25 comics to celebrate comic club’s 25 years

It sounds like some kind of marathon -- 25 comics, performing five minutes each. But this is the way Mike Lacey wanted to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Comedy & Magic Club, which opened in Hermosa Beach on July 5, 1978.

Since then, the club has served as “an out-of-town gig in town,” in the words of Jay Leno, who performs there every Sunday night, largely to test monologue jokes for his “Tonight Show.”

Leno, who has been headlining at the Comedy & Magic Club for several decades, can’t say enough good things about Lacey, the man behind it all. “He’s George Bailey. He’s the guy in ‘It’s a Wonderful Life.’ Everyone around him gets rich and famous. And he holds on.”

The special “birthday bash” runs through Tuesday. Lacey said drop-ins this month have included Howie Mandel, George Wallace, Kevin Nealon and Garry Shandling. Tickets for the 25-comic lineup are $25.

Leno is not the only one who’s shown loyalty to the Comedy & Magic Club as his star has risen. So have Shandling and Jerry Seinfeld. The Comedy & Magic Club was the first place in the nation to headline Seinfeld, and the comedian, who lives in New York, still plays there; two shows scheduled for Wednesday night are sold out.

Lacey was a Hermosa Beach auto mechanic before he became a club owner. He was 24 when he switched careers.

“I paid comics from the first day,” he said.

Over the years, Lacey’s club has existed somewhat outside the dog-eat-dog worlds of the Improv, Laugh Factory and Comedy Store -- the entertainment industry haunts in Los Angeles.

“With Mike’s club, you get a real sense of what a Las Vegas or an American audience would be,” Leno said. Plus, he noted, the comics get fed whatever they want.

Lacey draws much of his audience from the South Bay, he said, and he prefers the cleaner, more cerebral acts. As always, sandwiched between the comics on the bill is a magician. Noting that “the South Bay is kind of the home base for the defense business,” Lacey said the house often is peppered with physicists and engineers instead of the more jaded entertainment industry types.

He first booked the Graduates -- Second City alumni Jim Staahl, Jim Fisher and Tino Insana.

Since then not a lot has changed. Not even the names.

“I’ve never felt like I owned this club,” said Lacey. “It feels like a college that everyone comes back and supports.”

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Comedy & Magic Club

What: 25th anniversary special, 25 comics a night

Where: 1018 Hermosa Ave., Hermosa Beach

When: Nightly, through Tuesday

Info: (310) 372-1193