A thousand laughs

Psychological illusionist Denny More plays with hypnosis during his shows. He performed recently at Zanies on Eighth Avenue South. The 21-year-old establishment has served as the Nashville home to hundreds of comedians on the touring circuit.

By TIM GHIANNI, The Tennessean
December 17, 2004

From stand-up to improv, there are plenty of places around town to yuk it up

Something funny happened to me on the way to work today.

Nah, not really.

Take my wife . . . please.

Rim-shot.

Comedy in Nashville includes, but is not restricted to, classic stand-up stylings seen and heard most nights at Zanies on Eighth Avenue South in the city's antiques district. The 21-year-old club has served as the Nashville home to hundreds of comedians on the comedy-club circuit. The more or less ''old reliables'' such as Killer Beaz and James Gregory and the big stars such as Jackie Mason call the club their Nashville home.

And, speaking of home, Music City has become home to Bill Dana. Old-timers may remember his Jose Jimenez character from a less politically correct era. Truly one of the greats of stand-up, Dana is doing a single show at Zanies at 5 p.m. Jan. 9.

While Zanies is the only full-time room in town, it isn't the only show in town, depending on the type of comedy you desire.

Paul Bellos, head of Ideaprov, a nonprofit improvisational entertaining and training company, cites four main types of comedy, all of which are available in some form or other hereabouts.

• No. 1, of course, is the best-known form that gave the world such stars as Jerry Seinfeld, Jeff Foxworthy and Bill Cosby: stand-up.
• No. 2 is improv, the specialty of Bellos and his cohorts.
• No. 3 is sketch comedy.
• No. 4 is parody comedy.

Local stand-up king Zanies is part of a chain, with the other three Zanies joints in Chicago, St. Charles, Ill., and Vernon Hills, Ill.

Brian Dorfman, locally based partner in the chain, says, ''We see them on the way up and the way down.''

''You can name any comic with the exception of Billy Crystal, and they have been on this stage,'' he says of the Nashville club.

''Sinbad's first show was opening for Leno here. He knocked on the back door and said, 'I'm Sinbad Atkins. I'm going to be a comic.'

''Jay let him in and kept him on all week.''

Seinfeld, Tim Allen, Drew Carey . . . just a few of the names who have worked here.

''We're the third oldest chain in America. We and the Improv are the top two most respected comedy clubs in America.''

If you've been to any big comedy club or even watched comedy on television, you pretty much know what to expect at Zanies: a guy or gal, perhaps sweating, clutching a microphone and pacing a stage that is backed by a brick wall.

But these rooms, including Zanies, also occasionally offer open-mike nights for locals, as well as the rest of the comedy spectrum on occasions.

Open mikes and high hopes

Chad Riden of NashvilleStandUp (Nash villeStandUp.com) says that this not-for-profit networking organization books primarily local comedians for ''all sorts of shows around town . . . or one of the universities or TPAC.''

''We produce a lot of shows in Middle Tennessee.''

Riden says ''another comic started the Web site in 2000 or 2001 but left Nashville.'' Riden has been one of the guys to pick up the torch . . . or the microphone. ''I have been wanting to do stand-up all my life and moved to Nashville in 2000. I started doing Zanies.''

While waiting for stardom and Letterman to arrive, Riden continues with his day job: doing computer work.

He says the goal of StandUp is to ''build a sense of community among the comedians and comedy fans around town. ''Music gets a lot of exposure. But there's a really good local comedy scene going on. And a lot of them are getting shows locally produced.''

The NashvilleStandUp.com site also has a posting of 40 locally based comics' photos. As Riden says, comics of all flavors call Nashville home. If you need proof, click on their photos and read their bios, which in many cases give you a shtick sample:

• Jason Shoulders' unique brand of humor covers everything from Muppets to sexuality to co-ed naked Twister.

• Comedienne Nikki Catania may look adorable, but beware! She's one of Nashville's few rising talents in the ''I can't legally drink yet'' demographic. Her comedy-related accomplishments include studying the improvisational arts, and being able to play the Linus and Lucy song on the flute and piccolo and guitar while dancing the Snoopy.

