Surfer Hangs 10--Into Comic’s Face

They may not remember the joke. But the crowd at a Santa Monica comedy club won’t soon forget the punch line.

A member of the audience delivered it with his fists Friday night after becoming enraged at a stand-up comic’s wisecrack about surfers during a show at the Improv.

Comedian Michael Dugan received a broken nose and several automobiles were damaged during the bloody brawl that followed in the club’s Santa Monica Boulevard parking lot, police said.

The assailant, who apparently did not find Dugan’s joke humorous, disappeared after punching Dugan in the chest, slamming his head into the rear of a car and kicking him in the face.

According to Dugan, the attacker was one of three boisterous men at a front-row table who refused to quiet down as he began his 20-minute stand-up routine shortly before 10 p.m.

When they continued to talk, Dugan remarked to the audience of about 350 that the loudest of the group resembled a surfer suffering from a lack of an attention span.

“I said, ‘Gee, it’s a good thing they installed that skateboard rack out front.’ ” Dugan, 34, recalled Saturday. “The audience howled.”

After the show, the dispute continued in the parking lot as Dugan joined club customers who were waiting for valet parking attendants to retrieve their cars.

“The suspect told him that he had a nice car and he’d better park it out front, because somebody might jump him,” Santa Monica Police Sgt. Harry Kutzbach said Saturday. “Then he turned to Dugan’s date and said, ‘Nice legs.’ ”

When Dugan asked the assailant what he’d said, the man threw a punch.

“I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was bloody. It looked like a riot,” said Cary Baker, a Studio City record executive who had heard Dugan’s comedy routine.

As fists flew, Dugan knocked his attacker into Baker’s Nissan and caved in its fender. Then the assailant grabbed Dugan by the head and smashed his face into a nearby Porsche, denting the car. Meantime, Improv employees and club customers tried to break up the fight.

“I didn’t think it was funny. I wasn’t laughing. I was scared,” Baker said.

Afterward, Baker said, patrons could not recall the joke that triggered the altercation. But he said that comedy club patrons are often insulted during comics’ stand-up routines.

“Nobody’s immune. Even I got picked out by one of the other comics who said I looked like an ex-hippie. People at a comedy club ought to know what to expect,” he said.

Dugan agreed. “If you’re not going to play the game, don’t come to the club,” he said. “I don’t suffer fools well.”

He wasn’t joking.