Shift to Comedy, New Crowd Is Explored for Club Diego’s

They may be playing the last tango at Club Diego’s discotheque soon, should its owners succeed in turning the controversial Solana Beach dance emporium into North County’s first stand-up comedy venue.

Mark Anderson, a co-owner of several Improv nightclubs, including one in Pacific Beach, confirmed that principals in Diego’s opened talks with him a few weeks ago. Anderson said he had been considering opening a club in North County for months.

“Our agreement has some working out to do,” Anderson said on Monday, adding that a deal might be struck within the week. Calls to the Diego’s owners were referred to Anderson.

“We don’t intend to do anything unless we have the stamp (of approval) of the city. It’s everybody’s intention to improve relationships with the City Hall,” Anderson said.

Relationships between the club and City Hall were not always as good as they apparently are today. When Diego’s opened in August, 1986, on Old Highway 101, its neighbors flooded city phone lines with complaints of boisterous disco crowds and overflow parking that ate up sparse parking spaces on nearby streets.

By its nature, a comedy club will minimize such complaints, Anderson asserted. The Improv, with its policy of requiring patrons to make a minimum restaurant order, attracts mostly couples, while Diego’s draws a largely single clientele, he noted.

“Many of the problems that are inherent in a single life--the anxiety of trying to meet your cosmic mate--are stressful in a way that we as a couples establishment just don’t have,” Anderson said.

Solana Beach Mayor Margaret Schlesinger and City Council members Jack Moore and Richard Hendlin tended to agree with Anderson, welcoming the prospect of a change at Club Diego’s.

Schlesinger said the city’s chief concern was that Diego’s keep “noise and residential inconveniences” under control. She noted that complaints had ended months ago but also that business at Diego’s appeared to be down. The club’s manager referred questions about business to the owners.

“Singles operations tend to be rowdier,” Moore said. Hendlin said a comedy club would reduce the noise levels inside and outside the site by drawing a different crowd.

“I would assume . . . that it would change the type of patron they would have now, make it an older, perhaps more mature crowd. As for myself, I’m happy to see there will be a source of live entertainment in the form of comedy in Solana Beach.