When the lights hit the stage and he was finally able to open the doors to the legendary Ice House comedy club in Pasadena on Feb. 16, new owner Johnny Buss admitted that while the audience was laughing, he was getting a little emotional.
“A lot of people know that my father and I wanted to do this,” said Buss, who was thinking about his late father and Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who died in 2013. “So many people came up to me telling me my dad would be proud. Truthfully, it brought tears to my eyes and I cried a little bit; I have to admit that.”
As fans of comedy, Johnny and Jerry had seriously discussed opening a comedy club together in the past. So after purchasing The Ice House in 2019 — and giving it a $4 million facelift during a three-year closure, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Buss finally has the club he and his father had always dreamed about.
“When he sadly passed away in 2013, it kind of left my mind,” Buss said of their conversations about opening a club, just a few days before The Ice House was set to reopen with comedian Margaret Cho kicking things off. “But then a few years later, I thought maybe I should just do it on my own.”
After looking into several spaces, Buss decided to purchase the 63-year-old Pasadena venue, which is dubbed as the oldest comedy club in the country, from longtime owner Bob Fisher.
“I got an architect and designer and I told him my vision, and a lot of my dad’s vision, and we pushed go,” he said.
While Buss wouldn’t disclose the purchase price, he said the venue was already in the process of being sold when he swooped in with a better offer.
“I quickly found out the club was for sale, so I told him I would pay him 50 percent more than his offer if it wasn’t too late,” he said, referring to Fisher. “We had lunch and he accepted my offer.
“I probably paid too much, but not really,” Buss said with a laugh.
The pandemic shut things down just a few months after the purchase,…
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