Shop Foreman @ The Laugh Factory

Masada’s love affair with comedy began when he was a six-year-old boy growing up in Iran and his cantor/accordion-playing father promised to take him to his first movie. Instead of a theater housing a big screen, Masada’s father took him to a local TV repair shop where father and son stood outside watching a television through the establishment’s window while The Three Stooges performed their zany slapstick routines on the other side of the glass.

Almost ten years later a Hollywood producer urged Masada’s Father to send his son to the U.S. after seeing the teenager’s Three Stooges imitation at a wedding. Arriving in the States dirt poor and only 14, Masada pursued a comedy career of his own, first trying to make it as a comedian himself. Two years later while still a teenager he started the Laugh Factory on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip and the rest, as the old saw goes, is history.

With clubs in Long Beach and Hollywood, Masada is expanding his empire of humor. Having recently opened a Laugh Factory in Chicago with Russell Peters headlining opening night, Masada’s brand new outlet entertained a sell-out crowd and garnered great reviews from the press.

“The real asset of this place is the soaring height of the performance space, which no other comedy club in town can replicate” wrote Chicago Tribune theater critic Chris Jones. “Especially from the rear, this lands the joint certain old-school theatricality; you can almost imagine the plumes of smoke drifting up from the smoking comic at the microphone and hanging 20 feet in the air, if only comics still were allowed to smoke.”

Masada talked with Pollstar about his new club as well as his upcoming Laugh Factory in Las Vegas. But more importantly, Masada talked about comedy from the view point of a man who has seen it all and can still laugh as hard as when he first saw Larry, Moe & Curly so many years ago.

How does opening a new club in 2012 differ from when you opened the Sunset Strip Laugh Factory in 1979?

I think the most important thing when we opened in 1979 [was that] we had Richard Pryor on stage. Now the reason we’re opening is because all of the stress and the economy and everything going in the government and everything. People are unhappy about everything, a lot of unhappiness going on. You have people, for example, unhappy about the government because all it’s thinking about is Wall Street. They’ve forgotten about ordinary people on the street. And those people need somewhere to release their frustrations. They need to go somewhere to forget about life.

Laughter being such a stress relief, the best medicine, I think people [need] to go to a comedy club and escape from all those problems. If you handle good comedy and price it reasonably – in Los Angeles and Long Beach – I’m sold out almost every night. Why? Because people want to escape from their lives. Our business is actually getting better because people want that type of stuff.

Los Angeles-area comedy clubs have a large talent pool to draw from, what with the city being an entertainment capitol. But what about clubs in other cities, say Chicago, where you just opened a new Laugh Factory. Is the talent pool for comedy as rich as in Los Angeles?

People forget Chicago is a mecca for comedy and comedians. People forget that a lot of wonderful comedians came from Chicago. I did my research for a year and a half, going around checking everywhere to make sure this is the place I want to be. I fell in love with Chicago – it’s a great city.

We’re going to open another club at the end of the month in Las Vegas. You could say Las Vegas has all kinds of entertainment, why does it need a Laugh Factory? Because we need to have something a little different for everybody.

Soundtrack may be NSFW

Is it tough being serious about running a comedy business?

It depends. From when I started Laugh Factory, I’m very passionate about what I do. I’m very passionate about comedians. I used to be a comedian myself. I’m upset when people do not have too much respect for the art of comedians. They respect everyone else except comedians. “Oh, you’re a comedian. Tell me a joke.” You don’t go to a surgeon and say, “Operate on something for me. Let me see what you do.”

That’s the reason I’m campaigning to change the name “comedian” to make it a “doctor of the soul.”

As a former comedian, do you feel a comedian’s pain when he or she is dying on stage?

I do feel the pain. I go to the club and hear the sound of laughter. It’s like people who go to listen to jazz or classical music. I listen to the sound of laughter. The time it gets silent – that breaks my heart. What can you do? You feel for comedy.

Some of the comedians, they’re used to it or it’s part of the act. I remember Richard Pryor would make people laugh for half an hour and for the last 20 minutes he would make them cry. That’s an art form.

Of course, when you see a comedian on stage and the audience isn’t getting their material, you feel for them. I feel more for them than they do. Being a part of the art form, you feel for them. If you don’t feel anything, you should be working in a restaurant or strip joint.

Picasso, for example. His brother loved what he was doing and kept buying his paintings when no one else did. He really loved the artwork.

That’s the way I do it. I know what comedians are about. Give them a big huge beautiful canvas on stage and they start painting. I enjoy every line that comes out of their mouth.

In 1984 I wrote an article about it in Laugh Factory Magazine. Red Skelton did a painting for the magazine – a clown. He said, “Jamie, use that one. Please write something about it.”

I wrote this column about a guy going to a psychiatrist. He says, “I’m suicidal. I went home and played Russian Roulette. I put two bullets in the gun and clicked it against my head three different times. If one of them worked I would be dead now.”

The psychiatrist says, “Calm down. I have an idea for you. Across the street from my office is one of the greatest comedians and clowns I’ve ever seen. People come to my office, they’re upset, they’re suicidal. I tell them to go see him. He gives them so much life and joy, they come back here, they don’t want to commit suicide.”

The guy looks at the psychiatrist and says, “Listen. I am the comic from across the street.”

That’s the reality of a comic.

Have you ever had to tell someone that their material doesn’t work or they just don’t have what it takes to be a professional comedian?

I never want to crash anybody’s dream. If you crash anybody’s dream or hopes, you might as well take a gun and blow their head off.

I had a comedian who came in for open mic for 29 years. I kept saying, “It was okay, but you’re keeping your daytime job, aren’t you?” He said, “Yes.” I told him to keep his daytime job. What else can you say?

You can’t shatter people’s dreams and hopes. Do that and they don’t have anything to live for. I’ve never done it. I couldn’t see myself doing that.

