Bob Fisher "Ice House" Comedy Club Owner Show #141

A really fun interview of one of my few peers as a comedy club owner..Bob Fisher, who took over the Ice House Comedy Club in Pasadena CA back in 1978, and operated it for 41 years. We discuss what it was like running a comedy club and some of the ups & downs of operating this kind of business. Bob name drops some of the people he worked with, like George Carlin, Robin Williams, Bill Mar, Dana Carvey, and more. I enjoyed this interview, and think you will as well.

Hosted by: R. Scott Edwards

Transcript

Announcer: 0:04

This is another episode of stand up comedy, your host and emcee, celebrating 40 plus years on the fringe of show business, stories, interviews and comedy sets from the famous and not so famous. Here's your host and MC, Scott Edwards.

Scott Edwards: 0:21

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for joining us for another special episode of stand up comedy, your host and emcee. And this is a real treat for me. You've heard me interview comics from around the world and talk to him Old staff members and everything. But this is the first time that one of my peers in the industry is joining us on the podcast ladies and gentlemen. He started off with a laugh stop a small chain of comedy clubs in Southern California back in 1976. But in 1978, he purchased and took over the Ice House. Quite the famous comedy club in Pasadena, California. It's my pleasure to introduce comedy club owner, Bob Fisher. Wow. Oh, please. Bobby's be seated. Seated. Everyone, please. The crowd is going crazy. It's so exciting to have a fellow club owner on the show. We've had Wow, similar existences. But in yet different worlds. It's it's great to have you here. No, it's nice now to people with low LSAT scores on the same phone call. That's, that's pretty incredible. Well, I could see the criteria for me. That's the criteria for becoming a club owner. By the way, low SATs scores is a real advantage. It is so true. I was not a guy that did well in school. And I did do. I didn't do any college. So I kind of fell into comedy and stayed with it. So let's, let's kind of catch people up real quick. What were you doing for the Laff Stop? And then what made you decide in 1978 to buy the Ice House?

Bob Fisher: 2:07

Well, the last stop. I was just managing it really I helped open it in 76 and ran it for a couple years. And then a buddy of mine said, hey, the Ice House in Pasadena is for sale. Are you interested? And I said no way. I said I want out of I went I want out of this business. I never want to work this hard again. You know, I come from after graduating college I went to work for IBM and sales. And it was like a normal job you. You have Fridays at five when the weekends are yours to kind of regenerate and get ready for Monday. And in the nightclub business as you are more than aware, Scott. There is no Friday at five. You're just working all week long. Monday through Friday working during the days on booking and promotion and advertising. And on the weekends when you'd normally be resting in a regular job. Well, guess what? Now you're really busy in the comedy club business doing multiple shows. And on Monday, you just start over again. So I said no. But he said well, he's come and take a look at it. And it was exciting to the thought of re generating the original comedy club in or at least had been there since 1960. And so I said I'll do it for a year, and then move back up to San Francisco where I really enjoy living. And, and then you know, 43 years later, I finally sold the Ice House.

Scott Edwards: 3:48

Well, that was a long standing temporary job there, Bob.

Unknown: 3:53

That's right. It did went on and on. And you know, it was hard work. But it was good for me. I enjoyed it so many things about the club business that I liked.

Scott Edwards: 4:03

Yeah, man me as well that I did not plan. It was one of those things I fell into and felt like it really made my life special and had so many great moments. But the Ice House being one of the earlier I mean, I always was able to brag that when I opened my club, it was the 12th full time club in the country but the ice goes farther back then that and when you took over in 78 comedy would still not really hit its stride. It was about 8182 It really took off. You were also in Pasadena which is in for those that don't know around the world that's in the Los Angeles area. So you had access to a lot more talent and a lot more happening. Can you explain to the audience, I understand but for our listeners, how the Ice House operated for example, I was a road club. So it was a three act format, you know, seven, eight shows a week. And we changed acts every week. There are the Comedy Store and the improv there were really showcase rooms. And you might see, you know, 12 to 20x a night doing short bits, really showcasing the Ice House is in between those two, could you explain?

Unknown: 5:24

Yeah, we were kind of like off Broadway. At the Ice House. We're about 3545 minutes from Hollywood. And so even though we had access to the hundreds and hundreds of comics, that live in the Los Angeles area, we chose to do a what's called a headliner format. So instead of having said 710 1520 comments a night, we had an opening act, a guest to do seven to 15 minutes, and then a middle lack, and the headliner. And they played at the time all week long. And so you had a beginning, a middle and an end and the show built. And the last guy, the headliner is usually 45 minutes to an hour, as opposed to having all those acts 1520 minutes doing seven minutes each, or something like that. That's that I think I preferred the headliner format. And that's what we did for many, many years.

