Archives for July 2023

Thomas said he was tickled by Ken’s performance of the group’s 1996 song “Push.”

The city of Covina could be on its way to becoming the next comedy hotspot thanks to the opening of one of the biggest stand-up club chains around.

The world-famous Laugh Factory, which soft opened its doors in June inside the Covina Theater with performances by comics like Dane Cook, Jamie Kennedy and Azusa native Debi Gutierrez, will soon host its official grand opening event headlined by Mexican-American actor and stand-up comic Paul Rodriguez.

“They couldn’t get anybody cheaper,” the “Born in East L.A.” and “The Original Latin Kings of Comedy” star joked during a recent phone interview. Rodriguez, who is a longtime supporter and regular performer at the other Laugh Factory locations, will headline along with fellow Latino comic Gene Pompa during several sets scheduled for the christening of the venue on July 27-30.

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Patrons line up at the Laugh Factory that recently opened at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

The Laugh Factory recently opened at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedians Vinny Fasline. Left, and Jamie Kennedy at the Laugh Factory in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy poses with Manuel Mendez, of Covina after the show at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Patrons line up at the Laugh Factory that recently opened at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Laugh Factory General Manager, Harry Basil, left, with comedians Vinny Fasline. center, and Jamie Kennedy at the Laugh Factory in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

Comedian Jamie Kennedy performs at the Laugh Factory at the Covina Theater in Covina on Friday July 7, 2023. (Photo by Keith Durflinger, Contributing Photographer)

The location of the new club is appealing, Laugh Factory general manager Harry Basil pointed out, noting that he expects it to attract audiences who finally don’t have to drive too far — either to clubs and theaters in Los Angeles, Long Beach or down to Orange County — for a comedy show.

“A lot of people don’t want to drive to Hollywood for an hour,” he said. “We looked at the map and we saw that Covina, from the East to the West, there are a lot of people there that would like to go to a comedy club and support a comedy club. We’re gambling that there’s a lot of an audience that would go there on a regular basis.”

“People are going to get good shows,” Rodriguez added.

Located in downtown Covina on busy Citrus Avenue, the new venue is housed inside the Covina Theater, which first opened its doors in 1920 before undergoing various major renovations. It was acquired by the city in 2022. The city then partnered with the Laugh Factory to operate the venue. The Laugh Factory crew made additional upgrades including repainting the lobby, adding more booths and seating in the balcony, while also elevating the lounge and food and beverage areas.

Since owner Jamie Masada opened the flagship location on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles in 1979, the Laugh Factory has brought clubs to Chicago, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Reno, San Diego and now the latest 180-seat venue in Covina.

“It’s a gorgeous theater,” Basil said. “We’re a world-famous brand and we’ll be bringing world-class entertainment and I think this is going to be one of the crown jewels in the chain because it’s a beautiful venue.”

The Laugh Factory has helped launch the careers of comics like Nick Cannon, Tiffany Haddish and has hosted comedy legends like Richard Pryor, Paul Mooney, Jon Lovitz, Damon Wayans, Bob Saget and Dave Chappelle. Since the newest Laugh Factory will be booking national headliners and comedians with major TV and film credits, Basil also expects that the venue will become a place where acts can film comedy specials and the space can also accommodate musical acts, like tribute bands, as well.

Guests need to be 21-and-older to purchase tickets for shows, however, responsible guests that are 21-and-older can sponsor up to two 18-20 year-olds within their party.  There is a full bar with various cocktails and specials and there’s a light menu featuring items like beef or chicken wraps, chips with salsa and guacamole, hummus served with pita bread and veggies, spinach and artichoke dip and more. There is also a two-item minimum food or beverage purchase for each guest that includes alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages.

Though the venue has been in soft opening for a little over a month, Basil said he’s excited about the grand opening, which will include an invitation-only red carpet affair ahead of the show on Thursday, July 27.

“It’s a total red carpet event with a spotlight out in front, ribbon cutting, it’s going to be a fun night,” he said.

Grand opening weekend comic Gene Pompa, who has regularly performed on the other Laugh Factory stages, said he’s happy to see another Laugh Factory open in Southern California.

“It’s in a good spot and I’m really looking forward to it,” he said during a phone interview. “Laugh Factory is always top-notch; you know the checks are going to clear. I think what’s the most exciting about it is that it’s not in a traditional metropolitan area. It’s Covina. It’s like opening up a comedy club in Mayberry. That makes it kind of cool.”

Laugh Factory Covina’s Grand Opening

When: 7:30 p.m. Thursday, July 27; 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Friday, July 28; 7:30 and 9:30 p.m. Saturday, July 29; 7:30 p.m. Sunday, July 30

Where: 104 N. Citrus Avenue, Covina

Tickets: $25-$45 at 626-339-0093 or laughfactory.com

Anurag Chandra was convicted of first-degree murder and attempted murder in April after crashing his car into another vehicle, killing three teenagers and injuring three others.

Last year, we reported on an electric Nissan Ariya that would make a trip from the magnetic North Pole to the South Pole manned by Chris Ramsey of Plug in Adventures and his wife Julie, who were also the first to complete the Mongol Rally in an EV in 2017. The vehicle will be the first of any kind – gas or electric – to manage this feat.

The couple is now well along the way through their trip, and we caught up with them in Southern California to see how things are going.

The star of the show: Ariya-turned-monster truck

The Ariya in question was modified by Arctic Trucks – an Icelandic company that specializes in preparing vehicles for the most difficult conditions on Earth – and has been dubbed model “AT39.” The Pole to Pole Ariya is the first electric vehicle the company has ever modified and is being used as a proof-of-concept for future modifications of polar electric vehicles, potentially to replace the diesel vehicles currently used for Antarctic research and expeditions.

