Laugh Factory

COMEDY Planet Comedy: Producers Quincy Jones and David Salzman will link up with Laugh Factory founder Jamie Masada to open a new chain of comedy-themed restaurants throughout the United States, called the Laugh Factory Funhouse. Plans call for construction to begin in early 1997 on the first location, in Las Vegas, with Atlantic City, New York, Chicago and Los Angeles targeted for subsequent venues.

COMEDY, like nature, abhors a vacuum, and there was a rather prominent six-letter hole in the air at the Laugh Factory on Sunday night. It was the West Hollywood club's weekly showcase of mostly African American comedians -- the first "Chocolate Sundaes" show since the club banned the N-word after Michael "Kramer" Richards' now-infamous vocabulary malfunction. At least there was a hole until comedian-actor Damon Wayans took the stage.

When a joke comparing "Queer Eye for the Straight Guy" to a Duran Duran reunion video fails to get a laugh, stand-up comedian Bert Kreischer looks out into the crowd and says, "Oh, it's a white joke. I forgot where I was -- it was so dark in here I missed half of you." A split-second later the audience full of African Americans erupted into gales of laughter. Kreischer -- a white guy -- knows exactly where he is.

The Scene: Wednesday night at the Laugh Factory comedy club in Hollywood, where comedians and supporters of the American Civil Liberties Union gathered for "Giggle Liberties," a comedy fund-raiser to benefit the ACLU's L.A. chapter. The group also presented its Freedom of Expression Award to talk-show host Arsenio Hall. Who Was There: Hall, ACLU Executive Director Ramona Ripston, former L.A. Mayor Tom Bradley, state Sen.

Marc Maron, like many Americans, has found all sorts of new worries to add to his list of old worries. "I was way ahead of everybody in being paralyzed with fear on a day-to-day basis," said Maron, during his stand-up at the Improv on Melrose over the weekend. "I was like that before there were any terrorist activities whatsoever. It's just that now there all these fears that I don't know what to do with. I don't know what to do with the fear of spores. Why do they tell us?