LAFF STOP SPOTLIGHTS UP-AND-COMERS

It’s perhaps fitting that Laff Stop’s ninth anniversary show tonightwill feature six comics whose names aren’t well known outside comedy circles. After all, the opening-night bill also consisted of several then-unknown performers.

Said Laff Stop owner Michael Callie: “When we opened in 1976, people’s idea of a comedy club was that Bob Hope would come out. Nobody had heard of any of the guys on that first show. The attitude was ‘How can you have a comedy club without name performers?’ No one thought it would work.”

This skepticism was directed at a premiere lineup that Callie said included Jay Leno, David Letterman and Robin Williams. Whether any of the comedians performing tonight--Vic Dunlop, Jerry Dye, Brad Garrett, Joe Restivo, Robert Schimmel and Carrie Snow--will achieve comparable success remains to be seen. But they’re all experienced comics who have appeared on television and logged considerable time on the comedy club circuit.

Four spoke with Calendar about Laff Stop, telling a favorite anecdote or explaining how that first booking at the Newport Beach club was significant in their careers.

Vic Dunlop, 35, first played Laff Stop in 1976 as a member of the comedy-improv group Natural Gas. As a solo act, however, Dunlop, who lives in Sunland, has only performed at the club during the last year.

“I haven’t played there that much, so it’s kind of new to me,” said Dunlop, who has appeared on such television shows as “Make Me Laugh” and the new MTV spoof “FTV,” which airs Saturdays at 11:30 a.m. and 11 p.m. “I’m out of town a lot, so to me the Laff Stop is like a new-found home. And I’m glad I found it: I like the room, the audiences there like me and they give you a fair evaluation of how well your new material works.”

Dunlop feels warmly about Laff Stop despite a bad experience with a fan who apparently wanted a souvenir of Dunlop’s set. “Yeah, somebody stole my bag of props there once. I had my back turned and the next thing I knew the bag was gone. So there’s a stranger going around doing my act,” Dunlop said, laughing.

Joe Restivo has done a lot of television work, including appearances on “Late Night With David Letterman” and “Hill Street Blues.” He firmly believes that those opportunities and the various other performing jobs he’s landed “all started with that one date at the Laff Stop.”

That appearance was about six years ago, when Restivo flew to Southern California from his New York home to find work. “Mike Callie was the first guy who hired me--my first booking out here was at the Laff Stop,” Restivo recalled. “In fact, I arrived on a Tuesday, showcased for Mike on a Wednesday and worked there that Saturday.”

He stayed. And since then, “I’ve been on that stage in Newport Beach more than any other stage,” he said. “It’s like home base. It’s a comfortable, loose atmosphere and it’s always been one of the hottest rooms.”

Like his fellow comics appearing Thursday, Robert Schimmel thinks of Laff Stop as a good place to try out new material, a comfortable room with highly responsive crowds. But Schimmel’s fondness for the club cuts deeper: Laff Stop held a benefit for him a year ago, after his son was diagnosed as having cancer.

“I owe the club a lot for that,” said Schimmel, who lives in West Hollywood. “They had that benefit so I wouldn’t have to go on the road to make money--so I could stay in town and be with my kid while he was in the hospital.”

Schimmel, 35, recently competed in the comedy segment of TV’s “Star Search”--and won (the show airs Nov. 9). If he wins the next round, he’ll compete again tonight, missing the anniversary show. However, Schimmel headlines at Laff Stop Friday and Saturday.

A little more than six years ago, Carrie Snow was living in the San Francisco Bay Area, working on a comedy career while holding down a day job. She then decided to pursue comedy full time. “So I quit my day job and my very first week on the road was at the Laff Stop,” she said.

Snow, 32, was born in San Francisco, and although she now lives in West Hollywood, she still considers San Francisco home. Apparently her affection for the city is mutual: She said she was once named San Francisco’s Comedian of the Year.

What year?

“1934.”

Snow wasn’t any more straightforward in discussing her credits. (“Just say I’m attractive,” she quipped.) She did reveal that she’s performed on various cable TV programs, including Showtime’s “Laugh Off,” and will tape a spot this Saturday to appear soon on “Comedy Break With Mack & Jamie,” which airs weeknights at 11:30.

In addition to the scheduled sets by Dunlop, Restivo, Schimmel and Snow--as well as Jerry Dye and Brad Garrett, who were unavailable for interviews--Thursday’s show is likely to feature “drop-in” performances by other comics, said Laff Stop manager Al Korn. Show time is 8:30 p.m. For more information, call the club at (714) 852-8762.