Scott Edwards: 6:27

That's perfect, because I think that once you got out of LA, or a base area, like Boston, or San Francisco, you know, the three act format, and I never heard of it called the headliner format. But that's perfect, is really the way like you said, you build the show, the first act is less experienced, you give them a shorter amount of time, in generally, because they're less experience, they're going to be less funny than the feature Act and the fee track, you know, does 2030 minutes and then you have your headliner doing 45 minutes to an hour, as opposed to the Showcase clubs where there's no quote unquote headliner. It's 10 minute, seven minute x over over, over over. And it's different every night. So I Yeah, that's really great. And I know you've had a course a ton of success. Do you feel that it was a success in the Pasadena area? Or did you draw from the whole LA Basin?

Bob Fisher: 7:25

I think most clubs draw from like 1010 to 12 miles radius around them. But and so I'd say maybe 80% of our crowd, or more, we're from that area. But we did draw from all throughout the LA area in the San Gabriel Valley. Because people the biggest compliment I could get when people said, you know, I don't even check and see who's appearing at the Ice House, I just trust the club, to put a great show on I've never been disappointed. And so that was, that was one of the things I was so proud of that we worked hard to make sure that every show was a wonderful show. And you could do that when you had headliners. You knew what you were getting with them. And also, you know, some acts deserve more than 15 minutes, it isn't, it almost isn't fair to let the audience just see them for 15. And let them perform for that amount of time there. They are funny enough that they need the 45 minutes they burned it. And so it was nice to be able to put them on for that amount of time. I mean, how do you how do you put Robin Williams on for seven minutes? You know why? Why would you? Why would you want to do that. And so it just, that was the format that worked for me. I also, I liked the idea that the show has a beginning and an end people are there before the show. And they leave at the same time on the Showcase format like you're talking about, especially in Hollywood, a lot of times people kind of they don't they're not there for the first 4x They see the middle four or 5x. And then on the last four or 5x They're walking out and chill. I just hated that. I didn't like the idea that people pile in at certain points and walk out during the show. I like when the show builds it ends and boom, everyone walks out of there going, what a great time I have.

Announcer: 9:24

Yeah, and as a club owner, and I'm trying to sell food and drink and stuff. I love the idea that I had a pre show and post show bar. So the people were a little early, they'd come in see the show. And then when they filed out back into my bar, I had another crowd coming in. So you're it's like a restaurant, you're turning tables twice a night and financially that made things more equitable. And I wanted to say thank you for mentioning that compliment because I felt the same way that the greatest compliment my art As could give me was to say, well, we don't know. I mean, I'm up here in Sacramento. Most of the people I brought in, nobody knew at the time even the Jerry Seinfeld's and Jay Leno's before they were a name. And people knew if they came to the club, they got to show. And like you I took a lot of pride in that. Now, audiences have adjusted over the years. But any interesting audience stories because you did have an kind of an audience come and go. Did you have any interesting crowd situations that you were in a memorable?

Unknown: 10:38

Well, let's see, there was a time someone was laughing so hard that their head went all the way back and into the candle on the table behind them and their hair caught on fire. That's that's quite a tribute to the job that comedian was doing.

Scott Edwards: 10:56

Head on fire. Yeah.

Bob Fisher: 10:59

Their hair was on fire. Yeah. Don't

Scott Edwards: 11:01

know. Lighter, asking for more just light your head on fire.

Bob Fisher: 11:06

Yeah, lean back like that. There was a couple times and this is where someone who was laughing at the setups, not the punchline is they're laughing the setups and they're throwing the comics off. And the audience is a little confused. And so on about three or four occasions, I had to go up to people during the show and say, I'm sorry, you're laughing too much.

Scott Edwards: 11:33

And I've never done.

Bob Fisher: 11:35

Yeah, normally they'd had a little bit to drink. So they would look at me like I was crazy. They're laughing too much. How can that possibly be? But you know, I had to ask, I had to ask him, you know, wait for the punch lines before you laugh. Don't just laugh it, every word you hear up there. So that was that was, you know, one of the things that was a little, little interesting, I found but you know, Scott, you know, this is as much as I do. It's a business. And the commie nightclub business was not an easy business. For the Ice House, our overhead was about$50,000 a week. So I knew that I needed to get 7000 customers a month in that club, in order to cover the overhead. And we and we were doing we have multiple show rooms. And we were doing multiple shows on certain nights. So we were doing 50 shows a month. And to go out and figure out a way to get crowds for each of those shows. What a What an effort that was it was, you know, I think I probably spent 80% of my time marketing for us in the LA area. Since there's so many wonderful comments here. The easy part really was putting together a great comedy show. The hard part was getting audiences to see it and covering our overhead. So that was the job and wow, doing that for 43 years, I have to say that when I when I retired there when I did read a deep sigh of relief that I don't have to worry about that anymore.

Scott Edwards: 13:18

Well, you bring up a good point that, of course, we're talking about comedy as an art form. And in it we're sharing the shows that we were producing, and who we picked to go on stage in the order that we picked them to go on stage was all on our control in so the audience was basically caught in what we felt was going to entertain them. But you bring up an interesting point. the really difficult part about being a club owner is the business side. For me it was staffing it was dealing with the overhead. The marketing, as you mentioned is huge. Because you do have to keep butts in the seats. And oh, I bet you I don't know if you ran into this. I had a problem in what was it about 2004. All of a sudden, I think it was America live was the chain. But they had this concept that everything was free. They gave away they thought they could make all the money on the drinks. And so it was free to go to the comedy shows. They didn't have any of that in LA did they?

