Laff Stop: Victim of Comedy Boom Gone Bust : Clubs: Santa Ana Heights venue now features topless dancing most of the week. Stand-up takes the stage only on Fridays and Saturdays.

Is this the last laugh for the Laff Stop, Orange County’s oldest comedy club?

The marquee still boasts “All Comedy Nite Club,” but comedy was consigned to Friday and Saturday nights as of Feb. 1. Topless dancing has taken over the stage the rest of the week.

Owner and operator Jorn S. Rossi said in an interview Monday that he is committed to keeping the Laff Stop name. He was, however, less direct when asked if he is committed to keeping comedy--even two nights a week--if the “Newport Fantasy” revue proves to be a hit: “We’re committed to presenting theatrical performances (the audience) wants to see.”

The County of Orange, meanwhile, is having its say in all this: last week it ordered the topless dance shows to end, claiming they violate county zoning ordinances (the club is on unincorporated land in Santa Ana Heights, near John Wayne Airport). Rossi countered Monday by challenging the closure order in a lawsuit against the county.

Meanwhile, the dancing continues.

Advertised as a “Paris Show,” the Laff Stop’s revue features a succession of women on stage, each doing a striptease to recorded music. By the end of the second song, the women are down to a G-string and a handful of paper money placed on the stage by patrons.

The Laff Stop’s switch is another reminder of the decline of the comedy-club business. Club owners and other observers have cited a variety of factors, including the effects of the stagnant economy and a glut of stand-up on television. Clubs have been closing across the county, while survivors often have resorted to free or discounted tickets to stay alive.

Rossi said comedy business at the Laff Stop began to drop about 18 months ago, and was down about 40% from past years before the switch to topless dancing.

He is not optimistic about its recovery.

“It’s a terrible thing, what’s happened with comedy, but I don’t see it coming back,” said Rossi, an attorney by trade who has been with the Laff Stop since 1982. “I’ve never really been in a business that’s come to an end (before).”

The Laff Stop opened in 1976, early in a stand-up renaissance that carried through the ‘80s. On Monday, Rossi opened the file cabinets in his office and pulled out contracts and photos from the early days of the club. Back then, it was the only game in town for comics and comedy enthusiasts.

There was a contract signed by a then-unknown Robin Williams in 1976, at a time when (according to a questionnaire he filled out then) he had no agent or manager. His pay worked out to $22.91 a show. David Letterman, playing the club in 1977, got $25 a show. Other major players in the talk show wars that played the Laff Stop at one time or another: Jay Leno and Arsenio Hall.

The club is no stranger to run-ins with the county. In 1979, when another recession was pushing down comedy audiences, the Laff Stop turned to male exotic dancing on weekdays. The county tried to close the show in 1982, a year after a new zoning ordinance regulating “adult entertainment” went into effect. The revue was spared after Supervisor Thomas F. Riley made a personal visit and declared it inoffensive.

In 1987, the Laff Stop’s reign as Orange County’s only full-time comedy club came to an end with the opening of the Irvine Improv, less than four miles away. “I was concerned when they first opened, but they made their own niche, brought their own customers,” Rossi said. He maintains that the Laff Stop and Improv have maintained friendly relations.

While the Laff Stop continued to book some “star” performers, it gained a general reputation for booking racier comics than the more clean-cut Improv. Rossi doesn’t dispute the impression.

“We’ve always been an adult nightclub, and we’ve always allowed (comics) to use their language,” he said. “We’ve really respected the comics’ right to express themselves.”

When the club’s business began to sour, Rossi said it was more a reflection of the general state of the comedy business than a result of competition with the Improv. People are going out less and spending less money because of the state’s economic slump, he said, and are also drinking less on average, cutting into bar revenue.

The main culprit, though, is the surplus of stand-up comedy on TV, particularly cable TV, Rossi said. It’s a common complaint among club owners: With so much comedy on television, there’s little incentive to go out to the clubs. “I think TV killed comedy, just like MTV killed the concert business.”

Laff Stop management started “papering”--offering free or discount tickets, in an attempt to bring patrons in and keep bar sales up. The effort had mixed results.

“There used to be an audience that knew comedy, that knew the comics,” Rossi said. But the new audience showed little appreciation for comedy, and worse yet (from a business standpoint), “they didn’t tip; they weren’t spending money.”

In talking to other club owners and reading trade journals, Rossi slowly came to the conclusion that “there was no future in comedy.” That led to the decision to start the “Newport Fantasy” show.

Moving to the revue format allows the club, now open from 11 a.m. to 2 a.m., to tap into the lunch crowd. Rossi stressed the “theatrical” nature of the show, which he said will be further emphasized with more rehearsal and planned stage effects.

Business has started strongly, he said. “We’ve been well-received by the business community. . . . We’re getting doctors, lawyers. (The parking lot) looks like Jim Slemons Mercedes Benz at night.”

The county, of course, could stand in the way of Rossi’s designs. While he didn’t discuss details of his lawsuit, he said: “I know the law. I’m running this club to the letter of the law and then some.”

If Rossi comes out on top in his standoff with the county, it won’t be the first time a comedy club has turned to topless entertainment. The legendary Hungry i in San Francisco, which helped launch such comics as Lenny Bruce, Bill Cosby and Mort Sahl in the ‘50s (as well as such folk-music acts as the Kingston Trio and Odetta) has been a topless joint for years.