But the AT39 Ariya actually isn’t that far off from stock. It’s still using Nissan’s suspension (just lifted) and powertrain, but several tow hitches and other gear solutions have been added, along with some reinforcement to the frame and underbody. On a gas vehicle, a gearbox change would have been necessary for such heavy off-roading, but that isn’t needed with an EV due to the broad torque curve of electric motors.

The most striking change is the addition of huge 39-inch BFGoodrich KO2 tires, which required widening the wheel arches and adding large flared fenders – they only had to cut a little bit off the door to do it. On ice and snow, the duo has run the tires as low as four psi to help increase traction on rough or soft road surfaces.

Parked next to a standard Ariya, the AT39 certainly looks significantly more imposing:

Between the huge off-road tires, fenders, and roof rack with rooftop tent, the range has been cut significantly. But the Ramseys haven’t been able to test exactly how much range they’ve lost because the tire modifications mean their speedometer and odometer aren’t calibrated properly. According to GPS, the longest they’ve gone so far between charges is about 162 miles, with 18% left in the battery, giving them a “best” achieved range of ~200 miles out of the 272-mile rated Ariya.

These range losses are part of the message that the Ramseys want to send, anyway. If they can make it all the way from one end of the globe to the other with a 150-200 mile range, this shows that most people don’t “need” the huge range they claim they need.

Challenges behind & ahead

But when they get to the South Pole, things will be different. The rooftop tent will be swapped out for a larger deployable structure that can encompass the whole car, to trap some of the heat from the 24-hour summer polar sun to keep both the Ramseys and the car warm.

Driving over snow and ice in potentially -40º temperatures is going to eat into efficiency, and Chris estimates that the car will use about 1% of battery for every kilometer of travel. So, for the approximately 850 miles (~1,400 km) that they’ll be driving from the edge to the center of Antarctica, this means a lot of charging and then a lot of charging on the way back, too.

Some of this charging will be provided by solar panels, which the Ramseys plan to mount vertically rather than horizontally. At extreme latitudes, the sun is low in the sky, so vertical panels capture sunlight more directly and can benefit from light being reflected off snow and ice.

And when they can’t get enough solar, they’ll have a gasoline generator. This sounds like a surrender, but it actually brings up one of the strengths of EVs – EVs are energy-agnostic and can be fueled with solar, wind, tidal, a hamster on a wheel… or even oil. Whereas gas cars, well, they can only use oil and nothing else.

Previously, the two had planned to charge during stops by using a small wind turbine that they were carrying with them on a trailer. But the trailer ended up being more trouble than it was worth on rough Arctic roads, so that plan was abandoned. The solar plan will be less unwieldy to transport, but it remains to be seen how difficult deployment and teardown will be in frigid polar temperatures.

People have called them “crazy” for doing this expedition, but Chris thinks that he’s the right one for the job. He said he considered an around-the-world trip, but that’s been done before. As a “Plug in Adventurer,” Chris likes to push the boundaries of what EVs can do, and has experience both driving EVs in rough conditions and advocating for them to the public.

Chris said that, outside of the polar regions, finding a charge has not been a problem, even in the most remote areas. This has held true for this expedition and the Ramseys’ previous one, driving an original 30 kWh Nissan Leaf from London to Mongolia in the Mongol Rally in 2017 – again, a low-range vehicle that still managed a long trip. Electricity is everywhere, and electrical outlets are far more common than gas stations, after all.

Climate change in focus

The 17,000-mile trip will take a total of nine months, a timeline constrained primarily by weather conditions at the poles. By starting in the North Pole’s spring, the pair had sunlight available but plenty of sea ice (which is, unfortunately, retreating due to climate change). And finishing in the South Pole’s summer means they’ll have 24-hour sunlight to power the aforementioned solar panels – plus, Antarctic expeditions aren’t permitted before November anyway.

Or at least, that’s how the plan was supposed to go. The journey got off to a rocky start, as they had to rush to make it to the North Pole and back before the ice roads melted. This meant they basically did nothing but drive (oft through barely-passable slush) and charge between March 29 and April 8, getting out with just a day to spare before the ice road closed abruptly due to melting, almost two weeks earlier than it closed last year.

In previous years, the roads stayed open much longer – but due to climate change, they’ve been getting dangerous and undrivable earlier and earlier.

And this is what the trip is all about. The global shift to electric vehicles is necessary in the fight against climate change, to which auto emissions are a primary contributor. Julie wants to use the trip to see electrification efforts and highlight efforts to fight climate change from local communities along the way.

Top comment by Antonio fošnjar

They could have picked a longer range EV for this long trip, charging every 200miles sounds like pain, specially in the remote areas where you have to use regular wall outlet to charge and range drops significantly in colder climates and non paved roads

To that end, the pair have already toured a copper mine to see its electrification efforts, checked out an electric seaplane in the Pacific Northwest, stopped by the Formula E electric car race in Portland, and spoken at the Northwest Overland Rally to show a bunch of diesel RV owners that electric cars can handle the toughest travel conditions. And they hung out with the Tesla Owners Club of Orange County (where we met up with them), serendipitously showing off the wide range of EVs available today:

Going forward, they’re looking forward to visiting (and charging from) solar and wind farms run by trip sponsor Enel X, and hoping to participate in reforestation projects in South America.

But the most interesting part so far for Chris has just been meeting people. Both those who are familiar with EVs, like the Tesla club, and who are new to them, like the overlanders, some of whom told him that he’d sold them on EVs with his story.

If you want to follow Chris & Julie’s journey, check out their website or Linktree to find your preferred social media link. You can even track them live with this cool interactive map, showing locations of interest they’ve stopped at so far.