Bob Fisher: 14:30

Well, you know, no, I don't think so. They didn't come down here and I don't think there were we weren't competing against free comedy shows.

Scott Edwards: 14:38

Yeah, that was one of my bigger challenges in the mid 90s. America live came into town. And their concept was free comedy shows and tough to get people to come in. I mean, I had a reputation I had my regular audience. When I say tough. We and I'm sure you would agree you have your core audience that knows what they're gonna get. They're happy to be there. They come back week after week, or at least, you know, once a month, you know, and those people you can kind of count on. But it's the other half of the house that you have to really market and fill all the time. And my biggest challenge was, yeah, we have better shows. And the audience is going well, yeah, but they're free.

Unknown: 15:22

Right? Yeah, there's always there's always people looking for to lower their costs or expenses, or they're struggling. And it is hard to it is hard to compete with that. And even though the quality of their show was I'm sure a lot below your standards, you know, they're people, they're there. They're laughing they're having an okay time and makes your job a lot easier. A lot harder route.

Scott Edwards: 15:46

No, yeah, exactly. Now, both of us had a chance to work with some amazing talent over the years. But there were I could pick a number of acts that really got me excited. They were people that I looked up to, or I was very impressionable, and was just thrilled to be in the same room with them and to be producing them was just it. Was there anybody that you got to work with that got you going? And it was just you'll never forget thrill.

Bob Fisher: 16:19

You mean, other than Peewee Herman he was. It was I you know, there were so many. It's, as I was thinking about us getting together today and talking and looking at the the acts that I've been through, and known, it's so hard to narrow it down, because there were so many fantastic ones. And maybe part of my problem was that the first act was Robin Williams, and he was an opening act. And it's when I see people when they go, Oh, yeah. I spotted Robin Williams, I, you know, he I knew he was wonderful. Well, you'd have to be blind and deaf or not to know from the beginning that Robin Williams was a unique, special talents. So you know, he, he did his thing. And from there it was, it was kind of hard to top that. Although, from, you know, there was a guy that was wasn't actually this isn't a topping at that he wasn't doing very well. I watched him a couple sets during the week. And he wasn't doing as well as the other headliners. And so at the end of the week, I called him aside and said, You know, I'm an after election, I'm not going to book you back. It wasn't working out here. But I appreciate your being here. And, and he said, Hey, thank you very much for your honesty. And that was so, you know, we all we saw lots of people early in their careers who were not as strong. Someone who's very popular now, Sebastian Maniscalco. I agree with him.

Scott Edwards: 18:04

No, actually, I don't, but it's always of a new comic. But the idea that Jerry somehow didn't fit in, you know, back, people have to realize this is way before his celebrity. And he was a regular might club, you know, the audience had to go along with the the act. And if they weren't buying, it doesn't matter how good they are. That doesn't it's not working.

Unknown: 18:30

Well, that's true. That's true, too. And, and, you know, I had another conversation with Bill Maher, where at the end of the week, I said, Bill, I can't book you back. And that was because he's coming in, he's doing his political stuff to a general audience who doesn't know who he is. And it just wasn't working with my crowd. And so I said to him, I, you know, I, I can't wait for the day when you become a big star. You're unbelievably talented. And then then you'll be able to draw your crowd here to come and see you. And I hope that you'll come back and, and he did, he was set when he when he became a star, he'd come back about once or twice a year. And of course, the place was packed. So but as you know, one of the when we book as an owner, we're not looking to please ourselves. We're looking to please the audience. I generally like comics that were clever and Whittier than my particular audience happen to enjoy. So there were comics, I love that I went, I don't think I can put them on the show. And I, I didn't vote for them. So I think one of the marks of a successful club is that they understand their audience, and they know how to book for that audience. And I'm sure you went through that.

Scott Edwards: 19:48

Yeah, I think you're a little wiser than me. I was a little bit more of, you know, master of my kingdom. My my comics were people that I appreciated. than I ever asked, for example, Paula Poundstone came to me fresh out of Boston and basically sucked onstage. I liked her so much. She's the only act in my history I worked over and over and over until she really got things together. And it was funny. You mentioned Bill Maher Bill Maher is one of only two acts in my 21 year history that I fired midweek. Because interaction with the audience so interesting, yeah, interesting comparison there. I did want to throw back to something you mentioned earlier, just because I think it's important that the listening audience gets that when you're a club owner. It's it's such a duality, that you're producing a show and it's all about the comedy entertainment or whatever the entertainment and presenting something like Barnum, you know, you got to get the people in, you got to sell the tickets, and you got to entertain them. But there's the other side, the business side, where you're running a bar, you're running a restaurant, you're you have staff, you have to think about, but you mentioned it briefly. And I was this was something that I don't think people realize, you and I were also the bouncer. In other words, no, there's so many times, I would be greeting people at the door and taking their money and being you know, Mr. Happy, friendly, welcoming my club, you know, welcome to my home, basically. And then halfway through the show, they're drunk or belligerent, and I'm the one that would go up and say, you know, we appreciate you being here, but you have to leave.