What can you tell young comedians who are just starting to go to open mic nights?

They have to start training their minds to think comedy. If you’re a writer, you have to put down in writing what people can read. That’s a special talent. A comedian is the same thing. They have to be able to come up with material that is funny to them and then explain it to the audience. Not go steal it from another comic, just whatever you think is funny, write it down. Go on stage with a recorder, record yourself and listen to it.

You could spend money on teachers and all that stuff, but they’re nothing but rip-offs. They’re frustrated comics themselves. They can’t teach you anything.

Who are some of your comedy heroes?

You name ’em. From Richard Pryor to George Carlin. He [Carlin] was one of the greatest comics. The first time he came into the club, he started screaming at me. I put his name on the marquee. He said, “Jamie, you don’t understand. You should not put my name on the marquee.”

I said, “George, you said you’d come and help me, get me off the ground.”

And he said, “Yes, that’s what I want to do. But if you put my name on the marquee, the people who come to see me are my fans. But if the people are not my fans, they see me then say, “We went to the Laugh Factory and saw George Carlin. That’s how you do marketing.”

If it wasn’t for comedians, I wouldn’t be where I am now. They gave me my breaks, they helped me, they did everything for me. I’m the luckiest son of a gun you’ll ever find.

Jerry Lewis. You listen to some of his albums. These are the legends of the comedy world. They paved the road for young comics. The young comics, they should learn from them.

Some of the comedians today, for example, I just don’t have the heart to tell them about it. I just can’t say, “Where’s the joke?” Some of the young comedians I see, every other word is “F” this or “F” that and people are laughing. Maybe I’m getting too old and I don’t know my comics. I have no idea.

Do you think it’s tougher to make people laugh today than, say, a generation ago? There’s a lot of comedy available today. Cable, DVDs, talk shows provide more chances for comedians than a generation ago when outlets were limited to “The Tonight Show,” the “Ed Sullivan” show and variety programs. People are exposed to more comedy today than a few decades ago.

Lot of young comedians find out they’re actors trying to shortcut to be comedians. They’re hoping to get a TV show or a sit-com or something. People like Richard Pryor, Eddie Murphy, Rodney Dangerfield or George Carlin, they were true comics. They went on the stage, they enjoyed what they were doing.

I remember when Rodney Dangerfield came out of the hospital. He had brain surgery and was wearing a bandage on his head. He said, “Jamie, I just came out of the hospital. I’d like to come see you.”

At 8 p.m. Joan his wife brought him in. I held his arm and he was walking very slow. His lips had no color. He was all white. I said, “Ladies and Gentlemen, the legendary Rodney Dangerfield.”

He walked onto the stage. I put the mic stand in front of him. He held on to it and started doing the first joke. After the third joke they gave him a standing ovation. It was like magic was happening. I saw the color come to his face. Fifteen minutes later, I tried to take him off the stage and he said, “Get the fuck away from me.” He got his energy.

Those are the legendary comedians. There wasn’t anything about sitcoms or movies. They enjoyed going on the stage and making people laugh. Those are the people I admire and love.

The young comedians who feel the same way, that’s what I love about them. But some of the comedians, they’re in the business for the wrong reasons.

A lot of club owners, they open the clubs just because financially they’re very good to make money. Some comedy clubs open 10-20 places around the country. They’re like McDonald’s. They treat people like cattle, bring them in, make their money.

I couldn’t do that. I couldn’t believe in myself. I’m going to expand very slowly. I’m going to have very good comedy. By the time people come out, they’re going to say, “Oh, my God. What a great show. What a wonderful escape.”

I don’t want to do it like everybody else does it. I don’t want to be that person.

Soundtrack may be NSFW

Didn’t Bob Hope come to the Laugh Factory?

One of the legendary comedians. He had 15 writers. The last time he came to the club was maybe eight or nine years before he passed away. He loved the Laugh Factory. Jimmy Brogan was on the stage, Bob Marley was on the stage. And Bob Hope would go, “What did he say?” He would scream at his assistant who would try to interpret the jokes and tell him what the jokes were about.

He had a house in Toluca Lake. He would call me and say, “I have a guy. His name is Marvin. He’s a great guy. He’s been at our parties and making people laugh.”

I asked him what he wanted me to do and Hope said his dream is to go on the Laugh Factory stage. I told Hope to bring him on open mic night and he said, “No, I’m going to bring him tonight.”

I said, “Bob, tonight is Saturday night. We’re packed.”

“I don’t care,” Hope said. “I’m going to bring him over.”

He brings him over. I said, “Marvin, have you been on the stage? Have you done stand-up comedy?”

He said, “Don’t worry about it. I’m the funniest person you’ll ever have on stage.”

I said, “Remember, clubs and parties are different things. Comedians go on stage and make everything look easy. They make everyone think they can do stand-up comedy.’

He said, “Don’t worry about it. You just worry about the club.”

As he goes on stage the emcee introduces him, saying, “Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a comedian who is a friend of Bob Hope … Please give a nice round of applause to Marvin!”

He got on the stage and held on to the mic stand. His eyes got big, his mouth opened to try to say something, but he couldn’t say anything.

I went to Hope and said, “Bob, he’s been on the stage for almost 30, 40 seconds and he hasn’t said a word.” And Hope said, “Don’t worry about it.”

He [Marvin] was wearing khaki pants. About 90 seconds later I realized he was peeing in his pants. My doorman and me went on stage and carried him off. We asked him if he was okay and he said, “I’m ready to go on the stage.”

People don’t realize stand-up comedy is the hardest craft. You’re going on the stage by yourself and trying to tell jokes. A really good comedian makes it look easy.

Please click here for more information about Jamie Masada and his Laugh Factory comedy clubs.