By Chuck Darrow
Atlantic City’s century-plus as a show business capital has resulted in numerous venues that, while long-gone, remain part of Our Town’s collective culture and consciousness.
Among them are Steel Pier, which, for decades, hosted superstar performers from John Philip Sousa and Rudy Vallee to Frank Sinatra and Abbott & Costello to Ricky Nelson and The Supremes; the 500 Club, where, in 1946, a couple of unknowns named Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis launched themselves into pop-culture immortality and Club Harlem where, during a time of both legal and de facto segregation in America, integrated audiences came together to enjoy and celebrate legends like Sammy Davis Jr., Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Sam Cooke and Ray Charles.
There’s one defunct performance space that isn’t quite as historically resonant as these, but perhaps should be. That would be the Comedy Stop Café & Cabaret, which operated inside what is now called Tropicana Atlantic City for more than three decades.
The Comedy Stop was opened on the main level of the Trop’s original (North) tower in 1983 by Kephart & Corti Productions. It would remain in that location until 2004, when it moved to The Quarter, the gaming hall’s Havana-in-the-1950s-themed retail, dining and entertainment complex. Unlike most nightclubs, the Comedy Stop, which ended AyCee operations in 2015, never had a “dark” night; shows were staged Monday through Sunday.
The laugh lounge was located in what was essentially a box–ringed by an elevated seating section–that could accommodate 165 patrons. It could definitely start to feel claustrophobic if one sat in it long enough (as happened to me the night I judged a standup-comedy contest featuring 32-—count ‘em—32 wannabe Seinfelds and Carlins. By comic number 15 or so, I felt the walls beginning to close in on me. By the time contestant 32 had mercifully wrapped up, I couldn’t wait to get the heck out of there).
But what the Stop may have lacked in comfort and luxury, it more than compensated for thanks to Kephart’s uncanny eye for spotting up-and-coming talent. The roster of performers who hit the Stop’s postage-stamp stage in the 1980s and 1990s contains some pretty formidable names, among them Tim Allen; Rosie O’Donnell; Lewis Black; Drew Carey; the late, great Richard Jeni; Kevin James and Ray Romano.
On a personal note, late one Monday afternoon in early 1996, I met Romano for an interview at what was known then as the Top Of the Trop, a cocktail lounge on the top (20th) floor of the hotel tower. After we exchanged greetings, I innocuously asked Romano—who had become a favorite comedian of mine due, in large part, to previous Comedy Stop gigs—what was new. He blew me away with his reply, which was that just hours earlier that day, CBS had given the go-ahead to his series, “Everybody Loves Raymond” which, of course, became one of the most popular and beloved sitcoms of all time.
But that was the way it went at the Stop: There were too-many-to-count performers who (usually deservedly) faded into oblivion, having missed fame and fortune by light years. But the joy was in seeing future comedy giants on their way to the pinnacle of show biz success (which, of course, was usually unpredictable while they were appearing there; I’m proud to say I called Romano’s stardom the first time I saw him at the club).
The Comedy Stop’s unprecedented run ended in 2014 (a Las Vegas outpost operated at the recently imploded Tropicana from 1990 until 2009). Its legacy exists in the current comedy operations at Tropicana’s Atlantic City Comedy Club, AC Jokes at Resorts Casino-Hotel and the Borgata Comedy Club. But the Comedy Stop will always occupy a special place in Atlantic City’s Casino Era story.