Bob Fisher: 21:34

I, you know, I would go up, I'm five, five. And I would go up and I'd say, you know, I, I have a sample bouncer, I have to ask you to kind of keep your voice down a little bit. And otherwise, I have to send the real bouncer over. So yeah, I did that I did that. But you know, also, you gotta, you gotta be more than that. I was also about plumber in a way. I would, I would, I would emcee and you know, I have my seven minutes, I could do that. And then get the show going. And I had that times, I wore my little blue for Luer sport jacket. And I'd come offstage. And people would kind of bow their heads a little bit, because they looked at me as an entertainer, and an employee, and let them go on the toilet in the ladies room is blocked up. And I would take my little blue colored jacket off and set it on a chair, walk into the ladies room and use a hanger to kinda, you know, clear the clear the clock, and then walk out, put my blue colored jacket on again and become the entertainer for the night. So you do you do a little bit of everything when you own the club? Yeah, and

Scott Edwards: 22:53

that's so true. I'm a serial entrepreneur, I've started over 12 companies and from a small construction company to the comedy clubs, I in in my career owning an insurance agency. But what a round when you're in charge when you're the owner, people think, Oh, you sit up in this throne, and you just make decisions and make money. And it's not that at all, I there was not a job in my club that I didn't ask an employee to that I had to do. For example, we had what was called yuck patrol, which was when somebody threw up somewhere. And I was just like the staff, I took my turn, you know, everybody had to chip in, I think all my theory, Bob, and I don't know how you did it. But with my staff. I felt like we spent so many hours together at that club day and night, that it's like a second home. And I made them treat it like their home, you know, keep it clean, keep it picked up. And we're all here to work together. So we all chip in, but that included me the boss. And like you though, what's funny, is you mentioned that UMC just shows and you kept it to a nice tight five or seven minutes. I emceed all my shows for 21 years, but I had a bit of a reputation. There was a point in the comedy club career. I quit booking opening ads, because people couldn't follow me. Oh, my goodness, I was doing 2030 minutes of just crowd. It just

Unknown: 24:23

did you ever get it? Did you ever get a second opinion on that? Or was that just your evaluation?

Scott Edwards: 24:30

No, it was just me having fun. And it's so funny. You mentioned that because there's a little bit of history. If you ever talked to any of the comics about Scott Edwards in his time on stage, of course, I would never do it between acts, but the upfront part became my domain. And I thought I took a little too far but I was the boss and it was my place so

Unknown: 24:56

well, you know, I think that's why 80% of Colombo Nerissa bought a club so that they can get on stage. You know, maybe that was true for both of us to a little extent. I don't know.

Scott Edwards: 25:08

But I do know that Mitzi I don't think ever Yeah.

Unknown: 25:12

No, I don't think she did no, but a lot, but a lot of clubs. Yeah, go ahead. Sorry.

Scott Edwards: 25:17

I was just gonna say but Friedman at the Improv is famous for his goofy few minutes he would do before his shows in his TV shows. And in your I never really thought about it. But you're probably right. I don't think either one of us got into the business to get on stage. But it was certainly for me a perk.

Unknown: 25:37

Yeah, I enjoyed it, too. But I think in the beginning, the reason I started doing it was just a way to save a few bucks, so that I'd have some money at the end of the month to pay the bills. I mean, that's constant, constant thing. You know, like, hey, if I can go back, I feel badly because you asked me about the wonderful comics that in, in the UK first started out and saw and they were a lot of amazing people. And I was at an air of starting in the 76. So I was able to hang out a little bit with Carlin and talk to him and more Saul and, and you know, they're kind of on the Mount Rushmore of comedians. And, and so that was just to be able to sit there and watch them do their thing was was pretty amazing.

Scott Edwards: 26:26

Oh, that's cool. Carlin is a God and I never had a chance to meet the man. My reference points would be I was able, and I did this for my father, but I booked soupy sales and Pat Paulsen.

Bob Fisher: 26:42

Okay. Yeah. Well,

Scott Edwards: 26:44

and it was just to touch that earlier generation of talent.

Unknown: 26:51

Absolutely. Pet Paulson was the first comedian who ever appeared at the Ice House. No. And yeah, he would. He had a rope on stage and he would hang upside down. And he would put paint on his hair. And he put a canvas on the floor. And he would push his hair onto the canvas, and he made what he call cranial paintings. And then to pick up a few extra bucks after the show, he would sell them outside in the lobby. Oh, man,

Scott Edwards: 27:21

that's hilarious. patent. That story. I love that.

Unknown: 27:26

Yeah, that was that was pet Folsom first. First one that was before I owned it. But, you know, I heard this story. And Pat did appear at the club after I bought it too.

Scott Edwards: 27:36

Yeah, he turned into a great friend. We might have been one of the last clubs he worked. But the I had not heard that story. Thanks for sharing that.

