How The Ice House comedy club in Pasadena reopened with a Lakers connection

Table Of Content

• The Ice House Comedy Club
• Special Events & Celebrations
• Stagecoach 2024: Eric Church’s performance gets backlash from fans
• Art Deco and dignity inspire multi-hyphenate comedian Katie Cazorla’s new club, the Kookaburra Lounge
• The differences — and similarities — between the Coachella and Stagecoach festivals
• Notable people
• The Ice House Comedy Club reopens in Pasadena

Johnny hopes the Ice House will invigorate Playhouse Village’s entertainment scene, and will spill over into activation and fun at Playhouse Village Park as well. The Ice House sponsored the hugely successful Summer 2022 Jazz at the Park concert series in the newly opened Park. Johnny Buss capped the evening with an auction of exclusive items for the benefit of Playhouse Village Foundation.

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The Ice House Comedy Club

Stage 1, the main showroom, can accommodate up to 165 people while the second showroom can accommodate up to 100 people. Believing that the sale of the club was the “perfect opportunity” to fulfill his father’s dream, Johnny offered to pay 50% more than whatever the other buyer offered, ensuring the sale went through. “First of all, we’re shooting for a grand opening, a public grand opening of February 9th.

Special Events & Celebrations

Talking with patrons at the bar after the gig, Icehouse owner Brian Liebeck said he remains hopeful a lawsuit threatening to evict him over unpaid rent is not the end of the line for his supper club-style music venue. Cobb’s Comedy Club is one of two dedicated comedy clubs in San Francisco. Comedians that appear are often recognizable from their comedy specials or cracking jokes with Late Night TV show hosts or appearing in roles in movies and TV shows.

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As COVID-19 shut down business after business, Johnny took this as an opportunity to launch The Ice House into a whirlwind of amazing renovations. “When you’re almost the pinnacle of sports ownership, what do you do? And my dad and I used to sit around and say, what we need to do is buy a variety club and have comics and magicians and maybe a singer, come out and just really have a really great evening. And we used to talk about that literally for the last 40 years,” he recounted.

Art Deco and dignity inspire multi-hyphenate comedian Katie Cazorla’s new club, the Kookaburra Lounge

From 1960 to 1978, The Ice House, originally managed by Keith Pearce, aka, O'Brien, was a folk music club with acts coming from around the country to perform. In 1978, the original owners were bought out by a trio of investors led by Bob Fisher who changed the format of the club to stand-up comedy. The Ice House, known as the oldest comedy club in the United States, features a brand-new inside that is completely renovated.

Hourly Data

His father’s notoriously outside-the-box methods of running a team made him a genius and impossible to predict. It’s a sound new owner Johnny Buss — the oldest son of the late Lakers owner Jerry Buss — has been waiting to hear since he bought the place in 2019. The Ice House Comedy Club is a comedy club located at 24 Mentor Avenue in Pasadena, California. For now, all shows are going on as planned, and new concerts are being booked at the venue.

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"Pandemic support money ran out, and the club community has taken awhile to rebuild, both in terms of event bookings and getting big crowd turnout." Congress' Shuttered Venue Operator Grant program (aka SVOG, aka Save Our Stages). That helped make up for lost revenue during the COVID-19 shutdown, but it did not cover more recent challenges. Many comedians go on to star in other improv style comedic ventures, such as “Saturday Night Live.” Enjoying a show at The Groundlings is kind of like getting a look at a future star.

Notable people

Among performers who have recorded some of the more than 75 live albums at the club are the Smothers Brothers, Gallagher, Lily Tomlin, Pat Paulsen, Richard Jeni and George Lopez. Since 2009, Cool Beans Comedy has become the gold-standard in teaching comedy. Past graduates have appeared on America’s Got Talent, Netflix, Nickelodeon, Disney, FOX, Comedy Central, SiriusXM, as well as comedy festivals and clubs across the country. Industry and casting directors regularly observe our classes and shows to discover the next crop of top comedic talent. Mike Michel, guitarist for the Orange Goodness, called Icehouse "a lightning rod for many" and said Liebeck "championed underground music in every genre.

Since the club originally opened as a live music venue in 1960, Buss also plans on bringing live music back, too, with weekly jazz, reggae, pop and country nights starting in the next few months. Buss brought back the laughs in February and plans to broaden the club’s offerings with live music and other events in the future. PASADENA, Calif. — One of the oldest comedy clubs in the country will celebrate its grand reopening Friday after quietly relaunching in February. The walls of The Ice House are adorned with photos of comedians who have graced its stage, and the venue boasts a new menu and updated bar offerings.

The Lakers team co-owner Johnny Buss is now the owner of the Ice House. "I just wanted it to survive in the spot where it originated," he said. "It's a beautiful venue now," said Kevin Dorse who was at a show Friday night. The VIP room, which can also view the main showroom, can hold up to 20 people.

With the club’s revival, Buss says live music and other events will play a role in the monthly bookings including jazz, reggae and country nights. Buss has had a long and distinguished career in professional sports, serving as president of the Los Angeles Sparks, the team that won back-to-back WNBA Championships. He was also president of Los Angeles Lazers of the Major Indoor Soccer League, and hopes to bring his decades of business experience to America’s longest-running comedy club with the intention of giving it another 60 vibrant years of life. For Margaret Cho, the club’s first big headliner to perform Thursday night, the details in a comedy club make the comic’s experience and the fan experience feel like they're being taken seriously. Finally, burnt out on sports and other ventures before the pandemic, Buss decided to revive the comedy club dream, buying the Ice House in 2019 from longtime owner Bob Fisher, who was retiring. The club sat in limbo until recently — during which time Buss' mother, JoAnn Mueller, also passed away, before the club reopened.