Columnist Lisa Ferguson: Comedy is a night at The Beach for McCarty

Lisa Ferguson

Friday, Aug. 27, 2004 | 9 a.m.

There's nothing funny about Shelly McCarty's day job.

As an outreach coordinator for local domestic violence agency SafeNest, it falls on McCarty's shoulders to spread the word -- through speaking engagements, training sessions, community health fairs and such -- about the organization's myriad services for battered women and children.

"Some of the things that are going on, even here in Las Vegas, are some of the most horrific, god-awful things," she contends, citing a national statistic that one in three women "will have to deal with domestic violence in their lifetime." Las Vegas, she says, has the highest number of domestic-violence-related incidents, and the second-highest domestic-violence-related homicide rate in the country. Dealing with such grim realities each day "can get pretty draining and overwhelming sometimes."

Thankfully her other career -- as a stand-up comic, helmer and host of the "Laughs at The Beach" show, which plays at 8 p.m. Saturday at The Beach nightclub on Convention Center Drive -- provides the respite she requires.

"The entertaining balances me out," McCarty, who resides in Henderson, recently explained. "I've got to keep laughing."

The eldest of six children from a Toledo, Ohio, family, McCarty has long been a jokester. In a brood that size, "Everything's a one-liner; that's how you got attention. You'd better come up with a quick joke, because somebody would beat you to the punch."

She began performing comedy in high school with an act that had her doing impressions with the family dog: "I'd hold her ears up and go, 'Look, she's a rabbit.' "

The McCarty clan is also musically inclined; Shelly plays several instruments and calls singing her true "passion." She formerly fronted a cover band called Misbehavin' that played at local hotel-casinos as well as in Lake Tahoe (where she lived before moving five years ago to Las Vegas), Laughlin and Winnemucca.

In fact, it was two years ago, while inquiring about a job as a DJ, that the "Laughs at The Beach" gig fell into her lap. The nightclub's previous comedy show had lost its host. McCarty met with the club's owners to discuss the possibility of starting a new show.

"He said, 'You would have two hours, do whatever you want,' " she recalls. "They let it be my baby, which to me was a huge honor, and I was scared to death because I didn't know a whole lot of comedians in town. But I was not about to pass up the opportunity."

An independent contractor (she's not actually employed by The Beach), McCarty is in charge of booking the show's "up-and-coming" comedic talent, as well as producing and advertising it each week. The latter has been a real grass-roots effort, she says. "I had to do all the free (advertising) stuff and word of mouth. At one point I stood on the Strip handing out tickets and fliers."

Meanwhile, she uses her "Laughs" paycheck to pay some (though not all) of the show's comedians, and has a stable of locally based comedians who perform regularly -- including prop comic Joe Lowers and Rob Sherwood, who has previously served as Ray Romano's opening act -- along with some comedians from out of state.

"Las Vegas is becoming a real comedy town," she explains, noting how comics have told her the comedy-quality criteria is "higher" here than at some clubs in New York and Los Angeles. "I hope it's a good thing, because I think if I've survived (with the show) for two years, I must be doing something right."

She describes "Laughs at The Beach" as being "the middle ground" on the local comedy-club scene. "Several of the comedians I work with could definitely make it" by performing at the bigger-name and chain comedy clubs elsewhere in town, she says, but landing stage time at those venues "is so hard."

McCarty, however, refuses to host an open-mike night at The Beach. "There are some really bad comedians in town, and at an open mike, technically you have to let everybody up." Once a week she indulges in a "courtesy moment" by allowing "someone who I don't know, they swear they're funny" to perform. "If they're good, I'll put them in rotation, and if they're not, I'll tell them where the open mikes are" around town.

In between sets, McCarty (who declines to reveal her age) performs her own act, in which she tackles such topics as her ample size, sex and relationships. "I like things that everyone can relate to, and sometimes I don't have to exaggerate it very much."

She is not a fan, though, of crude humor and racial quips, nor does she tolerate such shtick from the comics she employs. "I always tell people I was born with the condition of having white skin and a black soul, and what a challenge that is. But I would never want someone to come up (onstage) and make jokes against black people or Hispanics and be hurtful about it. And I've had people kind of come to that edge, and I'll tell them that you can't come back and do that."

Another issue on which McCarty has held firm has been keeping "Laughs at The Beach" a free show. "There's so little opportunity, I think, for locals especially, to get good entertainment and not have to pay through the nose, because Las Vegas is a tourist town," she says.

The show "has become known as a place where you can have a really good time; it's good, quality talent, and it doesn't cost to get in." Though McCarty says she may someday consider charging showgoers an admission fee, "Right now, I'm having too much fun to worry about it."

Out for laughs

Following a complete showroom and operational revamp, the Comedy Zone at the Plaza is set to reopen on Tuesday, with Russ Nagel and Tim Rowlands on the bill. Showtimes are 8 and 10 p.m. nightly (dark Mondays); tickets are $21.95.

Traci Skene celebrates her 39th birthday today. The comedian -- who, along with her stand-up comic husband, Brian McKim, is the co-founder, co-editor and co-publisher of online comedy Web site Shecky magazine (www.sheckymaga- zine.com) -- guested for several weeks earlier this month in "Divas of Comedy" at Sahara. The couple, who call Haddon Heights, N.J., home, update their magazine daily and continue to perform stand-up about 200 nights per year.

While we're on the subject, this nugget comes courtesy of sheckymagazine.com: The site reports that Bonnie McFarlane -- the first comic ousted from the house on the recently wrapped second season of NBC's "Last Comic Standing" -- will not participate in the third season of the show, during which contestants from seasons 1 and 2 will battle for said title. So far, the magazine claims, McFarlane is the only funny former player to opt out of the forthcoming installment.

The Barone brothers are headed to Vegas: Ray Romano will share the stand-up stage with his "Everybody Loves Raymond" co-star Brad Garrett on Nov. 12 and Nov. 13 at The Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre. Tickets are $90 plus tax; call 792-7777.