LAS VEGAS — Jimmy Kimmel will see a dream come true when he opens a comedy club next spring in Las Vegas where he will make regular appearances and give up-and-coming comics a chance to hone their talents.
The late-night talk show host joined casino giant Caesars Entertainment in announcing plans Wednesday for the newest comedy club in Sin City.
Kimmel, a Las Vegas native, has spent a year planning everything from ceiling height to food for the venue along an outdoor promenade on the Las Vegas Strip across from Caesars Palace casino-resort.
“I grew up in Las Vegas, and I’ve always wanted to have a presence of some kind whether it be a restaurant or some kind of a pawn shop or something there,” he told The Associated Press. “We’ve been hard at work.”
The two-story, 300-seat venue will host big names and new talent chosen by Kimmel and his team.
Las Vegas is the home of a number of comedy clubs, including an outpost of New York’s famed Comedy Cellar. Caesars’ 4,300-seat Colosseum theater has hosted Jerry Seinfeld, Sebastian Maniscalco, Steve Martin and Martin Short, Jim Gaffigan and Jeff Dunham.
Kimmel wants to distinguish his club by capturing the spirit of classic Vegas through shows that go way into the night.
“The Rat Pack would play until four in the morning,” he said. “Vegas is the kind of city where if the sun doesn’t come up by the time you go to bed, I think you’ve failed.”
The host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” has not picked the first people to take the stage but said he wants to make it easy for comics to travel from Los Angeles to work at his club.
He said he sees other comedy clubs in Vegas as “opportunities” for comedians, not competition.
“The best comedy cities — L.A., New York, Chicago — have multiple comedy clubs and that’s part of why they have a great comedy scene,” he said.
Kimmel doesn’t foresee any difficulties convincing the best comics to work in Sin City.
“It’s become the premier food city in the United States. So, I don’t see why it couldn’t become the premier comedy city as well,” he said.
REGINA GARCIA CANO, Associated Press
