The Casino File
Since there’s little, if anything, funny about math, it doesn’t really matter that the numbers don’t add up for the upcoming Comedy Stop celebration at Golden Nugget Atlantic City.
The groundbreaking laugh lounge opened its doors in November, 1983 inside Tropicana Atlantic City. But on Oct. 11 and 12, the bash at the Nugget will, according to the marketing campaign, fete the club’s 40th anniversary.
“I thought ‘40th’ was better than ‘42nd,’ wisecracked club founder-owner Bob Kephart, when challenged on his arithmetic. “And I don’t know how to count anyway.”
No matter; the point here is that for at least a weekend (and possibly much more) the Comedy Stop brand — under which Our Town’s first, and still-best, comedy club operated — will live again.
The 180-seat chuckle hut was initially located on the ground floor of the Trop’s original hotel tower (now known as the North Tower). It moved in 2004 to The Quarter, the Havana-in-the-1950s-themed retail, dining and entertainment complex. But it wasn’t just a pioneering nightclub: It was also a comedy laboratory out of which sprung multiple generational artists, including Ray Romano, Kevin James, Lewis Black, Drew Carrey and Rosie O’Donnell.
Kephart, a native of Philadelphia’s Germantown section who entered the comedy-club business at The Jailhouse saloon near Philly’s 30th Street Station in the early-1980s, came to open the Comedy Stop thanks to a friendship he developed with Jim Martin, then the Tropicana’s entertainment director.
At the time, Kephart was running Club Ancopa, a long-gone nitery at Mississippi and Atlantic avenues. Martin, he recalled, “Loved [Club Ancopa]. And he finally came to me and said, ‘I’ve got a great room at the Tropicana, but we can’t make it work.’ He took me over there and I walked into that room and I said, ‘That’s it! Thank you very much! I’m here!’”
According to Kephart, who unfortunately couldn’t remember the room’s opening-night bill, his decision to install a comedy club was a response to what he saw as a significant change in American nightlife.
“In my mind, it was the end of [the disco era],” he reasoned. “And people who used to go to discos were now too old to get on the dance floor; they wanted someplace where they could come and sit down and just be entertained. And that’s what I envisioned. I envisioned a place for these people to go to relax and have a lot of fun.”
While it may have been relaxing for his patrons, it was probably less so for his performers, who were booked for what had to be a grueling eight-shows-in-seven-nights run. But that didn’t keep the Romanos, Carreys and others from returning. Romano and Kephart had an especially close relationship that began when the “Everybody Loves Raymond” star won a standup competition at the Stop. Romano, he said, “showed up and…there was no contest.”
Kephart also spoke fondly of John Valby (a.k.a. “Uncle Dirty”) who, while never breaking through to the mainstream as did Romano, Carrey and the others, enjoyed a cult following, especially among college students. Another favorite was the brilliant, but troubled, Richard Jeni, who took his own life in 2007, less than a month before his 50th birthday.
Jeni, offered Kephart, was one of the “most prolific writers—he was able to write about anything. And he was funny. But, he added, the doomed comic “just was never happy.”
As for next weekend’s presentations, there will be eight comedians including the ultra-hilarious Rick Corso, who, sadly, never achieved the kind of success he so richly deserved. He’ll be joined by Carie Karavas; Kevin Downey, Jr.; former Miss New Jersey Dena Blizzard; Steve Shaffer; Richie Minervini; Harry Maurer and Jeff Norris.
The prospect of presenting funny folks again after a decade away from the comedy-club fray has Kephart excited about being back in the game. And while the weekend is being staged as a one-off affair, don’t be surprised if the “Comedy Stop” brand once again becomes a part of the local show biz landscape.
“When we first talked with [the Nugget’s brain trust] they said they were hoping that this would be something that they could do weekly if [the two shows] do great,” said Kephart. “So, I’m making sure we do great with this.”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
A ‘knockout’ booking at Hard Rock
Regular readers of this weekly exercise in verbiage are likely aware that we are particularly fond of casino-headliner bookings that deviate from the standard music-and-comedy template.
Well, Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Atlantic City has announced a presentation that literally packs a punch.
On Jan. 23, 2026, former heavyweight boxing titan Mike Tyson will bring his new one-man show, “Return of the Mike,” to the Sound Waves theater.
As he did in his “Undisputed Truth” program with which he toured in 2013, “Return of the Mike” will find the controversial ex-champ surveying his extraordinary life — from his explosive rise to boxing superstardom, to his imprisonment on a 1992 rape charge, to his comeback as an actor, motivational speaker and wildly successful entrepreneur.
The Jan. 23 program is but one of four Tyson will be presenting, all of which are being staged exclusively at Hard Rock properties around the country
“After ‘Undisputed Truth,’ people kept asking when I’d return, and now it’s time- no holding back, no filter,” said Tyson in a press release.
“Hard Rock knows how to have a good time and bring people together for unforgettable nights, just like what we’re going to create with this tour. We’re going to have some fun, tell some truths, and remind everyone that I’m still swinging hard.”
For tickets, go to ticketmaster.com.
Chuck Darrow has spent more than 40 years writing about Atlantic City casinos.
