Friday, May 13, 2005 | 8:37 a.m.
Jamie Lissow is leaving Las Vegas.
Ten months after moving from Los Angeles to Southern Nevada to work the local comedy club scene, he's packing his bags and on June 1 will head to the Big Apple for a more permanent stay.
"I'm on my way out," Lissow, who performs through Sunday at The Comedy Stop at The Trop, said during a recent call from his Henderson apartment. "Can you tell I'm excited?"
No wonder: The comedian, a native of Rochester, N.Y., recently lined up his first appearance on Comedy Central's "Premium Blend" stand-up series, which is set to tape in August in New York City. Meanwhile, Lissow says he has at least six weeks worth of club dates waiting for him there, which are set to begin shortly after he settles into his new abode.
In preparation for the move, Lissow says he and his wife, Jessica, a worker with the U.S. Geological Survey, have "decided to sell all our stuff and kind of start over in New York ... We actually bought a very, very small place on the upper east side of Manhattan, so most of our stuff isn't gonna fit anyway."
Turns out that living in Las Vegas wasn't an entirely good fit, either.
"I knew that there were like 15 comedy clubs in town," the comic explains of his decision to move here last year from L.A., where he had previously resided for six years. "We just figured we'd give it a try."
Lissow, who graduated from college in the '90s with a degree in mathematics and psychology, was preparing to study law at the University of Buffalo in New York when he began having second thoughts.
"I got that piece of paper in the mail that said I was gonna owe a hundred-thousand dollars in a (student) loan, and I was like, 'Man, they're not kidding -- they're gonna want this money back,' " he recalls. "So I kind of realized that I wasn't 100 percent sure that's what I wanted to do and I knew that if I went, I would have to go on (with a law career) in order to pay the loans back."
Instead, he opted to take a year off from school (he never returned) and dove into comedy, in which he'd previously dabbled.
"I did every open-mike" in New York state, Lissow says, often driving "two hours to do five minutes (of material) for free at a coffee shop or a Thai restaurant. I actually lived on the road probably for four years before I moved to Los Angeles -- just lived in clubs, didn't even have a house or an apartment or anything."
A 2001 performance at the Just For Laughs in Montreal proved to be "the life-changer," he says. "Within 24 hours, I signed with Chris Rock's manager ... I got 'The Tonight Show' within three or four days." Lissow has also appeared on "Star Search," "The Late Late Show with Craig Kilborn" and the second season of "Last Comic Standing."
Lissow describes his stand-up material as "kind of a more thinking and observational type of thing where ... if you're in a crowd, you can't drink a few beers and look up now and then, talk to your friends and look back up. You've gotta pay attention."
A former bodybuilder -- he reigned for a year in the early '90s as New York's Mr. Fredonia -- Lissow jokes about his previous work as a personal trainer, and life as a newlywed (he and Jessica tied the knot last year), among other topics.
"Even though I'm married, I haven't had that much time to write jokes, so I'm still halfway single in my act," he says.
Busy, indeed: When not working at comedy clubs throughout the country, he's a favorite on college campuses. "They're some of the best and some of the most difficult shows that I've ever done," he concedes. "I've done shows in a lunchroom with no microphone, no amplifier -- they're just some of the worst shows."
On the flip side, with college audiences, "Once you write a great joke that works in front of those kids, it's gonna work for the rest of your life because those kids don't get old. They always stay the same age; it's always the same kids ... They just bring in new ones."
Earlier this year he launched "Lissow: The Comic," a four-cell comic strip that appears monthly in Campus Activities Magazine. He writes the stories, which are illustrated by cartoonist Corey Pandolph. (Samples of the strip can be viewed at www.jamielissow.com.)
Not surprisingly, the comic strip follows "a guy who's trying to get into law school -- that's me -- but he wants to do stand-up comedy," Lissow explains. "Each month something happens, like I get rejected from a law school I'm trying to get in."
"It's the best thing in the world if you're a person that can't draw," Lissow says of seeing his likeness in print, adding that Pandolph is "so good as a cartoonist. It's not like when you go to the fair and you sit down and the guy draws your picture and you're like, 'Wow, this is really unflattering,' with like a giant nose or big ears."
No oversized extremities, but what the 30-year-old Lissow does have are big dreams. During his short stint as a Henderson resident, he performed frequently at several area clubs including The Comedy Stop at The Trop, Riviera Comedy Club and the defunct Catch a Rising Star.
"People in the stand-up community say, 'You move to Vegas when you've decided all you wanna do is stand-up.' There's nothing wrong with that, but I think I'm not at that point yet," he contends. "I still like doing television (work) and things like that, and it's kind of difficult to hook that stuff up when you're in Vegas."
Nevertheless, "It's a great town. You can make really good money doing stand-up here. You can work every week and not really leave town that often, so it's a great place if that's what you're looking for."
In fact, Lissow says he looks forward to returning to Southern Nevada several times a year to perform -- and play the part of a tourist, for a change. "When I visit here," he explains, "I actually have more fun than when I live here."
Out for laughs
"Laughs at The Beach" at The Beach nightclub celebrates its third anniversary at 8 p.m. Saturday with a show featuring comedians Pekitta Tynes, Marcos Montoya, Honour Pillow and Steve Turner. Joe Lowers will headline. Admission is, as always, free.
Comics Gary Caouette and Doug Starks share the bill for shows at 8 p.m. Tuesday through Thursday at Addison's Lounge inside Rampart Casino. Call 507-5900 for ticket info.
Big-name comedy abounds this weekend: Jay Leno plays The Mirage's Danny Gans Theatre at 9 p.m. tonight and 10:30 p.m. Saturday; tickets are $85 plus tax. Damon Wayans headlines the Las Vegas Hilton Theater at 9 p.m. tonight and Saturday ($70 plus tax). Howie Mandel takes MGM Grand's Hollywood Theatre stage through Wednesday; show time is 9 p.m. ($60). Don Rickles performs at 8 p.m. tonight through Sunday at the Stardust Theater; tickets are $54.95, $62.65 and $71.45.
Also headed to the Stardust: Joan Rivers, who begins her run at 8 p.m. Thursday through May 22. Tickets are $43.95 and $54.95.
Richard Jeni is scheduled to perform at 8 p.m. Sept. 17 at House of Blues at Mandalay Bay. Tickets are $25 to $37.
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