Unknown: 27:43

Oh, I wasn't good. I got another good pat Paulsen story. Okay, book clubs, book clubs in a number of areas across the country at one point about 10. In addition to the I chose, one of them was in Hawaii. And one morning, I get a call. And it's Pat Paulsen. And he goes, Hey, Bob, I'm here in Hawaii at the airport. And there's no one here from the club to pick me up. And I go Hold on for a second patent. I looked through my booking book and I get back on the line. I go, Pat, you're there one month, early.

Scott Edwards: 28:19

a month early.

Unknown: 28:20

He screwed up. He screwed up the date. He made his own arrangements. And so he's in Hawaii one month before his gig. So that's another There you go. You got to pack

Scott Edwards: 28:32

calls and stories now. Well, hopefully he made a vacation out of it. But that's hilarious.

Unknown: 28:37

He stayed for a while and then and then went home and then came back a month later. So yeah. Oh, that's

Scott Edwards: 28:43

a great story. Thanks for sharing that. Well, that brings me to a question. Now. This is interesting. I've been a guest on about 40 to 50 different podcast. And one of the questions I always get, and I and I'll tell you upfront, Bob, there's no answer that I felt comfortable giving that I lean a certain way. But I'm Lenny.

Bob Fisher: 29:03

Yes. Who is your who's your favorite comic?

Scott Edwards: 29:05

Exactly. That's everyone's question. That's the one.

Bob Fisher: 29:11

I know I hate that question too. Because it's so number one, it's hard to narrow it down. And number two, I don't like the idea of favorites. I know in basketball, they're always going for the goat the greatest of all time. You know, Michael, do we need to pick a greatest of all time? I you know, just let's just say there have been so many wonderful comics. I don't know who's the greatest but I would say you got to put in terms of what they did and the influence that they had on the people and the industry. You'd have to put Carl in there. You have to put prior there. Lenny Bruce opened, you know, louder comics to take it to the edge. And Chris Rock Chappelle more saw Robin You know, there's, there's, there's so many of them my favorite. If they asked me my favorite I will listen. Every economy is a choice for everyone. I kind of like variety. If I want to just sit and laugh and relax for me, I love impressionists. And I always loved what Dana Carvey did, and I would love to sit back and watch and watch him. And so I'm not saying you know, who's the greatest of all time I'm just saying that, that I enjoyed all of them. I enjoyed Dana. As much as anyone probably more.

Scott Edwards: 30:37

Oh, that's That's great to hear. Dana got one of his early I'd say headlining started Muse out of the bay area, but he was a big big time regular In fact, I'll send you a video I have him on stage with his brothers band doing chop and broccoli a good two years ago, right? Saturday Night Live, which you've probably seen, and I love the fact that you mentioned variety. I did not realize that. There were I thought I might have been the only club that enjoyed variety because I love booking the ventriloquist the magicians, the jugglers comedy based but you know all that the variety the industry and goes back to who's your favorite? Well, there's so many different types of comedy that well who's your favorite impressionist? Or who's your favorite straight monologist? Are they there's so many different things. Best Comedy team, you know, Mac and Jamie was huge for me.

Bob Fisher: 31:32

Right? Great.

Scott Edwards: 31:33

I'm glad that you appreciated the variety acts. I was gonna say when I get asked that question. I say the same thing. There's no way to pick somebody. But a personal like somebody I could sit and listen to forever was Larry Miller.

Unknown: 31:49

All right. Yep. Yeah, he was wonderful.

Scott Edwards: 31:55

Yeah. And you mentioned in an article once Richard Jeni, who was another one of the acts that we both got to work with. And there's a number of these guys that had a special gift in in a way to share their humor that in the case of Larry Miller always stuck with me, I think, I think with Larry, for me, it wasn't that it was joke joke joke. It was the way he would weave a story. And there'd be humor all through it. But the story itself, like the 12 stages of drinking, you know, just nobody could redo that and recreate that it was all Larry Miller.

Unknown: 32:35

Yeah. Now he's, again, special and unique. And that's a good choice. And I admire him at the Ice House. Also, you know, one of the reasons when you when you get into the multiple comic act, and or show rather, is as you're aware, people fall out, and sometimes they go, boy, that second act was wonderful. You know, third act was okay. And then the very next person goes, boy, that second act was okay. Third Act was fantastic. So everyone has such a different feeling as to who they who their sense of humor and who they love. And so by having multiple acts on a show, you kind of you have a better chance of pleasing everyone getting the like three out of the 4x and I am doing what you said I love putting variety in the middle I'd much rather have three standups in a variety accent all standups

Scott Edwards: 33:32

Oh, it's so true. I used to affect my first I think couple of years I made it a I had a magician or some variety act in the middle in the future spot every time Peter DePaula I don't even know if you ever heard of him was a magician. I do I remember the name. Okay. Well, Peter was my you know, my opening show was Garry Shandling Peter to Paul and George Wallace. And wow, that was in August of 1980. You'd already been around a few years. But I stuck with a variety act in the middle position for a couple of years. And then it became more mixed up. And there was a lot of variety acts that could headline. This leads me to want to keep it quick. What did you look for in an act? Was it energy? Was it connecting to the audience? Was it the actual material? Or did you have anything specific you kept an eye out for?

