Reopened Ice House a salute to a father
Johnny Buss lives a family dream that Lakers owner Jerry Buss shared
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, 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 club together in the past. So after purchasing The Ice House in 2019 — and giving it a $4 million facelift during a threeyear closure, mostly due to the COVID-19 pandemic — Johnny 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,” Johnny 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, he decided to purchase the 63-year-old Pasadena venue, perhaps 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,” Johnny Buss said.
While he 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% 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,” he said with a laugh.
The pandemic shut things down just a few months after the purchase, so Johnny Buss took the opportunity to renovate the venue with a design that he said pays homage to the club's past while upgrading it for a new era.
“The idea was that I was going to refurbish room by room and do it slowly over a couple of years, and when the pandemic hit, like everyone, I didn't know how serious it was going to be, so I thought I might as well do the whole club right now,” he said.
The upgrades include new glass doors and relocating the club's main entrance from the alley to the front of the building. It also has what's sure to be a popular photo opportunity for fans: a huge polar bear statue just inside the club. It's a piece he said he's had his eye on for a while.
“I had thought about buying that and putting it in my house way before I owned The Ice House, so when it came time, I said, `Oh, I know where I can get a big polar bear,'” he said. “It's the greatest selfie statue we can have.”
Also greeting guests is a neon sign of the smiling bear sporting a red hat and holding a mic. Other improvements include more seats in both comedy rooms, upgrades and an expansion of the restrooms, and a new VIP area designed to attract big names to the club. The VIP room is where the old dining room used to be and has a glass enclosure, so people can sit in that space and watch the show through glass and still talk and not disturb the comics, he said.
The patio was also upgraded to what he refers to as a “French café patio” with a small stage.
“We might actually start doing some afternoon things there,” Johnny Buss said.
Although it just opened, the club already boasts a packed schedule with well-known comics. After Cho's opening night, comedian and podcast host Adam Carolla sold out a show Feb. 23. Comedian
and actor Jaime Kennedy is set for a March 16 performance, and Gabriel Iglesias, who recently sold out two nights at Dodger Stadium for his Netflix special, is scheduled March 24-25, performing two sets each evening. Former “Saturday Night Live” star, comedian and radio host Jay Mohr headlines two shows March 30, and actress and comedian Maria Bamford hits the stage March 31.
“We've been welcomed with open arms,” Johnny Buss said. “The future is to continue going as it has for the last 63 years. My concern is to also do more charity shows and do shows that can raise money.”
Since the club originally opened as a music venue in 1960, Johnny Buss plans to bring that back, too, with weekly jazz, reggae, pop and country nights starting in the next few months.
Although his dad didn't get to see their comedy dreams come to fruition, he still plans to turn The Ice House into a family business.
“I just want to have a club that maybe my kids will take over when it comes to that time,” he said. “I would be very proud for them to do that.”