The Comedy & Magic Club in Hermosa Beach, California, has been in business for over 48 years. Mike Lacey founded the venue on July 5, 1978. Lacey, who was only 25 years old at the time, loved driving the hour or so up to Los Angeles to visit The Comedy Store. That commute proved challenging for the friends he wanted to bring with him, so he decided to create a similar place closer to home.
The venue, which is the longest-running comedy club that pays its performers, has featured comedians, magicians, and variety acts from the beginning. “Mike thought magic was just a very underappreciated art form,” explained The Comedy & Magic Club manager Richard Barrett. “And so he thought, ‘Hey, wouldn’t it be great to create a venue where more of these acts can play?’”
The long, rich history of The Comedy & Magic Club is found on the cinder-block walls in the green room and behind the stage: Performers since the beginning have left their signature, and often a note, to mark their time there. If you’re lucky enough to see the wall yourself (and Barrett said that Genii readers can ask to see it, since the walls aren’t visible to guests), you’ll see messages from many comedy and magic greats, including Jack and Dove Goldfinger, who performed there in the club’s early years.
Nick Paul and Chipper Lowell
A fun night out for anyone and everyone
The Comedy & Magic Club is for those aged 18 and older, and acts are on the clean side. “We want people to be able to bring their family, their friends, their coworkers, their boss, even, and just know that they’re in good hands,” said Barrett.
Historically, the club has had four acts on any given night: a host who does around 10 minutes, a feature comedian who is on for 15 to 20 minutes, a magician or variety act who does 15 minutes, and a headliner who closes the show with a 45- to 60-minute set. Starting in the late 2000s, however, the venue added a new weekend format where 10 acts—nine comedians and one magician—perform short sets. Those shows became the club’s most popular nights, and the venue doubles down on that format for its anniversary show each year, when 20 acts each perform five-minute sets for an enthused audience.
The main room holds 250 people in cabaret-style seating. Guests tend to come early since seats are on a first-come basis, and enjoy a decent meal while taking in various memorabilia displayed throughout the space, from old Chaplin posters and Buster Keaton hats, to a suit from Ghostbusters and Seinfeld’s puffy shirt.
The show starts after most people have eaten, and the whole experience lasts two or three hours. There is also a 90-seat side room at the venue used for special events; Ben Seidman and the mentalist David Gerard, for example, tested out a 90-minute show there recently.
Taylor Hughes and Blake Vogt
Magic in the room
Unsurprisingly, comedy magicians do well at The Comedy & Magic Club. “They have to be the best though,” Barrett said, “because their comedy is being compared to the world-class comedians that are on our bill nightly—you can’t just use the same stock lines that sometimes come with the trick. Originality is a big thing here.”
Barrett also said, however, that you don’t have to be a comedic act to do well at the club. The main thing that matters (other than the magic being great, of course) is that the performer “move a little bit quicker and put more into less time” to match the cadence of the comedians. Another thing to note: Some seats in the club are on the sides of the stage, so angles will be a consideration for any magician.
Angles aside, however, The Comedy & Magic Club is an institution for comedy and the variety arts in Southern California, and odds are good that magicians will continue to write on its walls in the decades to come.
Photos courtesy of The Comedy & Magic Club
The Comedy and Magic Club
World-class stand-up, unforgettable magic, and fine food in Hermosa Beach, 6 miles from LAX.