Unknown: 34:24

Wow. Well, I felt that it wasn't up to me to educate an audience. And I felt the job one was to make people laugh. Naturally. I mean, it sounds so obvious, but I didn't. I didn't necessarily have to have witty, clever, insightful if they were funny. That that was what was important to me. And if they were relatively clean, I didn't want to put too many restrictions on them. I think people who came to the Ice House knew that they had to keep it somewhat clean. PG rated No, we didn't, we weren't going into the AR, and definitely not into the X rated type of material. And I preferred high energy as opposed to probably lower key, because high energy tended to keep the audience involved. And I had, I thought that I had a better chance of them enjoying the show. But again, there's the thing as a club owner that, you know, well, what do you do if you have an act that you're not sure if they're right for your crowd, but they are unique, and they are good, and they need stage time. And so you want to give them stage time. And but maybe they're not really ready for your particular audience. So that was kind of a quandary that I would have occasionally, it's flip someone in to do five minutes having to do a shorter set. Is that something that you found out that you knew to?

Scott Edwards: 35:55

Oh, yeah, for Paul is the biggest name. But Paul is an example. But there was several others, Karen Anderson, who went on to write for the Ellen Show, Brian Poe saying started here in Sacramento, there's a few acts that I just felt, had the it factor, but what they needed was time to develop. And they needed stage time to do that. And by no means am I a comedy expert, but I felt I had seen enough and understood the audience enough that I would give advice or technique, guidance, to acts to try to help them improve. And I may be in a selfish way. Thought that was part of my job. And when I say selfish, if I took somebody that wasn't really ready, and I made him ready. I got to take advantage of that by putting them on my stage over and over and over, right?

Unknown: 36:52

Yeah, yeah. I usually if they asked for suggestions, then I would come up with a couple of things that I thought were cogent. But generally, I didn't go out of my way to say things of the comics, unless we asked me first.

Scott Edwards: 37:11

But more polite than me, Bob?

Unknown: 37:14

Oh, no, maybe shy? I don't? I don't know. I think so.

Scott Edwards: 37:22

I was just gonna throw in there that you touch something that I think is really important. And I'm glad that you mentioned it wasn't me, because my listening audience has heard it from me a lot. But I think it's so much harder and more important to strike somebody's funny bone and be clean. It was the acts that were clean. Larry Miller's a great example, Jerry Seinfeld, Jay Leno, you name it, that you could get a great headliner set out of it. There's no F bombs. There's no gratuitous sex references or something. I always tried to book my shows as clean shows. Now, I don't know if you did this. But I would then occasionally, maybe three times a year, I would book a blue show and I would advertise it, hey, this shows dirty. It's different. still funny. But it's an adult show, for example, Jack Marion, you know, the right people that, you know, they're still funny, they still have, they should get stage time. But you want to let the audience know ahead of time that you know, now that people that like, I'd say today, but really it happened, my whole history of comedy. The people that think it's funny to just drop F bombs over and over and over and think that's humor. They were the first ones out the door my place? Yeah. No,

Unknown: 38:42

I couldn't I couldn't handle that either. It's although, you know, I mean, they say that. That comedy is the comedy club. Stanhope is the last bastion of free speech. And I think to a large extent, that's true. And it is something we have to worry about more today than maybe ever. And so I was reluctant to, to shut down people who were ECI and maybe got blue occasionally. Because I felt they deserve to be heard that people wanted to hear them. And I didn't want to take away a little bit of the sting of comedy. I didn't want to force things to be you know, as as you get older, like here, you and I in Scotland, we're talking about Peter DePaula Jack Marion. x, we know but if you talk to the to the comics that are kind of making it today, the younger comics, they don't know who those people are they it's like we're talking about, you know, Buster Keaton and that kind of stuff. They would look at us and go You guys are a little out of touch with what's going on now. So and you know, there was one time in you know, few years Go. I was already in my mid 70s. And I'm sitting in the back of the showroom, and I'm listening to the show and the comics, doing great. And he gets a big, big laugh on something and I go, Oh, my God, I have no idea why that's funny. Yeah. And I went, I wonder if I should still be here. And so that was something. You know, that's something that had to go through my mind because they were talking about premises, premises that I, you know, like a lot of phone stuff and computer stuff. And dating apps, and that I really was no longer familiar with. So So on the one hand, you know, we did get to make our shows resemble who we are. But on the other hand, I didn't want to do that too much, because I felt like you have to keep it open. Or people who were younger, hipper, and the majority of the crowd,

Scott Edwards: 40:56

yeah, you might have dealt with that more, because you did 20 years longer. I mean, when I got out at 21 years, it was 2001. I felt comedy was changing. I felt the audience was changing. And I got an offer and I bailed. Now, I regretted it from time to time, I'd still love the art form. And that's why I do this podcast. But you're right. There's a point where you kind of I think, maybe age out great short story that Clark pest guy was here yesterday, and I was telling him about, you know, I used to own this club and stuff and how great it was to work with Garry Shandling. And he goes, who? Right now I looked like he was 30 something and it's like you never heard of Garry Shandling. And I go man, I I'm in a different world. I used

Unknown: 41:45

to give people tours of the club who were there, Kay, hey, let me take you around show you the club dinner since 1960. And we had pictures on our Hall of Fame wall of people appeared at the club as this George Carlin and in the end near the end, they're going who they had no idea who George Carlin was, I would talk about Johnny Carson, no idea who Johnny Carson was really and you Oh my god. Yeah. You know, they, you'd be shocked now, though, for I mean, Johnny Carson, there. He's been off the air, what? 20 years? 25 years,

Scott Edwards: 42:20

there's a whole generation. Yeah.

