Klub Uvula

This is what The Los Angeles Downtown News, Volume 24, Number 23, May 30, 1994 edition had to say about it.

Marianne Bonner and Erich Russek are spearheading Klub Uvula, which opens June 4 with music, comedy, and a "variety of weirdness." Says Russek, "Come to the show, save my car."

Chaos Theory

High-Concept, Low-Brow Entertainment Define New Klub Uvula

By Toni Page Birdsong

It's probably the most underrated, unappreciated body part. But the uvula-that small piece of flesh hanging from the back of your throat-may have its claim to fame as the name of a unique new nightclub opening Downtown.

Taking over two of the five floors of the Variety Arts Center, the site of the now defunct Orbit nightclub, Klub Uvula will be a clearinghouse for a variety of L.A. talent including emerging bands, comics, performance artists and actors.

It's the brainchild of Erich Russek and Marianne Bonner who hope the onetime Vaudeville playhouse will become the night life destination Angelenos have been looking for.

"There is so much talent in Los Angeles and hopefully this will be a place to showcase that talent and a place where people know they can come and show off in front of an audience," says Bonner.  "Every other place you go as a performer, people direct you. This will be different." She noted however, that there will be a level of artistic discrimination to maintain quality.

And, upon meeting the 28 year-old entrepreneurs, it's obvious why this club will be different. He's a 6'6" musician who cringes when you tell him he looks like Kenny G, and who works full time as an aeronautical planner. She's a comedienne from Up Front Comedy whose infectious laugh could pull a grin from a guard at Buckingham palace. Together, they've come up with a nightclub that Russek describes as "David Letterman meets MTV."

They don't have stupid pet tricks...yet. But they will offer live bands and dancing each night (Russek will play guitar in the house band, Poets in Heat), and total "entertainment chaos." At the door, Shakespearean actors will read passionately from the classified section of the newspaper; an "Angry Strawberry," who's in a constant jam, will roam the building; there will be "mime flogging" for all who harbor resentment for those quiet white ones; there will be poetry performances in the restrooms coined "Ode to the Commode"; go-go dancers, chess players and of course the guest hostess, Linda Blair (the Exorcist). Really. In person, up close.

"Sometimes you're in the mood to dance, or laugh or sometimes just chill out and listen to a story. There's a different area for all of this here. It's always been my dream to open up a lace like this. It's really off the wall and at the same time offers people everything in one stop: music, dancing, comedy and performance," Russek said. "When we decided to go for this we asked ourselves, "What would I like to see in a club?'  We went from there."

Russek, who put up everything he owns to open the club, is more serious than not when he says his basic ad campaign has been "come to the show, save my car."

The future is wide open, he says noting that he's hoping for musical diversity such as mariachis, a Turkish band, and if he's lucky, favorites such as singer/songwriter Leonard Cohen and guitarist Jennifer Baton. But versatility is the key says Russek who promises everything from yodlers who stand on their heads to whipped-cream wrestlers.

Klub Uvula opens its doors June 4 at 9 p.m. with more than 20 musicians, performance artists and comedians. The Variety Arts Center is at 940 S. Figueroa. Uvula will be open every Saturday from, 9 p.m. to 2 a.m. Cover is $12.50 For more info. on the club or on auditions call (213) 368-8958.

A poem to Erich Russek 
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