubs often falling under the radar (the Improv does book occasional names, such as Shelley Berman this weekend).

But Friedman is stepping up publicity efforts and reintroducing himself in a new round of interviews. He understands more than ever the value of the legacy.

"The Improv sells some amount of tickets without these people knowing who they're going to see," he says. "For 25 years in New York, it was always the brand."

Mike Weatherford's entertainment column appears Thursdays and Sundays. Contact him at 702-383-0288 or e-mail him at mweatherford@reviewjournal.com.