Comedy club at Metroplex to reopen

By GUY D’ASTOLFO

dastolfo@vindy.com

LIBERTY

After sitting empty for three years, a room at the Metroplex Hotel that once housed The Funny Farm will again be a comedy club.

The first comedian will be Lamont Bryant of Warren, who will take the stage at 9 p.m. Friday.

The Funny Farm was a fixture at the hotel, which was then known as the Holiday Inn Metroplex.

When the hotel was put up for sale in 1997, club owner Dave Robich temporarily moved the club to the Boardman Holiday Inn and then to a former restaurant building on U.S. 422 in Niles.

Chris Jackson and Eric Stevens bought the club in 2009 and moved it to the Radisson Hotel in West Middlesex, Pa., but it didn’t last long at that location.

As of Wednesday, a name had not yet been chosen for the new comedy club at the Metroplex. The hotel owns the club but hopes to bring back Robich to book acts.

The hotel completed a renovation of the room, and in a message to The Vindicator said it hopes to restore the building to the entertainment destination it once was. Choices, the hotel’s nightclub, also reopened this year. It is adjacent to the comedy club.

The old Funny Farm hosted many of the nation’s top touring comedians during its 19-year run.

Metroplex owners said they hope to again attract nationally known talent.

The hotel hopes to book comedians every weekend. National acts will do one show on Fridays and two on Saturdays.