• If Lucille Ball, Gilda Radner, Chris Farley and Garrison Keillor raised a child together, mainly educating it with Brady Bunch reruns and feeding it only the best boxed wine and pickled herring, Mary Mack would be the result.

You get the general idea.

The site also highlights local, current comedic performances, including the regular Tuesday night open-mike contest at the Bar Car and the monthly showcase of winners and guests; Murfreesboro's monthly Liquid Smoke show; the monthly Native Engine comedy show at The End on Elliston Place; and the regular Laugh Out Loud showcases at the Truth, Beauty and Goodness Coffeeshop in Ashland City and monthly at Hair of the Dog on 12th South.

Scouting around, you'll find that most of these shows are cross-pollinated as the comics work out the kinks, hoping to make it to Zanies (which also is listed on the site).

''We all try to work together to make sure we aren't stepping on each other's toes,'' Riden says. ''A lot of people are looking for a different experience than Zanies can offer,'' he says, adding that the shows he helps produce are ''closer to punk rock than a night at Zanies.''

An evening with Ideaprov

A different experience is available courtesy of Ideaprov artistic director Paul Bellos and his cohorts.

The group recently finished a three-month stint at Gateway Entertainment Complex and just last week opened Deck the Malls, an all-ages improvisational holiday show at David Lipscomb University.

If you liked that show and you want more, but with a more mature edge, or if you want to check out Ideaprov for the first time, then Bellos suggests you get out to Gibson Showcase at Opry Mills tomorrow night.

''Like last week, this is a holiday-themed show,'' Bellos says. ''But it's 16-and-up, mainly because of the themes that we cover and the fact there's a full bar at Gibson Showcase.''

Bellos has recommendations for fans and fanciers. ''Go to the (Opry Mills) mall, get caught up on your last-ditch effort Christmas shopping. And then come in and laugh about how much money you spent and get rid of the holiday blues,'' he says.

''We know this is a difficult time of year for a lot of people. We want to spread a lot of fun around.

''This week will be different because we will probably have a lot more themes, issues, about things we as adults go through during the holidays: shopping, traffic, stress.''

In addition to shows such as the Lipscomb show and tomorrow's event at Gibson, the Ideaprov folks perform all over the South. Their jobs are not only for people in clubs, but they also do a fair amount of work for corporations in ''team-building'' performances and exercises.

The Ideaprov folks also conduct classes to teach improvisational skills. Ideaprov has four players and two musical directors.

''We work the crowd and the crowd works us, depending on the night,'' Bellos says. ''The most common way to describe the format is the ABC show Whose Line Is It Anyway? If people have watched that show, they pretty much know what to expect.

''The comedy is generated from the actors' abilities to generate something right on the spot'' after audience suggestions.

''We are rated G,'' he says. ''But we do touch on adult themes. Just because someone shouts out 'proctologist' as a suggestion doesn't mean we're going to go there.

''We'll just take it in a different direction. Just because you are an astronaut doesn't mean you always wear a space suit.''

As for the difference between the Lipscomb and Gibson shows: ''The ability to purchase alcohol will definitely influence the (audience) suggestions, but not the actors,'' Bellos promises.

Is there a new Seinfeld in Nashville?

Zanies' Dorfman, who draws from the local scene for opening acts, says the comic scene here is flourishing. And he helps provide fertilizer. ''My job is that anyone who quits their job to be a comic gets a shot,'' he says. ''If they keep their day job, I'm so worried about it. . . .

''Some of these young guys, with their Web sites, are doing good things,'' he says, adding that he takes full advantage.

Ideaprov troupers, musical parodists such as Cledus T. Judd, even sketch comedy acts have performed on the Zanies stage. ''Everything we do is to try to stay atop the talent that's out there. We bring in new, fresh talent and we don't take people for granted.

''We care about our stage. And we care about what goes on up there.''

But he also is quick to point out that his club is the mainstay, the sole survivor after other club owners have tried to cash in on the comic boom.

''Zanies has survived purely because of the local people,'' he says. ''Our customers are loyal. I'd say 98.5% of our business is local.

''And they keep coming back.''

