And…What the heck can one even say about the comedy showroom? It is simply the best. Just ask any of the comedians that have taken the stage at the club or any of the thousands of satisfied guests that have taken in a show there.
I have personally seen so many of my favorite performers at Hilarities. Too many to name, but some that come to mind are former MTV host, Tom Green, Dave Coulier (the loveable ‘Joey’ from the ABC sitcom ‘Full House’), ‘The Office’s Craig Robinson, the legendary Louie Anderson, ‘The Man Show’ co-host and podcaster, Adam Carolla, the incomparable Jon Lovitz, and Louis CK while he traveled the long road to redemption.
In addition, local favorites that have endeared their acts to me including Mike Polk Jr., Mary Santora, Jim Tews, Dave Hill, and Ramon Rivas II, among many others, have had their careers boosted by the credibility that is earned by having Hilarities on a resume!
Much like seeing an arena-level rockstar at an intimate club before they hit the big time, one of the greatest pleasures I’ve had at the club is seeing budding stars before they ascend to great heights. I once saw the late Ralphie May, and, in more recent years, Nate Bargatze and Taylor Tomlinson perform at Hilarities before they all moved on to perform at 3,000+ capacity venues.
“That’s one of the gratifications that I experience, and that gets my visceral reaction to this, to what I do to have played some small part in someone’s rise to some level of fame. That’s a very gratifying kind of experience,” Kostis explains. “It’s not that you wrote the material for them. They are creative people. They are bright people. They’re neither philosophers nor historians, however, they do contribute to the culture because they comment on the culture in some vernacular that we all can relate to. It’s invigorating; it’s stimulating. And then, to see them blossom into something more, and you are some part of that ascent, it’s so rewarding. We so often have conversations with comics. There’s never a week that goes by that we’re not in some conversation with someone, whether it’s a headliner or middle opener. There is a kind of nurturance that occurs there, too.”
If you feel like it’s being invited, you offer your own perspective that you have, because, we have a kind of experiential norm that is 30-plus years of seeing comics. It’s gratifying,” he continued. “We don’t just bring them in town, throw them on stage and tell them to do something for 45 minutes, and then get off and get paid. That’s not the business. It is in many places, but not at Pickwick. And not at Hilarities, for sure. Our role is to provide the one thing comics need more than anything to develop that talent, and that’s stage time.”
One gentleman that performed at Kostis’ club in Cuyahoga Falls that you might have heard of is Steve Harvey!
“Steve walked into that club in the Falls the first night, and I said, ‘Man, you got to come back!’ And he came down because he heard about the place, but had never done comedy. He was working at Ford Motor Company, and he was trying to make his way as an insurance salesman at the same time,” Kostis recalled. “I told him he needed to explore comedy. When we had the Showtime Comedy Club Network come to Cleveland, we put a showcase together, and Steve was in that showcase. He made it to his first national appearance. Of course, it didn’t take long before he started getting traction and steadily ascending and getting notoriety for himself.“
The most notable comic, by far, that came through his club that Kostis bonded is none other than Jerry Seinfeld, who received a fax on Kostis’ machine that would forever change Jerry’s life as well as shape the landscape of 90s sitcoms.
Nick can tell the story better than I can:
“Jerry Seinfeld performed at Hilarities and came to perform his show. This was 1988, before ‘Seinfeld Chronicles,’ which is what the show was titled before it just became ‘Seinfeld.‘ He came to Cleveland and I remember one evening I got a fax on an old fax machine, and it was to Jerry. As a matter of fact, I’ve got a piece that we’ve framed and put on the wall in the Martini Bar. And it’s of Jerry and I standing together in our green room at the old Hilarities on West 6th Street. And it was on that occasion, performing at Hilarities, that he got a fax. It was from George Shapiro of Shapiro/West. They’ve managed Jerry for years.
It says, ‘Jerry, per Brandon, you have won your time slot on NBC.’ The Brandon they’re referring to in that fax was Brandon Tartikoff, who was head of programming for NBC at the time. It was signed by George Shapiro. And that was the first that Jerry learned of having landed a slot. Now, that show went on to air in, I want to say August, and then they pulled it off to kind of retool it before it came back, and it became the success that it was.
That night, I took the fax to him. I said, ‘Jerry, look at this!’ We went out and celebrated. There was a club in The Flats called Coconuts. We went out, we stopped at a couple of places; nothing crazy. We bonded a little bit. Of course, we know the rest is history. But here, he inadvertently left that fax in the limo that I had hired to drive us around that evening. When I opened at Pickwick, the limo driver came by, because he read about the new place opening finally. He comes by the club and he said, ‘Nick, I saved this for you. ‘ It was the fax that we left in the car that evening. So in 2002, when I opened, he comes by. He held it all that time. And, anyway, I framed it and made a framed copy of that fax, that’s the one that’s hanging on our wall in Kevin’s martini bar on the lower level. There is a photo of Jerry and myself when he came by the new location, just to say hello.
That was a fun thing because we were part of a very seminal moment for Jerry, and that was learning that he was on his way to an NBC sitcom that was going to become a classic and one that will linger. I still watch all those episodes time and time again. Jerry is just a quality person.”
With top-notch hospitality, a stellar restaurant, a wide variety of entertainment, and a comedy stage that is second to none, Kostis is a true Cleveland success story, a true service master, and provides the best hospitality in his industry. The city of Cleveland owes a debt of gratitude to this man.
“People will long forget what you said or what you did, but they will long remember how you made them feel. So we like to make people feel welcomed and attended to, respected, and appreciated,” Kostis says with pride. “So when you see me running up and down stairs, I’m looking 360 degrees, every which way, to make sure that we’re doing the best we can to make people feel comfortable and welcomed.”
Happy Birthday, Nick! And on behalf of all of Northeast Ohio, THANK YOU!
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