Something Right Up Their Alley : Talent Night at Mr. T’s Bowl is surely one of the more surreal experiences in L.A.’s club scene.

Just when you think L.A. night life couldn’t get any more surreal, Mr. T’s Bowl launches a weekly talent show. To understand why this Thursday night affair qualifies as absurd--and we mean that in a good way--a little history and visual contouring is in order.

Mr. T’s is a bowling alley, but no one’s bowled here since the early 1980s. It’s located in Highland Park, and its regular customers include chain-smoking elderly gents who hold court in the bar area, a smattering of locals and a collective of Eastside hipsters.

Its owner is a music lover in his 80s named Joe Teresa, the original holder of the “Mr. T” moniker and not to be confused with the “A-Team” hero. The building was constructed in the ‘40s and little has changed since: The wooden alleys and booths still can be found behind a curtain to the right of the stage, and oddball props and fixtures decorate the area with a random Hitchcockian spookiness.

Year-round Christmas lights dangle over the dance floor, a creepy ice machine clanks louder than the ghost of Jacob Marley and its boxed beer supply looks like it could last till Armageddon. Quite simply, there is no place like Mr. T’s.

Certainly, all these qualities helped attract the late promoter Jac Zinder, who made the weekly club “Fuzzyland” into a bizarre bazaar of his own. Inspired by Zinder, who died in a car accident in November, 1994, musician Steve Moramarco began booking the club again regularly six months ago and despite the wide-variety of musical mayhem--”karaoke” Wednesdays, and live music on Fridays and Saturdays--it’s Thursday’s “Talent Show” that’s the real humdinger.

Recall that the venue is located not on the Sunset Strip but off the beaten path in Highland Park, which neighbors a few of the low-rent districts so attractive to L.A.’s creative contingent.

This means, rather than a bunch of aspiring rock star-types competing against each other for a chance at the Big Label Deal in the sky, it’s a celebration of all that is weird and all that is good in Los Angeles’ artistic heart.

“Everyone’s a winner,” says Moramarco, who as the front man for the popular local band the Abe Lincoln Story created the night specifically so musicians could have a comfortable setting to test their goods. “Thursdays are the ‘people’s’ night.”

Sign-ups are at 9 p.m., with performances beginning about an hour later, and already, the “Talent Show” has launched a few stars of its own.

First off, there’s Bing Bu, a musician from China, who plays a handmade instrument he calls the “erhu,” which sounds like a flute with strings.

The music is so beautiful and so affecting, it inspires a homeboy to do a mystical dance and the only noise one hears during his entire set comes from the ice machine. After a handful of appearances, Bing Bu, who holds a master’s degree in ethnomusicology, is already a “Talent Show” hero.

Then there’s the stand-up bass player, or “Karl with a K,” as he calls himself, who opens his set with a punk-rock version of Rod Stewart’s “Maggie May,” while slap, slap, slapping aggressively away on his instrument.

Along with a dreadlocked guitar player named Jose, who offers a politicized interpretation of “Three Little Indians,” there’s Tracy Thielen, of Tracy and the Hindenberg Ground Crew, who performs solo. Thielen offers up a rare melding of folk-country-punk that is as sincere as it is cutting.

During a recent show, he disarmed the audience immediately by saying he’d open with “an old blues song,” which was nothing more than a blood-curdling shriek. Despite a four-song set that fuses humor with poignancy, his music goes well beyond novelty and even warrants the biggest applause of the night, sort of.

Thielen’s quirky “Trash Day” song, which is about putting a souring relationship to the curb, motivates the aforementioned homeboy dancer to incorporate the lyrics into his movements. Somehow, his crazy miming--the tying up of the emotional hefty bag we all share and its subsequent dumping--offered the night’s greatest release.

It also proved once again, if you’re willing to venture deep enough into the mad heart of L.A., anything is possible--even a cathartic experience in club land.

BE THERE

Mr. T’s Talent Show on Thursdays at Mr. T’s Bowl, 5621 N. Figueroa Ave., Highland Park, (213) 960-5693. 21 and over, no cover.