DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES — This week's issue of the Downtown News has an article on Perry Kurtz and his attempts to launch comedy nights downtown. The piece, entitled "The Unsinkable Perry Kurtz: Local Funnyman Tries, Again, to Bring Comedy Downtown," includes this little snippet:

But even the Redwood audience beat Kurtz's next outing. A resident of Spring Street's Premiere Towers, Kurtz held his third comedy night in a community room at his condo building. Four tenants turned out. "How sad is that? People next door wouldn't walk down the hall!" he says.

Now, let's consider for a moment that three of those people were me. Well, me, Kathy, and Charlie, but you get the idea. There were a few others, bringing the count closer to double the four they list, but it was definitely still a sad turnout.

The real problem, though, is it wasn't really that funny. I don't know, maybe it was the room or the lack of crowd, but the acts just weren't all that comedic. Perry may kill at the Comedy Store, but after the night at Premiere Towers we just sort of left saying "Well, that was weird." Nothing against him, it just wasn't the kind of night set up for success. I do like his drive to get stuff going downtown, so I'd love to see the night take off. I just hope there are a few more laughs of the less nervous variety.