Upcoming at Zanies

• Killer Beaz performs through Sunday. Shows are 8 and 10:15pm today; 7, 9 and 11:15pm tomorrow; and 8pm Sunday. Most shows are $18.

• James Gregory, 7:30 and 10:30pm Dec 31. $75 per couple for the early show, $90 per couple for the late show.

• DC Curry and Sheryl Underwood, 7, 9 and 11:15pm Jan 1; 6:30 and 8:30pm Jan 2. Tickets are $25.

• Last Comic Standing winner John Heffron, 8pm Jan 6; 8 and 10:15pm Jan 7; 7, 9 and 11:15pm Jan 8. Tickets are $20.

• Bill Dana, 5pm Jan 9. Tickets: $15.

For more information about shows at Zanies, visit www.nashville.zanies.com

The club is at 2025 Eighth Ave. S. 269-0221.

Ideaprov notebook

• Ideaprov, Nashville's award-winning improvisational troupe, will do a holiday-themed improv comedy show at 8pm tomorrow at the Gibson Showcase at Opry Mills. The ages 16-and-over show costs $7. Founder Paul Bellos describes the venture this way: ''Ideaprov brings this first-run one-hour format of holiday-inspired hilarity similar to the popular television show Whose Line Is It Anyway? where the audience supplies cheery suggestions that are turned into merriment right on the spot.''

• Ideaprov also will be host of Improv Boot Camp Dec 27-30 at Graham Entertainment Studios, 1200 Clinton St., Suite 212, in Nashville. To quote its publicity: ''Improvise. Adapt. Overcome; 4 days, 10 games, unlimited laughter.'' Sessions will be from 1 to 4pm for students and 6:30-9:30pm for adults. Tuition is $99. Participants will experience the fundamentals of improv comedy, including theater games, stage movement, comic timing, theater vocabulary, vocal coaching and character development. Details: 347-2001 or visit www.ideaprov.com.

NashvilleStandUp notebook

• Bar Car — Stand-Up Comedy Contest: The ''Nashville's Funniest Person'' stand-up comedy contest, 8pm every Tuesday night. Improvisational genius Jesse Perry (from www.MangyDog.com) is host of the show, which features local regulars, nationally touring acts and the occasional lunatic. Admission is free. The Bar Car, Cummins Station, 209 10th Ave. S. Show info: 300-1550 or www.NashvilleStandUp.com; Bar Car: 259-4875.

• T.B.G. — Laugh Out Loud: 8pm tomorrow at Truth Beauty & Goodness Coffeehouse in Ashland City. NashvilleStandUp's finest visit this alcohol-free and smoke-free show. No cover, but donations are appreciated. 116 North Main St., across from the courthouse. Show info: 300-1550 or www.Nashville StandUp.com; T.B.G: 394-2189.

• NashvilleStandUp Presents B.W. Davis & Damian Anaya: 8:30pm tomorrow at Hair of the Dog. Craig Smith is host of this show, which features two full-length sets and will be recorded for release on CD. 1831 12th Ave. S. 386-3311 or www.NashvilleStandUp.com.

• Native Engine Comedy Show: 9:30pm Monday at The End. This will be native Nashvillian and host Craig Smith's ''Wasted Year'' anniversary show in honor of his year of manic nights at the venue. The show will feature about 15 comics. Native Engine began its monthly shows at the rock 'n' roll venue in December 2003. Features a changing lineup and punkish atmosphere. ''The unexpected tempo and unconventional commentary consistently surprise fans and keeps them coming back,'' according to NashvilleStandUp.com. 18 & up, $5. The End, 2219 Elliston Place. Details: 321-4457 or www.NashvilleStandUp.com.

• Laughter is the Best Medicine: 6pm Dec 28 at TPAC's James K. Polk Theater, 505 Deaderick St. This free event offers free hearing screenings, live music and stand-up comedy. Star Search finalist Tim Northern will headline the event, which also features comedian Chad Riden, ''Rod Wayne'' and the Magics (former Blue Magic lead singer), vibrophonist Bruce White, the Verbena Court Strut Band and Big Daddy Cool / Johnny Dellarocca & the Swing Kittens. Details: 782-4000 or www.NashvilleStandUp.com.