ACT BOOKED FOR JULY 14 : DELAY IN OPENING COMEDY CLUB NOT A LAUGHING MATTER

Let the jokes begin--finally.

The Improvisation comedy club in Irvine, originally scheduled to open in November, promises to begin presenting stand-up comics later this week--maybe. At last word, the club was to have opened today, but now the the opening date is uncertain. Club owner Mark Anderson did promise, however, that the Improv definitely will hold its first major event July 14, with an appearance by comedian Jerry Seinfeld.

“Every possible thing that could go wrong has gone wrong, but I think we’ve finally licked all those problems,” Anderson said about the latest round of delays that have prevented the club from opening.

Anderson said the project has been dogged by everything from construction delays to the possibility of an entertainment tax that Irvine recently considered imposing on entertainment establishments.

But after Anderson, who lives in San Diego, lobbied against the proposed tax at the City Council’s last meeting, he said: “The City Council was receptive to my views and revised the tax such that we were not burdened.”

Such a tax, Anderson said, would have been an “extremely onerous burden on (the Improv) and other smaller entertainment establishments.”

While such complications have continually pushed back the “official” opening date, Anderson has always intended to allow a week for a so-called “soft opening,” a period used to coordinate and fine-tune the three components of the club.

“We are a very tricky operation. It’s like the old plate-spinning act you saw on Ed Sullivan. We have three businesses really going. We’ve got a bar business, a restaurant business and an entertainment operation. It takes some time to coordinate the efforts, so we like to get our people in for one week of training.

“We’ll probably have some shows where we’ll let customers come in for free and let them know that’s what we’re doing.,” he said, noting that he has used this procedure to prepare the Improvs he has opened in San Diego and Dallas.

With all the delays, though, the soft-opening period in Irvine may be drastically reduced--or non-existent--because Anderson is adamant that the club be completed for the July 14 appearance by Seinfeld, a frequent guest on both “The Tonight Show” and “Late Night With David Letterman.”

“We’ve got Jerry Seinfeld scheduled, so we gotta be done by then. If that doesn’t happen, there’ll be a murder you can report,” Anderson cracked.

The postponed premiere not only cost Anderson some of his soft-opening time, but also the Improv’s status as Orange County’s second nightspot booking comedy full time, after the Laff Stop in Newport Beach.

The Court of St. James in Westminster is now supplementing its jazz bookings with stand-ups Tuesday through Saturday, beating the Improv to that punch(line).

Seinfeld’s stint at the Irvine Improv is scheduled to run through July 19. The club is at 4255 Campus Drive, in the Marketplace plaza, across from UC Irvine. For more information, call (714) 854-5455.