Unknown: 42:23

No idea. So maybe that's a wonderful thing about comedy, how it does change and how it does keep current, and how wonderful the current acts are. And so it just we just need to be cognizant of that. You know, as far as the club is, I hope this doesn't get me in trouble. I really, the only thing I miss about it is sitting in the green room and talking to some of the comics, who were my friends, in terms of the other part of the biz that we you know, I don't really, I don't really miss much about that.

Scott Edwards: 42:57

Yeah, I think that's true for me and my wife, we say, you know, we don't miss running the club. We don't miss the audience's although we love them. But it's the people in the business that we miss.

Unknown: 43:12

Yeah, that's right. But I'm gonna add one more thing. I actually said we need a purpose in life. To be happy. I've been thinking about that now that I'm retired. You know, when I was in the club is I start each day with my list of things to do. And then there'd be 80 or 90 things on there. It was overwhelming. It was crazy. Now that I'm retired the other day, and this is the truth I, I looked at my list for what I had to do that particular day. And it had one thing on it set by rubber bands. So so things, things have changed. Things have changed a little bit for me. But I do want to say in addition to sitting in the dressing room and talking to comics, the other thing that I did love was standing in the back of the showroom, and watching the audience's really enjoy the show. And as you're aware, when audiences laugh, they don't just sit there, they actually start to roll. They're rolling back and forth. So when you're in the back of the audience, it's like you're looking at the waves of the ocean. And that's that was one of my that was my purpose in life. I realized not to sell drinks not to sell food. That was a necessary evil in order to stay in business. My purpose was to put on a fabulous show, so that hopefully each and every person walked out of there and said, What a great time I had.

Scott Edwards: 44:38

I gotta tell you, I am so happy. You said that ladies and gentlemen, watching the audience was always my favorite thing for Bob Fisher. Good, good call. That's enough of that. But I just saw you you've echoed what I've told so many people when they've asked what was your favorite part of owning it? Club. And to me, it was watching the audience. I didn't watch the X. I knew the X. I've seen them 100 times. I watched the audience. And isn't it interesting as a club owner out of 200 people, you could spot the one person not laughing? And then I would watch them till they broke.

Unknown: 45:17

Yeah, yeah, one person, just that nothing is funny to them. I felt sorry for,

Announcer: 45:24

hey, we're running out of time, but because I wanted to be respectful of your time, but I have a couple of quick questions. Let's do kind of a lightning round. Did you notice because you were in the business of for decades, compared to my two decades. Did you see a difference in the audience's or the talent? Or both?

Unknown: 45:43

Yeah, I think both because you need the talent. They need to appeal to whatever audience is that is there in order to get the laughs they want. uncomplimentary? I will say that it seemed like if the mind decade or so, the audience's were a little less interested in intelligent witty humor. And the the comedians were catering to that. And so the shows weren't as clever, I think, as they were early on.

Announcer: 46:15

Yeah, I would have to agree. But I felt it back in 2000. You made it a lot longer. What would you say was your biggest challenge as a club owner?

Unknown: 46:24

Not drinking alcohol? No, I'm kidding. I mean, I was I was never really ended up? Well, the biggest challenge as as, for me, I think I was I was very good at putting teams together and keeping my employees motivated, interested and most importantly, appreciated. As I said earlier, the biggest challenge filling seats, just just having, you know, we would book occasional producers, and they would have one show that they did in, it'd be six weeks later, and the show would finally come up and they'd have 13 people there. Oh my God. They had six weeks, and they drew 13 people to their show. Whereas at the club, I was putting on over 50 shows a month. And I had to I had to take care of that was the hard part filling. Filling The Seats. Yeah, in the good. Sorry.

Announcer: 47:21

No, I was just gonna agree. That's, I think marketing. People don't realize the importance of it goes more beyond even marketing. It's, it's how you treat the audience. It's advertising. It's making your facility, a place where people feel welcome and want to come back. It's there's several levels to that, quote, unquote, marketing that makes people want to come back over and over again.

