Stage Right

It’s not uncommon for Largo club owner Mark Flanagan to offer the door to his patrons. “If you want to talk,” he’ll announce center stage through his Irish accent, “just go up to the Coconut Teaszer.”

Flanagan’s admonishment, sometimes delivered with a grin, sometimes juiced up with expletives, rarely prompts Largo regulars to shuffle off to the Teaszer, or any other club. The audience, a dedicated lot that accounts for four sold-out shows a week at this 160-seat Fairfax Avenue music and comedy club, knows that Flanagan will not stand for his artists being disrespected. They also know that in the 18 months since he became sole proprietor, Largo has emerged as the most vital performance space in town. Shut up? Gladly.

To Flanagan, the concept is simple. “The emphasis is put on the musicians,” says the 33-year-old Belfast transplant. “As long as they’re free to do whatever they do, the rest falls in line.”

Anchored by Jon Brion’s anything-goes musical performances on Fridays, which often include big-name drop-in performers (Fiona Apple, Michael Stipe and Rickie Lee Jones among them), the 3,300-square-foot, red-walled “living room,” as Flanagan calls Largo, has become a breeding ground for creativity and career building. A core of acclaimed artists such as Grant Lee Phillips, Andy Prieboy and the Eels makes frequent appearances to work out new material, and several other regulars have earned major-label recording deals. Brion, recently signed to Atlantic Records imprint Lava, has been approached about taking his high-wire act to late-night television.

No less fruitful is Monday’s alternative-comedy night, which has elevated a half-dozen up-and-comers to HBO development deals. Largo regular Dana Gould, co-star of the NBC comedy “Working,” will release a CD taped at the club, while fellow comedian Margaret Cho earned funding for a feature-length film she wrote about her life within the vibrant, chummy Largo scene--a deal solidified less than 24 hours after Cho and other Largo principals gave a script reading at the club in November. “Largo has affected my life so much that I wrote a movie about it,” says Cho. “It’s an integral part of a lot of really amazing artists’ lives.”

Others concur, and they are quick to give Flanagan his due. It is he who has given them an environment that not only includes top-notch staging but the expectation that they can experiment before an attentive, open-minded audience. Not too much to ask, says Flanagan. “It would be really nice if other clubs were to look at Largo and go, ‘That guy’s on to something.’ ”