This week, Ira Sternberg spoke with comedian Butch Bradley, performing Thursdays through Mondays at 10 p.m. at the L.A. Comedy Club inside The Strat Hotel and Casino. In this episode of Talk About Las Vegas, Butch talks about starting out in improv; why his family is funnier than he is; how working internationally has taught him valuable lessons; his long association with Las Vegas, beginning with the Comedy Stop at the Tropicana; the growth of the L.A. Comedy Club and the opportunities he has received from performing there, including a special; and why he thinks comedy is a way to bring people together.
Butch comes by his humor naturally; he was born into a family of storytellers and grew up in the environs of Atlantic City, New Jersey when the classic comedic legends—Don Rickles, Rodney Dangerfield, George Carlin and Shecky Greene—were strutting their stand-up stuff near the boardwalk. The child of a single mother who worked her way up from a waitress to a casino manager, he and his little brother were plopped into high-backed booths so they, too, could enjoy the show. Early on, Butch may not have fully understood the jokes, but he understood the transformative power of laughter as he saw audience after audience react.
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