Unknown: 47:48

Yeah, you know, and marketing by just a quick thing about how it changed when I was first in the business man, I'm dating myself, of course, but 76 We, you know, you wanted to you booked an act, you had to get it to the papers for six weeks in advance, so that the word could get out. And I you know, I even had a mimeograph machine Mo, what's that? And that's how we put the flyers together. And you know, and over, over leisurely period of weeks, hopefully a few people here and when the show came, happened, it would be you'd have a good crowd. Now, at the time, when I left, we're talking you know, 2019 how it changed was, let's say Joe Rogan would call me and say hey, you got you got an opening? Next week on Wednesday night, I go, Yeah, we got we put you on late your own Late Show, okay. And he goes, alright, let's do a thing. Let's do the 10 o'clock show on Wednesday, the whatever. And I go, Okay, I just, I just I put it on the computer. So you're up, you go, okay, hold on. And he was he was put the thing out to his followers. And within 20 minutes, be calling in and the show would be sold out. They would be, you know, going online buying tickets. And it was so fantastic. He get the word out to me and people on his end. And there you go. So what it changed in terms of marketing from where I was at the end to when I started.

Announcer: 49:17

Yeah, and I can totally relate that we were dealing with TV, newspapers, and radio. In these days, all three of those have really no impact at all. Totally different. So as a club owner, and I know this is a broad question, see if you can give me a simplistic answer. What would you say was the best aspect of your 40 years as a club owner?

Unknown: 49:43

Oh, that's a good question. I've never thought about that before. And by the way, all my answers is simplistic and always have to. You know, let's see as a club owner, I think that I would look back and be proud of the fact that I treated customers, employees and comics with great respect. Throughout the years, I have no skeletons in the closet. I was honest with all of them. And so I think that's what I'm proud of.

Announcer: 50:20

I think that's a great thing to be proud of. And I was 24 When I opened my club, and I had Bob Saget Couturier, and George Wallace kind of telling me, you know, what I needed to do to make a club work. And the number one thing was treat the comics with respect. In fact, they said it was more important than paying them. And I had a bit of a reputation for not paying great, but I always treated them well always made sure they had a great place to stay. You didn't have to worry about that. But you know, it was that, that mutual respect of the audience in the comics can take you to success.

Unknown: 51:04

Yeah, and you know, it's something if you stereotype the club owner, that would not be what people think they would do. Oh, right. No money. Hey, Scott, I'm running out of voice.

Announcer: 51:15

Well, we only, we're just about done. Hey, what, what led you to sell the club? Let's get that in real quick?

Unknown: 51:23

Well, you know, part of it was me sitting in the back and feeling I was little out of touch. And in addition, I think I just after 43 years, time for some different time for time for a second act. And this is kind of modeling to talk about. But in California, you seem to have a lot of employees. So we're looking for a reason to sue. And matter how well you treated them. It was always a worry that Tommy was going to touch Tammy, and Tammy was going to report it. And it was going to be a problem. And so I was it's kind of nice and retirement not to have to worry about all those employee thinks so with occasionally come up.

Scott Edwards: 52:09

Yeah, I agree that the overall any business that you own, whether it's a construction company, restaurant or comedy club, one of the challenges is staffing, but there's always that lingering lawsuit issue it whether it was the audience member getting hurt or suing, but staff members, it's certainly a challenge. And those are the the weight that we carry on our shoulder as club owners, as business owners, but as retired guys that are out of that we are free of that. And it really feels good, doesn't it?

Unknown: 52:47

If people ask me, and I go, I am out of business. It's not just the comedy club. Because as a promoter and a marketer, I'll pass by businesses and I'll go, why don't they put something in their window? There? They will. And they will will. You have to worry about that at all. That's up to them. You no longer have to worry about those kinds of things. And it? It does, it does feel good. And you know, hey, it's a little boring. It certainly was exciting. Being in the coffee club business. I ran into a guy a week ago and I said, Hey, what's going on? He said, You know, I'm retired. He said, I got nothing to do, and all day to do it. And I went, Yeah, well, okay, I know, I feel that.

Scott Edwards: 53:31

Well, Bob, I gotta tell you, it's been such a pleasure to have you on the show. I've had a chance to interview a lot of different people. But talking to somebody that's virtually lived, the life I've lived in sounds like we had very similar experiences and in joy in the industry. And I believe I don't mean to speak for you, but that we have a respect for the art form. And the people that do it. And we tried to work hard as club owners and Booker's to bring that talent to our audiences. And it's just such an honor to have you on the show and be able to talk about Thank you.

Unknown: 54:11

Thank you, Scott. I appreciate it. And I'd never did talk to you about the money for this. Do we get into that now? How's that worked

Scott Edwards: 54:17

out? As well, as we used to the check.

Unknown: 54:24

checks in the mail. I do it. Alright, I'll get down to my mailbox right now. Thank you sky.

Scott Edwards: 54:28

Ladies and gentlemen. Thanks for listening to this week's episode. A very special show with my new friend Bob Fisher from the Ice House in Pasadena. Bob. Thanks for joining us today.

Bob Fisher: 54:40

Scott a real pleasure. Ladies and gentlemen. Stay

Scott Edwards: 54:43

tuned next week another great show. Thanks for listening. Bye.

Announcer: 54:48

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Stand Up Comedy you're hosting them see. For information on the show merchandise and our sponsors, or to send comments to Scott. Visit our website at WWE W dot stand up your host an mc.com look for more episodes soon and enjoy the world of Stand Up Comedy visit a comedy show room near you